Hexagram 24 of 64
Return
復 Fù
Upper trigram: 坤 Kūn, earth
Lower trigram: 震 Zhèn, thunder
The judgment
亨。出入无疾，朋來无咎。反復其道，七日來復，利有攸往。
Success. Going out and coming in, there is no harm. Friends arrive, no blame. Turning back along its path, on the seventh day it comes back. It is fitting to have somewhere to go.
The Great 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: Return. In the same way, on the solstice day the former kings closed the border gates, merchants and travelers did not move, and the sovereign did not inspect the regions.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初九
不遠復，无祇悔，元吉。
Turning back before going far. It does not come to regret. Supreme good fortune.
You turned back before you had gone far. Consider what small correction you could make today while it still costs little.
Line 2 六二
休復，吉。
A gracious return. Good fortune.
The return here is graceful and unforced. Ask who has come back from where you are now, and whether you could let them show you how.
Line 3 六三
頻復，厲无咎。
Returning again and again. Danger, no blame.
Coming back over and over is tiring and carries danger, and the line still finds no blame in it. If you keep slipping and returning, you could count each return as part of the habit you are building.
Line 4 六四
中行獨復。
Walking in the middle and returning alone.
Someone walking among others turns back alone. Ask what you would do differently if you did not need the group's agreement before changing course.
Line 5 六五
敦復，无悔。
A wholehearted return. No regret.
A wholehearted return has thought behind it. Consider whether you can admit a mistake plainly and do the work of setting it right.
Line 6 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。
Losing the way back. Misfortune; there is calamity and error. If used to march the army, in the end there is a great defeat, and it reaches the ruler of the state. Misfortune. For as long as ten years, no campaign can succeed.
Losing the way back and then marching an army anyway draws the harshest words in the hexagram. Ask whether you are pressing on because stopping would mean admitting you are lost.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is thunder below and earth above, with one solid line at the bottom under five broken ones. Thunder stirs inside the ground in the dead of winter. It stands for the turning point when something that has receded starts to come back.
The judgment speaks of a path that goes and comes again, with the return on the seventh day. The return keeps its own time, and the image has the old kings shutting the gates on the solstice and keeping still. Ask what small new beginning in your life could use a quiet period before you push it.
If your question is about restarting something, such as a habit or a friendship, tradition reads this as a good moment to come back gently. The lines favor returning early, and the last one cautions against being too lost to turn around.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/復), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In the first line, Wikisource (A) reads 不遠復 (returning before going far) and Project Gutenberg (B) reads 不復遠 (not going far again, with the two characters in the other order).
- In the first line, Wikisource writes 祇 and Project Gutenberg writes 祗. Project Gutenberg also writes 無 where Wikisource has 无 throughout the hexagram. These are small differences of form.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.