Yarrow / Source Notes / 2026-07-17
Yarrow source note · 2026-07-17
A source-first reading note for Hexagram 24, Fu (Return), with a reference translation, trigram frame, and one reversible observation practice.
Return
The lower trigram is 震 (雷), associated in the bundled corpus with 动; the upper trigram is 坤 (地), associated with 顺. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
Return: success and progress. The firm returns; movement follows the way of docility. Thus going out and coming in are without harm, and friends arrive without blame. The way reverses upon itself; in seven days comes the return — such is the course of Heaven. It is favorable to have somewhere to go, for the firm is growing. In Return, do we not behold the heart of Heaven and Earth?
See the original-text and authority layers in the complete catalog entry.
The Way of Heaven moves in cycles, generating life endlessly. After the yang force has been stripped away to its utmost, it turns back and returns again, and this return always comes in its proper time—necessarily on the seventh day. This pattern reflects the natural law governing the movement of the celestial bodies. Thus "Heaven displays its images, and the sages take them as their model.
The lower trigram is 震 (雷), associated in the bundled corpus with 动; the upper trigram is 坤 (地), associated with 顺. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
Copy one concrete verb, condition, or image from the reference translation for Hexagram 24. Name one place where it is observable in the situation you are examining. Then choose one small step you can reverse and write the condition that would make you review it.
Do not turn Return into a personality label, a guaranteed event, or a verdict about another person. The translation and trigram frame are source layers to examine, not an instruction to surrender judgment.
The reference translation and context are drawn from Yarrow's bundled structured Zhouyi authority layer. Yarrow keeps that layer separate from optional modern reflection. This page does not claim that Hexagram 24 was cast for your question.