復 → 井
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 2
六二 休復。吉。
Six in the second place means: Quiet return. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 頻復。厲。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Repeated return. Danger. No blame.
Line 5
六五 敦復。无悔。
Six in the fifth place means: Noblehearted return. No remorse.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鳥鳴葭端，一呼三顛。搖動東西，危而不安。靈祝禱祉，疾病無患。
A bird calls from a reed tip; one cry, three tumbles. Swaying east and west; precarious and unsettled. A spirit-priest prays for blessing; illness and ailment are no worry.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth as a bird cries from the tip of a reed, calling once and toppling three times — swaying east and west, precarious and unsettled. The reed-tip perch is the essence of instability: a songbird with no solid footing, every call shaking the stem that supports it. Yet the verse resolves in unexpected grace: a spirit medium prays for blessing, and illness is lifted. From Return to The Well, water above wood, the inexhaustible source that nourishes all. The transformation from shaking reed to steady well reveals how rootedness heals fragility. The well draws from depths that no surface trembling can disturb — its water rises through the wood to sustain the community above.
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