復 → 訟
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 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 2
六二 休復。吉。
Six in the second place means: Quiet return. 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 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
三足俱行，傾危善僵。六指不便，恩累弟兄。樹柱關中，失其正當。
A three-legged creature walks together; prone to tipping and stumbling. Six fingers are no advantage; grace burdens the brothers. Setting a pillar within the pass; it loses its proper alignment.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns below the earth, but the returning order is deformed. A three-legged creature walks with a lurching gait, prone to collapse; a six-fingered hand grasps clumsily, its extra digit more burden than advantage. These deformities extend to the body politic: excessive bonds between brothers become encumbrances rather than support, and a pillar set up in the heartland misses its proper position. Everything is slightly wrong — supernumerary, off-center, overbuilt. From Return to Conflict, heaven and water move in contrary directions. The transformation warns that structural imbalance breeds contention: what should stabilize instead destabilizes, and what should support instead obstructs.
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