復 → 觀
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 20: Contemplation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 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 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
東行破車，步入危家。衡門穿射，無以為主。賣袍續食，糟糠不飽。
Traveling east, the cart breaks down; on foot, entering a perilous house. The crossbar gate is pierced through; nothing left to serve as master. Selling robes to buy food; chaff and husks do not satisfy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but the return journey is a descent into poverty. The eastbound wagon breaks down again — a recurring motif in this batch — and the traveler stumbles into a household of danger. Arrows pierce the crossbar gate; there is no master of the house. He must sell his very robe to buy food, yet even chaff and husks leave him hungry. Layer upon layer of deprivation strips the figure to bare survival. From Return to Contemplation, wind moves over the earth as the ancient kings surveyed their domains. The transformation implies that true contemplation begins when all external supports have been removed: only then does one see clearly, though the vision is bitter.
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