復 → 漸
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 53: Development
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 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 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.
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
春生夏乳，羽毛成就，舉不失宜，君臣相好。盜走奔北，終無有晦。
Born in spring, nursed in summer; plumage fully formed. Rising at the proper time; lord and minister in mutual accord. Thieves flee and run north; in the end, no darkness.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth in perfect seasonal alignment. Spring gives birth, summer nurses the young, feathers and plumage form in proper sequence — nothing misses its rightful timing. Lord and minister enjoy mutual goodwill. Bandits flee northward, defeated, and no shadow of misfortune lingers. This is the ideal unfolding of the natural and political order: each phase completes on schedule, governance harmonizes above and below, and threats dissolve of their own accord. From Return to Development, wind above mountain, the tree on the mountain grows slowly but surely. The transformation deepens the seasonal logic: gradual development, each stage building on the last, produces an order so robust that evil has no foothold.
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