復 → 无妄
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 25: Innocence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
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
踦牛傷暑，不能成畝。草萊不墾，年歲無有。
A lame ox, stricken by heat; it cannot plow a furrow. Weeds and briars go uncleared; the year yields nothing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but the ox is lame and the heat unbearable. The crippled draft animal cannot complete a single furrow, weeds overtake the untilled fields, and the year yields nothing. Agricultural failure at its most elemental: the beast of burden injured, the farmer overwhelmed by climate, the land reverting to wilderness. From Return to Innocence, thunder moves beneath heaven in alignment with nature's timing. The transformation carries a bitter lesson: innocence does not mean naive optimism. True alignment with heaven requires recognizing when conditions are simply hostile — a lame ox and scorching heat will defeat even the most innocent intention. Right timing, not just right heart, is essential.
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