復 → 小畜
Hexagram 24: Return → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).
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.
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
車馳人趍，卷甲相仇。齊魯寇戰，敗於犬丘。
Battle flags stuck upside-down in mud; chariot ruts deep as ditches. Broken armor lies abandoned by the road — returning crows peck without cease.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder returns beneath the earth, but the original verse tells of chariots racing and men running, rolling up armor in mutual hostility. Qi and Lu clash in battle, and defeat comes at Quanqiu. This is interstate warfare at its rawest: two neighboring states collide, and one side is routed at a place whose very name — Dog Hill — suggests the ignoble nature of the engagement. From Return to Small Taming, wind rides above heaven, gently restraining the creative force. The transformation suggests that what erupts as unchecked aggression between rivals might have been contained by patient, modest cultivation. Where brute return meets gentle taming, the wind's soft touch succeeds where armor failed.
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