Hexagram 24 for work
Hexagram 24 Returning for work and career
At work Fu is the restart: the project revived after a failure, the strategy corrected, the first good news after a long decline. The Great Image shows the ancient kings closing the passes at the solstice so that merchants do not travel and rulers do not tour — the moment of return is to be protected, not exploited; the new yang is one line among five, growing but not grown. The judgment still ends 'favourable to have somewhere to go': the direction is right even if the pace must be slow.
The lines describe how a team or a person corrects course. Catching the error at the first step is best (line one); a junior aligns with whoever has already corrected (line two); the repeat offender who keeps coming back is in danger but not at fault (line three); the lone dissenter who turns back against the group is right in direction (line four); the leader corrects by self-examination (line five); the one condemned is the leader who, lost, commits everything to a push (line six).
The hexagram in brief
Thunder within the earth: the solstice, one yang line returning at the bottom. The turn has come — friends arrive, going out and coming in without harm, the way comes back in seven days.
Welcome the turning gently; don't force the new growth, and return to the right path early when you stray.
The judgment
復：亨。出入无疾，朋來无咎。反復其道，七日來復，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.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 復 Returning has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningreturn before going far · no regret · the ruler of Return
- 六二Six in the second placea fine return · yielding to the good · next to the yang
- 六三Six in the third placerepeated return · danger · no blame
- 六四Six in the fourth placereturning alone · midway among the many · following the way
- 六五Six in the fifth placeearnest return · self-examination · central
- 上六Six at the toplost return · calamity · against the ruler's way
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 24, Returning, mean for a career question?
- At work Fu is the restart: the project revived after a failure, the strategy corrected, the first good news after a long decline. The Great Image shows the ancient kings closing the passes at the solstice so that merchants do not travel and rulers do not tour — the moment of return is to be protected, not exploited; the new yang is one line among five, growing but not grown. The judgment still ends 'favourable to have somewhere to go': the direction is right even if the pace must be slow.
- What does Hexagram 24, 復 Returning, mean?
- Thunder within the earth: the solstice, one yang line returning at the bottom. The turn has come — friends arrive, going out and coming in without harm, the way comes back in seven days.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).