遯 Retreat
Upper trigram: Heaven (the sky) · Lower trigram: Mountain (the mountain)
Strategic withdrawal — retreat is timing, not defeat.
Modern interpretation
Step back from what drains or threatens you. Preserve your strength, keep your dignity, and wait — the wise know when the season favors distance. A retreat chosen deliberately is worth more than a battle won bitterly.
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。小利贞。
“Thun indicates successful progress (in its circumstances). To a small extent it will (still) be advantageous to be firm and correct.” — 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.
遯尾，厉，勿用有攸往。
“The first line, divided, shows a retiring tail. The position is perilous No movement in any direction should be made.”
执之用黄牛之革，莫之胜说。
“The second line, divided, shows its "subject holding (his purpose) fast as if by a (thong made from the) hide of a yellow ox, which cannot be broken.”
系遯，有疾厉，畜臣妾吉。
“The third line, undivided, shows one retiring but bound,---to his distress and peril. (If he were to deal with his binders as in) nourishing a servant or concubine, it would be fortunate for him.”
好遯，君子吉，小人否。
“The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject retiring notwithstanding his likings. In a superior man this will lead to good fortune ; a small man cannot attain to this.”
嘉遯，贞吉。
“The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject retiring in an admirable way. With firm correctness there will be good fortune.”
肥遯，无不利。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject retiring in a noble way. It will be advantageous in every respect.”
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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