復 → 蠱
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初九 不遠復。无祗悔。元吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Return from a short distance. No need for remorse. Great good fortune.
Line 2
六二 休復。吉。
Six in the second place means: Quiet return. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 頻復。厲。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Repeated return. Danger. No blame.
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
雨雪載塗，東行破車。旅人無家，利益咨嗟。
Rain and snow coat the road; traveling east, the cart breaks down. The wanderer has no home; profit comes only in sighs.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but snow and rain choke the road to mud. The eastbound wagon breaks down, and the traveler has no home to return to — only sighs of bitter loss. This verse is a compact portrait of the displaced: weather hostile, vehicle failed, destination unreachable, and profit turned to lamentation. The phrase 'rain and snow fill the road' echoes the Shijing's imagery of soldiers trudging through winter campaigns. From Return to Work on the Decayed, wind stirs beneath the mountain, corruption exposed for repair. The transformation reframes displacement as diagnosis: the broken wagon reveals what was already rotten in the structure, and only by confronting decay can genuine restoration begin.
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