I Ching, Yijing or Zhou Yi
"Oracle of the moon": © 2000 LiSe

  Yi Jing, Oracle of the Moon

The image of hexagram 04
Méng, Ignorance

Trigram Mountain

Trigram Water
  Hexagram 4 has trigram Water below or inside, Mountain above or outside. Water has no form but fills in what presents itself.
  Mountain is form, solid and immovable, but Water can imbue it with its wisdom.

What does it mean, 'inner' and 'outer' (popup)

When trigram Water is below (popup)
When trigram Mountain is above (popup)

  Water below Mountain: the world is unyielding like a mountain, you need all your wits to live in it and often just to survive. Water makes you eager to learn, and it comes easy. But it also means you don't know much yet.
  Water has no form, but it can fit in things, adapt, learn, absorb. It can also mean you think you're the tough one while having nothing solid inside yet, and then you're just dumb.

Méng
  The old diviners gave this combination of trigrams a name: Méng, clouded mind or eyes, ignorant.
  It applies both to the stupidity of ignorance and its openness and need to learn. Every creature starts like this, every undertaking, every skill.

  Ideogram of the hexagram name: the upper part is grass or weeds and a cover, the lower part a boar. The weed is probably Dodder, which covers everything, putting it in the dark. The boar underneath cannot see anything. Meanings: Immature, ignorant, illiterate, clouded awarenes, cover, a cloudy sky, receive, encounter, cheat, make a wild guess, unconscious, senseless, cognate with dream, dim sight, dim moonlight, obscure, dimsighted, stupid.


a sequence of ideograms of the boar and how they changed through time

  The 'Great Image' says: At the foot of the mountain a spring wells up: Ignorance. A noble one nurtures virtue by reliable conduct.
The best way to teach is by example. It is how babies start to learn, they cannot understand words yet, but gestures and expressions makle big impressions. Often for life. So be mindful of your own feelings, thoughts and conduct.

  Hex.4 is the contrast of 49, turning things over because you know how to improve them.
  Hex.4 doesn't know much, but wants (or has) to learn. The hexagram talks about both, the teacher and the pupil. A good teacher learns as well.

  One has to care for the ignorant, the formless. It still has unlimited possibilities. Without it, life would die away by lack of renewal.
  Blessed are those who have something of this in their mind, how little it may be.
  And listen carefully to those who speak from out this unborn thing. They are the true sages. Lao-Tze said: “I am ignorant, like a baby that has never yet laughed ...the people are bright, bright, I alone am dumb, dumb”. (DaoDeJing verse 20).

last update: 27.07.2022

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