復 → 晉
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 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 4
六四 中行獨復。
Six in the fourth place means: Walking in the midst of others, One returns alone.
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
飛至日南，還歸遼東。雌雄相從，和鳴雍雍。解我迥春。
Flying south to Rinan; returning home to Liaodong. Female and male follow together; singing in harmony, yong yong. Releasing me from lingering spring.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth as a pair of birds flies south to the extreme and then returns north to Liaodong. Male and female follow each other, singing in gentle harmony, dissolving the lingering spring's loneliness. The crane or goose migration is a classical image of faithful partnership and seasonal return: the birds complete the great circuit, always finding each other again. From Return to Progress, fire rises above the earth, brightness emerging from below. The transformation illuminates the verse's emotional arc: the long journey south and back mirrors the slow progress of light emerging from darkness. What returns is not merely the birds but the warmth of companionship, advancing steadily like the dawn.
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