復 → 師
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 2).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
京庾積倉，黍稷以興。已極行疾，至以饜飽。
The capital granaries are heaped and stored; millet and grain flourish. At their fullest, travel swiftly; arrive well sated and full.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth as the capital's granaries overflow with grain. Millet and rice pile high, sustaining the state from its reserves. The verse conveys urgency — supplies are dispatched at speed to reach those in need, and hunger is sated. This is the image of a well-provisioned army or a state deploying its stores to feed the people during crisis. From Return to The Army, earth above water: the disciplined mass concealed within the land, nourished and ready. The transformation captures how stored abundance becomes organized power — the returning yang is not mere potential but the foundation of collective mobilization, grain converted into the sinews of a functioning state.
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