Other languages: Français · Español · ไทย
Hexagram 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly
Chronological no. 34 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 4 · 蒙
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the youngest son
the middle son
At the foot of the mountain a spring wells up: the image of youthful folly. The water is there, lively, but it does not yet know where to flow; it has strength without direction. This is the portrait of inexperience, not as a flaw but as a state — the state before learning, when energy overflows without discernment. Thus the noble one, recognizing this figure in himself or in another, does not despise ignorance: he nourishes his character through resolute action, knowing that the spring, well guided, will become a river.
The disciple's ignorance calls the master forth. It is not a weakness to not yet know — it is an opening: the one who does not yet know is precisely the one who can learn. The whole figure turns on this necessary meeting between the inexperience that seeks and the experience that answers — without this first humility, no teaching can take hold.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 29 — Ge, Revolution (63 − 34 = 29): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 29, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
33 — Yi, Nourishment · 35 — Sun, Decrease
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☶ Gen): 32 — Bo, Splitting Apart · 33 — Yi, Nourishment · 35 — Sun, Decrease · 36 — Gen, Keeping Still · 37 — Bi, Grace · 38 — Gu, Work on What Has Been Spoiled · 39 — Da Chu, The Taming Power of the Great
Same lower trigram (☵ Kan): 2 — Shi, The Army · 10 — Jie, Deliverance · 18 — Kan, The Abysmal · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 58 — Song, Conflict
