Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 27: Nourishment

Return
Earth / Thunder
Nourishment
Mountain / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).

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。

(a
(to) return
xiōngunfortunate
yǒuthere is
zāicalamity
shěng(and) injury
yòng(if
xíngto move
shī(a
zhōng(then) in the end
yǒuthere will be
(a) great
bàidefeat
for
one's (own)
guódomain
jūn(and) (its) nobility
xiōng(with) misfortune
zhìeven
in
shíten
niányears
without
ability
zhēng(to

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

Upper TrigramEarth MountainThe Receptive → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramThunder Thunder

Yilin Verse

噂噂所言,莫如我恆。歡樂堅固,可以長安。

All the murmured counsel is no match for my constancy. Joy and delight, steadfast and firm; herein one may find lasting peace.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder returns beneath the earth in quiet affirmation. Despite all the murmuring gossip, nothing compares to what endures within oneself. Joy is solid, happiness is firm, and one may dwell in lasting peace. The verse is strikingly simple amid the elaborate allusions of this batch — a plain declaration that inner constancy outlasts external chatter. 'What people whisper cannot match my abiding nature.' From Return to Nourishment, mountain above thunder, the sage guards speech and regulates consumption. The transformation deepens the quiet confidence: true nourishment comes not from chasing gossip or external validation but from cultivating what is constant within. The mountain shelters the thunder, and peace grows from that sheltering.

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