Upper trigram
☷
Earth (Kun) above
Receptive yielding.
FamilyMother
ElementEarth
Hexagram 24 of 64
I Ching hexagram 24 ☷☳ Return
I Ching hexagram 24, Return, is earth above, thunder below. In brief: the turning point; light comes back. Its one solid line stands in place 1, counting from the bottom; the other five are broken.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚊⚋⚋⚋⚋⚋ 100000 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Earth over Thunder Kun ☷ / Zhen ☳
- Every line changed
- № 44 Coming to Meet
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 107 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☳
Thunder (Zhen) below
Arousal and shock.
FamilyEldest son
ElementWood
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 24
The Judgement
Return: after a low point, energy comes back. Recovery happens naturally in its own rhythm, and friends and allies begin to return with it.
The Image
Thunder deep inside the earth at the winter solstice. The lesson is to protect a new beginning quietly, giving it rest instead of pushing it too soon.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 24 in James Legge’s translation
“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 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.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom 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.
- Line 2 The second line, divided, shows the admirable return (of its subject). There will be good fortune.
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows one who has made repeated returns. The position is perilous, but there will be no error.
- Line 4 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).
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows the noble return of its subject. There will be no ground for repentance.
- Line 6 · top 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.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 107 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
Return for a decision
A turning point for the better. Go back to what works, restart gently and let momentum rebuild rather than rushing the comeback.
I Ching 24 in love and relationships
Reconciliation, or warmth coming back after a cold spell. Small, steady gestures work better than grand declarations.
Hexagram 24 at work
Recovery after a setback. Rebuild step by step and return to the basics that succeeded before.
The six lines of hexagram 24
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yin yin yin yin yin — what each position means.
One line is yang and five are yin. Four of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 1–4 answers.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Thunder below — arousal and shock — is the private, inner side of hexagram 24.
Earth above — receptive yielding — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Wood below controls Earth above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.
Read as a family
The mother sits above and the eldest son below. A parent over a child, which the tradition reads as guidance, authority or constraint depending on the rest of the figure.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 24
Nuclear hexagram
2 · The Receptive
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Kun (Earth) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Kun (Earth) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
44 · Coming to Meet
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Earth over Thunder becomes Heaven over Wind.
Inverse hexagram
23 · Splitting Apart
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Earth over Thunder becomes Mountain over Earth.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Earth above, Thunder below.
Earth over Thunder: receptive yielding meeting arousal and shock.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 24: Return.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/24/
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