渙 → 復
Hexagram 59: Dispersion → Hexagram 24: Return
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 用拯馬壯吉。
Six at the beginning means: He brings help with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 2
九二 渙奔其机。悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: At the dissolution He hurries to that which supports him. Remorse disappears.
Line 5
九五 渙汗其大號。渙。王居无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: His loud cries are as dissolving as sweat. Dissolution! A king abides without blame.
Line 6
上九 渙其血。去逖出。无咎。
Nine at the top means: He dissolves his blood. Departing, keeping at a distance, going out, Is without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
逶迤四牡,思歸念母。王事靡盬,不得安處。
The four stallions wind wearily onward; thoughts turn homeward to mother. The king's affairs never cease; one cannot find a place of rest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over water disperses the weary traveler's strength. Four horses wind slowly forward as the driver's thoughts turn homeward to his mother. But the king's business never ends — there is no place to rest. This directly echoes the Shijing soldiers' lament tradition: conscripts driven endlessly on royal campaigns, longing for family they may never see again. Thunder stirring beneath the earth creates the image of Return — the solstice moment when a single yang line reappears at the base. From Dispersion to Return, the verse aches with the gap between longing and reality. The horses plod on, the mother waits at home, and Return's promise — that what departed will come back — remains heartbreakingly deferred by duty.
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