Youthful Folly
The Spring Beneath the Mountain
The pupil seeks the teacher, never the reverse, and a question pressed twice over earns no answer.
Meng sets Gen, Keeping Still the Mountain, above Kan, the Abysmal Water, and its Image is a spring welling up at the foot of the mountain: water that has emerged but does not yet know its course. The name carries the sense of something covered or unformed, the inexperience of the young. The Judgement reverses the usual approach to the oracle, for it is not the teacher who seeks the young fool but the fool who seeks the teacher; a question pressed two or three times over becomes importunity and receives no answer. The superior man accordingly fosters his character by thoroughness in all that he does.
Light
Represents teachability, honest inexperience, and the discipline that gives it shape. Asking once and attending to the answer allows character to be formed by thoroughness.
Shadow
Points to folly, wilful ignorance, and the repeating of a question already answered. Correction pressed too harshly becomes a transgression of its own, which the closing line cautions against.
