Reading
Judgment
Youthful Folly has success.
It is not I who seek the young fool;
the young fool seeks me.
At the first oracle I give answer.
If they ask two or three times, that is harassment.
If they harass, I give no answer.
Perseverance furthers.
In youth, folly is no great evil. Success is still possible. Only one must find an experienced teacher and meet them in the right way. This requires first of all that one feel one's own inexperience and seek out a teacher. Only this modesty and this interest guarantee the necessary receptiveness, which will express itself in reverent acknowledgment of the teacher.
Therefore the teacher must wait calmly until they are sought out. They should not offer themself unsolicited; only in this way can instruction come at the right time and in the right manner. The answer the teacher gives to the student's questions should be as clear and definite as the answer an oracle-seeker wishes to receive. It must then be accepted as the resolution of doubt and as decision. Distrustful or thoughtless repeated questioning merely harasses the teacher and is best passed over in silence, just as the oracle also gives only one answer and is silent in the face of tempting doubt-questions.
When to this is added the perseverance that does not slacken until one has made the subject one's own point by point, a fine success is assured. The hexagram thus gives counsel for both the teacher and the learner.
Image
At the foot of the mountain a spring wells forth: the image of Youth.
Thus the noble one nourishes their character through thorough action.
The spring comes into flow and overcomes stagnation by filling up every hollow place along its way. Likewise the way to the formation of character is thoroughness, which skips nothing but, gradually and steadily like water, fills every gap and thus moves forward.
Commentary
In a twofold way the thought of youth and folly is suggested by this hexagram. The upper hexagram, Ken, has the mountain as its image; the lower, K'an, has the water. The spring that wells up at the foot of the mountain is the image of inexperienced youth. The attribute of the upper hexagram is keeping still; that of the lower is the abyss, danger. Keeping still before a dangerous abyss is likewise a symbol of the helpless folly of youth. But the two hexagrams also contain the way in which youthful folly can be overcome: water is something that flows on by necessity. When the spring breaks forth, it does not at first know where to go. But through its steady flowing it fills up the hollow place that hinders its progress, and then success is at hand.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A six at the beginning means:
To develop the fool, it is favorable to put them under discipline.
One should take off the fetters.
To continue thus brings humiliation.
Commentary
At the beginning of education stands the law. The inexperience of youth is inclined at first to take everything casually and playfully. Here the seriousness of life must be shown to it. A certain self-composure, where it is enforced by strict discipline, is good. Whoever plays with life never comes out right. But discipline must not degenerate into drill. Continued drill has a humiliating effect and paralyzes strength.
Line 2
A nine in the second place means:
To bear with fools in gentleness brings good fortune.
To know how to take a wife brings good fortune.
The son is equal to the household.
Commentary
Here a man is depicted who has no outward power but possesses the strength of spirit necessary to carry the responsibility resting upon him. He has the inner superiority and strength that knows how to bear the inadequacies of human folly with gentleness. The same attitude applies in relation to women as the weaker sex. One must know how to handle them and to acknowledge them with a certain chivalrous forbearance. Only through this union of inner strength and outer restraint will one be able to take on the responsibility of leading a larger social organism and truly succeed in it.
Line 3
A six in the third place means:
You should not take a maiden
who, seeing a man of bronze,
cannot keep herself in hand.
Nothing furthers.
Commentary
A weak, inexperienced person striving upward easily loses their individuality when they see a strong personality in a high place whom they imitate slavishly. They resemble a maiden who gives herself away when she encounters a strong man. Toward such an unfree approach one must not be obliging. Yielding would be good neither for the youth nor for the teacher. A maiden owes it to her dignity to wait to be wooed. In both cases it is unworthy to offer oneself, and it is not good to accept such an offer.
Line 4
A six in the fourth place means:
Confined youthful folly brings humiliation.
Commentary
For youthful folly nothing is more hopeless than becoming entangled in empty fantasies. The more stubbornly it persists in such unreal imaginings, the more surely it brings humiliation upon itself. For the teacher facing confined folly, often nothing remains but to leave it to itself for a time and not to spare it the humiliation that arises from its own conduct. This is often the only path to rescue.
Line 5
A six in the fifth place means:
Childlike folly brings good fortune.
Commentary
An inexperienced person who seeks instruction in a childlike, unpretentious way is in good hands. For whoever, free of pride, places themself under the teacher will surely be furthered.
Line 6
A nine at the top means:
In punishing folly, it is not favorable to commit transgressions.
It is favorable only to ward off transgressions.
Commentary
Under certain circumstances an incorrigible fool must be punished. Whoever will not listen must feel. This punishment is different from the rousing at the outset. But the imposition of punishment must not occur in anger; it must limit itself to an objective warding off of unjustified transgressions. It is never an end in itself but serves only to establish orderly conditions. This applies both to education and to the measures of a government against a population that commits excesses. The intervention of the government must always be merely defensive and has as its sole goal the establishment of public safety and calm.