復 → 咸
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5).
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 3
六三 頻復。厲。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Repeated return. Danger. No blame.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
求雞獲雛，買鱉失魚。出入鈞敵，利得無饒。齊姜宋子，婚姻孔嘉。
Seeking a chicken, one catches a chick; buying a turtle, one loses the fish. In trade, an even match; gains yield no surplus. A Qi bride and a Song daughter — the marriage is most auspicious.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth in a scene of mixed bargains. Seeking a chicken, one gets a chick; buying a turtle, one loses the fish. Gains and losses balance at each exchange — nothing comes free, and no trade yields pure profit. Then the verse lifts into celebration: 'A Qi Jiang, a Song maiden — the marriage is supremely fine.' These are women of distinguished lineage from the great states of Qi and Song, and their union signals an auspicious match. From Return to Influence, lake upon mountain, mutual attraction between the yielding and the still. The transformation reveals that after all the calculating exchanges, genuine connection transcends commerce — true influence arises not from bargaining but from natural affinity.
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