The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 24

What does I Ching hexagram 24, Returning, mean?

The judgment

復：亨。出入无疾，朋來无咎。反復其道，七日來復，利有攸往。Returning: success. Going out and coming in without harm, friends arrive with no blame. The road turns back on itself, and on the seventh day it returns. It pays to set out.Zhou Yi 周易, 復, judgment. Source

The image

雷在地中，復；先王以至日閉關，商旅不行，后不省方。Thunder within the earth. On the solstice the old kings closed the passes, merchants did not travel and the ruler did not tour.Zhou Yi 周易, 復, image. Source

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. In a cast, only the lines that move are read, and they turn the hexagram into another one. Here they are in the original; a reading translates the moving lines and reads them for the question asked.

1. First line初九：不遠復，无祇悔，元吉。
2. Second line六二：休復，吉。
3. Third line六三：頻復，厲无咎。
4. Fourth line六四：中行獨復。
5. Fifth line六五：敦復，无悔。
6. Top line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。

The Chinese is the received text of the Zhou Yi; the English is ours. Lines and images that speak of punishments, prisons, illness or money are left out. For entertainment and self-reflection.

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