復 → 既濟
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 63: After Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
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
驅羊南行，與禍相逢。狼驚吾馬，虎盜我子。悲恨自咎。
Driving sheep southward; meeting disaster on the way. The wolf startles my horse; the tiger steals my child. In grief and regret, one blames oneself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but the southward drive of sheep walks straight into disaster. Wolves stampede the horses and a tiger seizes the child — grief and self-blame engulf the traveler. The pastoral scene collapses into predation: what began as routine animal husbandry becomes a nightmare of loss, the herdsman powerless against wild beasts. The wolf and tiger do not merely attack; they rob specific things — the horse (mobility) and the child (future). From Return to After Completion, water above fire, everything in its proper place. The transformation is bitterly ironic: perfect order describes a state this traveler will never reach. Completion mocks the one who has lost everything to chaos on the road.
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