復 → 同人
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 13: Fellowship
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 3
六三 頻復。厲。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Repeated return. Danger. No blame.
Line 4
六四 中行獨復。
Six in the fourth place means: Walking in the midst of others, One returns alone.
Line 5
六五 敦復。无悔。
Six in the fifth place means: Noblehearted return. No remorse.
Line 6
上六 迷復。凶。有災眚。用行師。終有大敗。以其國君凶。至于十年不克征。
Six at the top means: Missing the return. Misfortune. Misfortune from within and without. If armies are set marching in this way, One will in the end suffer a great defeat, Disastrous for the ruler of the country. For ten years It will not be possible to attack again.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
惡災殆盈,日益彰明。禍不可救,三郤夷傷。
Evil and calamity brim to the full; daily growing more manifest. Disaster cannot be undone; the three Xi are cut down and slain.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but what returns is calamity. Misfortune brims to overflowing and grows more visible with each passing day. The disaster cannot be averted, and the Three Xi are cut down. The Three Xi — Xi Ke, Xi Chou, and Xi Zhi — were powerful ministers of the state of Jin whose combined influence rivaled the ducal house itself. According to tradition, Duke Li of Jin, unable to tolerate their dominance, orchestrated their assassination around 573 BC. From Return to Fellowship, heaven and fire blaze together as like gathers with like. The transformation darkens this fellowship: when evil accumulates among those who band together, their very solidarity accelerates their collective destruction.
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