Hexagram 4 — Enveloping
King Wen #4 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
Inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly.
What Hexagram 4 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 4 places water (坎) beneath mountain (艮) — water finding its way through hard gaps below, stillness holding its ground above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Enveloping”: inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
山下出泉，蒙；君子以果行育德。
(The trigram representing) a mountain, and beneath it that for a spring issuing forth form Măng. The superior man, in accordance with this, strives to be resolute in his conduct and nourishes his virtue.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
A spring flows at the foot of the mountain: immaturity. The wise act decisively and nurture character.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 4 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Enveloping describes inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: water finding its way through hard gaps, held inside a larger setting of stillness holding its ground. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Enveloping about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 4
What does 蒙 (méng) mean?
Hexagram 4 of the I Ching is named 蒙 (méng), usually rendered "Enveloping" in English editions. Its figure is built from water (坎) below and mountain (艮) above — water finding its way through hard gaps beneath stillness holding its ground.
Is hexagram 4 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 4 is warm: it contains 3 occurrences of 吉 (good fortune). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 4 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Enveloping points to inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly. The figure pairs water (坎) beneath mountain (艮) — water finding its way through hard gaps meeting stillness holding its ground — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 4 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Enveloping through the figure itself: water (坎) below, mountain (艮) above — water finding its way through hard gaps held inside stillness holding its ground. The plain reading: Inexperience and immaturity. The way forward is to seek clear guidance from a true teacher, not to press ahead blindly. The text carries 3 mentions of 吉 (good fortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 4 mean?
A cast of hexagram 4 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 4 gives hexagram 49, 革 (Skinning). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 4 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 4 gives hexagram 49 — 革 (Skinning). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 3 — 屯 (Sprouting). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 24 — 復 (Returning).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
亨。匪我求童蒙，童蒙求我。初筮告，再三瀆，瀆則不告。利貞。
Meng (indicates that in the case which it presupposes) there will be progress and success. I do not (go and) seek the youthful and inexperienced, but he comes and seeks me. When he shows (the sincerity that marks) the first recourse to divination, I instruct him. If he apply a second and third time, that is troublesome; and I do not instruct the troublesome. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
發矇，利用刑人，用說桎梏；以往吝。
The first SIX, divided, (has respect to) the dispelling of ignorance. It will be advantageous to use punishment (for that purpose), and to remove the shackles (from the mind). But going on in that way (of punishment) will give occasion for regret.
包蒙，吉。納婦，吉；子克家。
The second NINE, undivided, (shows its subject) exercising forbearance with the ignorant, in which there will be good fortune; and admitting (even the goodness of women, which will also be fortunate. (He may be described also as) a son able to (sustain the burden of) his family.
勿用取女，見金夫，不有躬，無攸利。
The third SIX, divided, (seems to say) that one should not marry a woman whose emblem it might be, for that, when she sees a man of wealth, she will not keep her person from him, and in no wise will advantage come from her.
困蒙，吝。
The fourth SIX, divided, (shows its subject as if) bound in chains of ignorance. There will be occasion for regret.
童蒙，吉。
The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject as a simple lad without experience. There will be good fortune.
擊蒙；不利為寇，利禦寇。
In the topmost NINE, undivided, we see one smiting the ignorant (youth). But no advantage will come from doing him an injury. Advantage would come from warding off injury from him.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.