Meng to Sun: Tanaka Heihachi entrusts his brother to Takashima

Date not recorded · Tanaka Heihachi, a Yokohama merchant and a relative of Takashima · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 4 Méng (Youthful Folly), line 1 moving, changing to Hexagram 41 Sǔn (Decrease).

Original text

余親族田中平八氏來。以其弟某放蕩。欲使之悔悟。將以某托余家。筮得蒙之損。爻辭曰。初六發蒙。利用刑人。用說桎梏。以往吝。斷曰。蒙之卦象。山爲水氣所蒸。朦朧不明。故謂之蒙。在人爲邪欲所蔽。以致事理不明也。某之爲人。才智膽力。悉類其父。但年少失敎。競習紈袴。不知艱難。故浪費貨財。好與匪僻爲伍。今使暫居余家。當先諭以處世之道。禁止他出。使之悔悟前非。是亦發蒙利用刑人之義也。至其兄雖托於余。其母未免溺愛。恐有怨余敎誨過嚴者。諺曰。人莫知其子之惡。此之謂也。既而果如此占。敎之一年。因其怜悧之性質。遂生後悔。可望後來之成人也。

In plain words

Tanaka Heihachi, a relative of Takashima, came because his younger brother was running wild; hoping to bring him to his senses, he meant to place him in Takashima's household. The cast gave Meng with its first line moving, changing into Sun. The line reads: "Six at the beginning: to lift ignorance, it helps to use discipline and to take off the fetters; going on in that way brings regret."

Takashima's judgment: the image of Meng is a mountain wrapped in rising mist, hazy and unclear, hence "ignorance"; in a person, it means being clouded by desires until one cannot see things as they are. The young man had his father's wit and nerve, but had lost his schooling early, copied the ways of idle rich youths, knew nothing of hardship, squandered money and liked bad company.

Staying for a while in Takashima's house, he should first be taught how to conduct himself in the world and kept from going out, so that he would come to regret his past; that is what "to lift ignorance, use discipline" means. And although his elder brother had entrusted him to Takashima, their mother was bound to indulge him and might well resent Takashima for being too strict. As the saying goes, no one sees the faults of their own child.

Things turned out as the reading said. After a year of teaching, his quick mind brought him to regret his ways, and there was hope that he would grow into a sound adult.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the first line of Meng is read.
The image is mist over a mountain: haziness, widened to a person clouded by desire who cannot see clearly.
The line's "discipline" is not read as punishment but as concrete limits: teaching him how to behave and keeping him at home. The first line is the start of the matter, so the rules are set from the beginning.
The mother's likely resentment does not come from the line text; it is Takashima's own reading of the family, folded into the same judgment.

About the outcome

That things "turned out as the reading said" is Takashima's own record, and the brother's hoped-for maturity is only a hope after one year. This site does not treat it as evidence. What is worth reading is how "lifting ignorance" is turned into a concrete way of guiding someone.

Applying it to your situation

When you want to help someone change, this line suggests setting clear limits first, while "take off the fetters" is a reminder that limits are not the goal. Of the rules you set, which help the other person see clearly, and which only put your own mind at rest?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

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