above Kun, the Receptive, earth · below Dschen, the Arousing, thunder
After a hard time something comes back: strength, health, understanding. The return is the turning point, like the winter solstice, when the new strength is still beneath the earth. He gives examples everyone knows, health after an illness and understanding after a quarrel; both need gentle, careful handling at the start. Let the new strength grow in peace and do not ask everything of yourself yet. You need not force anything: ‘Everything comes of itself when its time is ripe.’ It succeeds, and friends who join you are welcome.
What is coming back to you just now, and how can you look after it until it is strong again?
The turning point is indicated by the fact that, after the dark lines have pushed all the light ones out at the top, a light line now enters the sign again from below. The time of darkness is past. The solstice brings the victory of light. The sign is assigned to the eleventh month, the month of the solstice (December to January).
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Return. Success.Going out and coming in without fault.Friends come without blame.To and fro goes the way.On the seventh day comes return.It is favourable to have somewhere to go.
After a time of decay comes the turning point. The strong light that had been driven out enters again. There is movement. But this movement is not forced. The upper trigram, Kun, has devotion as its character. So it is a natural movement that arises of itself. Therefore the transformation of the old is quite easy too. The old is discarded, the new is introduced; both accord with the time and so do no harm. Associations of the like-minded are formed. But this joining together takes place in full public view; it accords with the time, and so every selfish, separate aim is excluded, and no fault arises from these associations. Return is grounded in the course of nature. The movement is circular. The way closes upon itself. Therefore there is no need to force anything prematurely. Everything comes of itself when its time is ripe. This is the meaning of heaven and earth.
All movements take place in six stages. The seventh stage then brings return. Thus in the seventh month after the summer solstice, from which the year is on the wane, comes the winter solstice; likewise in the seventh double hour after sunset comes sunrise. That is why seven is the number of the young light, which arises when six, the number of the great darkness, is increased by one. In this way the standstill is set in motion.
Thunder in the midst of the earth: the image of the turning point.So the ancient kings closed the passes at the time of the solstice.Merchants and strangers did not travel,and the ruler did not journey through the regions.
In China the winter solstice has always been celebrated as the resting time of the year, a custom that still survives in the New Year holiday. In winter the life force (symbolised by the Arousing, thunder) is still beneath the earth. Movement is at its very beginning. Therefore it must be strengthened by rest, so that it is not dissipated by being spent too soon. This principle, of letting returning strength grow firm through rest, applies to all corresponding situations. Health returning after an illness, understanding returning after an estrangement: everything must be treated gently and with care at the very beginning, so that the return may lead to flowering.
Wilhelm placed the signs ○ and □ after certain lines (p. 334 f.). They mark the rulers of the hexagram. □ stands by the constituting ruler: the line that gives the hexagram its meaning, however high it stands and whatever its character. ○ stands by the governing ruler. It is always of good character and becomes ruler through the meaning of the time and its position, usually in the fifth place. Where a line is both, it carries ○.
Return from a short distance.There is no need for remorse.Great good fortune!
This is a return after only a short detour. Small deviations from the good cannot be avoided; what matters is turning back in time, before anything sets hard. If you notice you are heading the wrong way, turn back at once; then there is nothing to regret, and it turns out very well.
Small deviations from the good cannot be avoided. One need only turn back in time, before one has gone too far. This is especially important in the forming of character. Every faint evil thought must be put away at once, before one goes too far with it and it takes hold. Then one has no need of remorse, and all goes very well.
Quiet return. Good fortune!
This line shows a quiet return, made easier when you are in good company. Turning back always takes a decision and a certain amount of self-mastery. If you can bring yourself to step back and take your lead from people who set you a good example, it turns out well.
Turning back always calls for a decision and is an act of self-mastery. It is made easier if one is in good company. If one can bring oneself to humble oneself and to take one’s direction from good people, this brings good fortune.
Repeated return. Danger. No blame.
This is about someone whose inner unsteadiness makes them stray again and again and turn back again and again. All this to and fro is dangerous. Yet because you never become wholly entrenched in what is wrong, the way to improvement stays open; it is not a mistake. Hold to your direction, however often you have to find your way back.
There are people of a certain inner inconstancy. For them a constant reversal of the will is necessary. In this constant turning away from the good out of unbridled inclination, and turning back to it out of a better resolve, there lies a danger. But since in this way no hardening in evil sets in either, the general direction towards casting off the fault is not ruled out.
Walking in the midst of others,one returns alone.
Surrounded by people who are heading nowhere good, someone turns back alone, supported by an inner bond with a strong and good friend. Nothing is said of reward, and yet it is favourable. Once you have chosen the good, walk the path alone if need be; the decision carries its own reward.
One is in the midst of a company of lesser people, but one has an inner bond with a strong and good friend. Because of this one turns back alone. Although nothing is said of reward or punishment, it is certainly favourable; for such a resolve to do good carries its reward within itself.
Magnanimous return. No remorse.
When the moment for turning back arrives, do not hide behind petty excuses. Look within, examine yourself, and if you have done something wrong, admit it openly and without quibbling; you will never regret that step.
When the time for turning back has come, one should not hide behind petty excuses, but should look within and examine oneself. And if one has done something wrong, one should admit one’s fault with magnanimous resolve. That is a path that no one will regret.
Missing the return. Misfortune.Calamity from without and within.If armies are set marching in this way,one will in the end suffer a great defeat,so that it brings misfortune to the ruler of the land.For ten years one is no longer able to attack.
This line shows what happens when you miss the right moment to turn back: calamity from within and without, and a course of action that ends in a heavy defeat you take a long time to recover from. It turns out badly, and the cause lies in your own wrong attitude. If you suspect you are on the wrong track, wait no longer and turn back.
If one misses the right time for turning back, one meets with misfortune. The misfortune has its inner cause in a wrong relation to the order of the world. Outward misfortune is the consequence of this wrong relation. What is depicted here is obduracy and the judgement it brings.
Would you like to put your own question to the I Ching? Six throws of three coins, and the answer appears straight away.
Consult the I ChingTexts by Richard Wilhelm: I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen (first edition Jena 1924), translated into English by NUMEN COMPASS from the Diederichs edition, Munich 1996. Wilhelm’s German text is in the public domain. The section ‘What the hexagram says today’, the question for you and the short notes under the lines are our own reading. The I Ching is no substitute for medical, legal or psychological advice.