I Ching hexagram 24
Hexagram 24: Fu
Return · 地雷復 · Earth above, Thunder below
You come back to your own course after a lapse, and the first sign of renewal is still small.
What this hexagram is about
Something has started to come back after a hard stretch, such as a habit or your energy. Fu (Return) has one strong line coming back at the bottom, like thunder stirring under midwinter ground, and the image text advises rest at the turning point.
A way to think about it
Where have you recently come back to something that mattered, such as a friendship or a practice you had dropped? Ask what small, steady step would let it grow before you ask more of it.
The text, with Legge's translation
Judgment
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.
The turning point has come, and things open up with no harm in coming or going. Friends join you, and since the cycle returns in seven days, it is a good time to set out.
Image
雷在地中，復；先王以至日閉關，商旅不行，后不省方。
(The trigram representing) the earth and that for thunder in the midst of it form Fû. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, on the day of the (winter) solstice, shut the gates of the passes (from one state to another), so that the travelling merchants could not (then) pursue their journeys, nor the princes go on with the inspection of their states.
Line 1 · 初九
不遠復，无祇悔，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.
A quick turn back, before you have gone far, leaves nothing serious to regret. The text puts it at the top of its scale.
Line 2 · 六二
休復，吉。
The second line, divided, shows the admirable return (of its subject). There will be good fortune.
Returning in a good way, close to someone who has already turned back toward what is right, reads as good fortune.
Line 3 · 六三
頻復，厲无咎。
The third line, divided, shows one who has made repeated returns. The position is perilous, but there will be no error.
Drifting off and coming back, again and again, is shaky, and the line still draws no fault, since each return counts.
Line 4 · 六四
中行獨復。
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).
Walking in the middle of a crowd heading the other way, you turn back toward what is right on your own. The text names no outcome, since doing right does not hang on one.
Line 5 · 六五
敦復，无悔。
The fifth line, divided, shows the noble return of its subject. There will be no ground for repentance.
A return made with your whole heart, honest and unforced, leaves nothing here to regret, and the text adds no warning.
Line 6 · 上六
迷復，凶，有災眚。用行師，終有大敗，以其國君，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.
Being lost on the way back brings a warning of disaster. Sending out an army in this state ends in great defeat, and even ten years later the loss is not repaired.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi, public domain. English: James Legge, The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. 16 (1882), public domain. Plain notes written by this site.
Questions
I cast hexagram 24. Which text do I read?
With no changing lines, read the judgment: "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." With changing lines, read the lines that changed. When several change at once, Zhu Xi's rules decide which text leads, and the casting page marks it for you.
What are the nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams of Fu?
The nuclear hexagram is 2. Kun (Earth). The opposite is 44. Gou (Sudden Encounter). The inverted hexagram is 23. Bo (Stripping Away).