复 Return
Upper trigram: Earth (the earth) · Lower trigram: Thunder (thunder)
The turning point — the light returns after the darkest hour.
Modern interpretation
The darkest point has passed and energy is returning. Small beginnings now grow into great things. Rest, recover, and start the new cycle gently — do not rush the dawn, but do face toward it.
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。出入无疾。朋来无咎。反复其道，七日来复，利有攸往。
“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.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
不远复，无祗悔，元吉。
“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.”
休复，吉。
“The second line, divided, shows the admirable return (of its subject). There will be good fortune.”
频复，厉，无咎。
“The third line, divided, shows one who has made repeated returns. The position is perilous, but there will be no error.”
中行独复。
“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).”
敦复，无悔。
“The fifth line, divided, shows the noble return of its subject. There will be no ground for repentance.”
迷复，凶，有灾眚。用行师，终有大败，以其国君凶，至于十年不克征。
“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.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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