解 → 復
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 24: Return
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4).
Line 1
初六 无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Without blame.
Line 2
九二 田獲三狐。得黃矢。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: One kills three foxes in the field And receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 4
九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。
Nine in the fourth place means: Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
平正賤使，主服苦事。
Lowly and humble, made to serve; the master endures bitter labor.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water stills into thunder hidden beneath the earth — the quiet stirring of return. The upright and just are sent on menial errands; the master endures bitter labor. The verse is brief but pointed: those who should command are instead made servants, fairness inverted into drudgery. Yet from Deliverance to Return, the transformation promises reversal. Thunder sleeps within the earth at the winter solstice, preparing to stir. The righteous who serve in lowly stations are not lost — they are seeds buried in darkness, waiting for the solstice turn that restores them to their proper place.
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