復 → 損
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
六二 休復。吉。
Six in the second place means: Quiet return. Good fortune.
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
把珠入口，蓄為玉寶。得吾所有，欣然嘉喜。
Taking the pearl into the mouth; storing it as a jade treasure. Gaining what I possess; joyful and delighted.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth as a pearl is placed in the mouth and stored as a jade treasure. One recovers what was already one's own and rejoices with delight. The image of holding a pearl in the mouth evokes both the funerary practice of placing jade in the deceased's mouth (含殮) and the act of safeguarding a precious thing within oneself. What is found is not new but recognized — 'I have recovered what was always mine.' From Return to Decrease, mountain above lake, restraining desire and curbing anger. The transformation reveals that true gain sometimes looks like loss: by decreasing outward grasping, one discovers the treasure already held within. The pearl was always in the mouth; it only needed to be recognized.
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