復 → 坤
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
義不勝情，以欲自營。覬利危寵，折角摧頸。
Duty cannot overcome desire; one schemes for selfish gain. Coveting profit, courting precarious favor; horns broken, neck snapped.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder stirs below the earth, but the returning impulse is corrupted from within. Duty yields to desire, and self-interest overwhelms principle. The figure covets dangerous favors, pursuing gain at the edge of ruin, until horns snap and the neck is broken — an image of the ambitious courtier who overreaches and is destroyed. The phrase 'breaking horns and crushing the neck' evokes an animal charging blindly until it destroys itself. From Return to the Receptive, the transformation demands yielding and devotion, yet this figure grasps at privilege instead. Where Earth's nature calls for humility and receptive service, self-seeking ambition meets a brutal end.
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