Hexagram 38: Opposition → Hexagram 24: Return

Opposition
Fire / Lake
Return
Earth / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 6).

Line 2

九二 遇主于巷。无咎。

meeting (with)
zhǔ(a
in
xiàngalley
no
jiùblame

Nine in the second place means: One meets his lord in a narrow street. No blame.

Line 4

九四 睽孤。遇元夫。交孚。厲无咎。

kuíestranged
(and) (all) alone
meet
yuán(a
(gentle)man
jiāoexchange
(in
(the) difficulty
(is) not
jiù(a) wrong(ness)

Nine in the fourth place means: Isolated through opposition, One meets a like-minded man With whom one can associate in good faith. Despite the danger, no blame.

Line 6

上九 睽孤。見豕負塗。載鬼一車。先張之弧。後說之弧。匪寇婚媾。往遇雨則吉。

kuíestranged
(and) (all) alone
jiànseeing
shǐ(a) pig
covered
filth
zàihaul
guǐdemons
(and
chēwagon
xiān(at) first
zhāngstretch
zhīhis
(long)bow
hòu(and
shuōrelaxing
zhīhis
(long)bow
fěiit
kòu(a
hūn(but) (a) marital
gòusuitor
wǎngin going
greet
(the) rain
(and
promising

Nine at the top means: Isolated through opposition, One sees one's companion as a pig covered with dirt, As a wagon full of devils. First one draws a bow against him, then one lays the bow aside. He is not a robber; he will woo at the right time. As one goes, rain falls; then good fortune comes.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramFire EarthThe Clinging → The Receptive
Lower TrigramLake ThunderThe Joyous → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

兩目失明,日奪无光。脛足跛踦,不可以行,頓於丘傍。

Both eyes have lost their sight; the sun is robbed of light. Shins and feet lame and stumbling; he cannot walk, and collapses by the hillside.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Fire above the lake, vision and movement both extinguished. Both eyes lose their sight, the sun stripped of its light; the legs are lame and uneven, unable to walk, and one collapses beside a barren hill. The verse systematically disables every capacity for agency: sight, which connects one to the world, is gone; mobility, which connects one to a destination, is gone. What remains is utter helplessness, stranded at the roadside. From Opposition to Return, thunder stirs within the earth, a single yang line re-enters at the bottom. The transformation offers a slender thread of hope: even in total darkness and immobility, the primal impulse of renewal begins underground, invisible and unbidden. Return begins precisely when all external resources have been exhausted.

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