Hexagram 24: Return
Outer trigram (upper)
Khôn
Earth · Earth
Inner trigram (lower)
Chấn
Thunder · Wood
Judgment
復：亨，出入无疾，朋來无咎．反復其道，七日來復，利有攸往.
Translation
Return: smooth progress, coming and going without affliction, friends arrive without fault. Turning back along the same path, returning on the seventh day; favorable to go somewhere.
Commentary
Zhen below is movement, Kun above is yielding. A single yang line is newly born at the bottom — yang energy beginning its return after yin reached its peak in the hexagram Kun. The seventh-day return: counting seven hexagrams onward from Gou, where one yin line first appears, yang comes back around. This is the image of all things returning to life.
Line Readings
Line 1 (yang)
初九：不遠復，无祇悔，元吉.
Translation
Line 1, yang: returning before going far, nothing to regret — great fortune.
Commentary
The newly returned yang line turns back before straying far, with nothing to regret — great fortune. A small mistake corrected right away.
Line 2 (yin)
六二：休復，吉.
Translation
Line 2, yin: a fine return — fortune.
Commentary
Centered and correct, line 2 sits close to the yang line below (a worthy person) and follows its example back to goodness — a fine return.
Line 3 (yin)
六三：頻復，厲，无咎.
Translation
Line 3, yin: repeatedly having to turn back — precarious, yet without fault.
Commentary
Neither centered nor correct, line 3 keeps making mistakes and having to correct them again and again. Though this is precarious, it keeps turning back to what is good, so it remains without fault.
Line 4 (yin)
六四：中行，獨復.
Translation
Line 4, yin: walking in the middle of the road, returning alone.
Commentary
Correctly placed, line 4 alone among the surrounding yin lines knows to turn back to what is good, walking the middle path. Though solitary in this, it deserves praise.
Line 5 (yin)
六五：敦復，无悔.
Translation
Line 5, yin: returning with sincerity — no regret.
Commentary
Centered and holding the honored position, line 5 returns to what is good with genuine, unaffected sincerity — nothing to regret.
Line 6 (yin)
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.
Translation
Top line, yin: lost in confusion, unable to return — misfortune. Disaster follows. Using this for war ends in crushing defeat; the ruler of that country meets misfortune; for ten years it cannot march again.
Commentary
At the very top of Return, line 6 is confused to the extreme, unable to find its way back to what is good, so disaster becomes unavoidable.