Home › I Ching · 64 hexagrams › Hexagram 24
James Legge, 1899 (public domain)
Fû indicates that there will be free course and progress (in what it denotes). (The subject of it) finds no one to distress him in his exits and entrances; friends come to him, and no error is committed. He will return and repeat his (proper) course. In seven days comes his return. There will be advantage in whatever direction movement is made.
Fû — thunder hidden in the earth — is the hexagram of return: one line of light coming back at the bottom after five lines of dark. The oracle's promise is movement without hindrance — no one to distress you in your exits and entrances, friends come of themselves — and a set time: in seven days comes the return. Advantage lies in whatever direction you then move. The lines grade the coming back: a slight error, turned from early, brings great good fortune; the admirable and the noble returns are without regret; one who returns repeatedly stands in peril but does not fall; and one astray on the subject of returning brings calamity, defeat, ten years without repair.
Line 1
The first line, undivided, shows its subject returning (from an error) of no great extent, which would not proceed to anything requiring repentance. There will be great good fortune.
Line 2
The second line, divided, shows the admirable return (of its subject). There will be good fortune.
Line 3
The third line, divided, shows one who has made repeated returns. The position is perilous, but there will be no error.
Line 4
The fourth line, divided, shows its subject moving right in the centre (among those represented by the other divided lines), and yet returning alone (to his proper path).
Line 5
The fifth line, divided, shows the noble return of its subject. There will be no ground for repentance.
Line 6
The topmost line, divided, shows its subject all astray on the subject of returning. There will be evil. There will be calamities and errors. If with his views he put the hosts in motion, the end will be a great defeat, whose issues will extend to the ruler of the state. Even in ten years he will not be able to repair the disaster.