I Ching Fu Meaning: Hexagram 24 Explained

Draw Fu 復 and in class someone often exhales at once: the turn has come, I can charge.

That is only half right. Fu is indeed a turn. It is one yang just back under the earth, not already summer. The force is tender. The most right practice then is getting back on the correct path at once. The most wrong is treating a tender sprout as a forest, opening three battlefields at once.

Earth over Thunder: thunder in the earth, yang coming back

Fu is Earth over Thunder, Return. Upper Kun 坤, earth; lower Zhen 震, thunder. Thunder in the earth. One yang at the first line, five yins above. That bit of warmth in winter soil: this hexagram.

Do not reverse above and below. Some people read Fu as Mountain over Earth, Bo 剝. Bo is mountain on earth, five yins peeling up, only that one yang on top left. Fu is after peeling is finished, yang growing again from below. One is dropping; one is returning. Misread the image and you will charge when you should hold, and when you should return still think you are dropping.

The Xugua says: 「物不可以終盡，剝窮上反下，故受之以復。」 Things cannot peel to nothing. Peel to the end, yang falls from above, returns below: that is Fu. So Fu is not empty good luck. It is the bit still left after peeling. If you did not leave a ripe fruit before, the yang here will be very empty.

The judgment is wide: 「復，亨。出入無疾，朋來無咎。反復其道，七日來復。利有攸往。」 It opens. Going out and in without illness; friends come, no blame. Return again and again on its path; in seven days it returns. Beneficial to go forth. Bo is not beneficial to go forth; Fu is beneficial to go forth. One word, “not,” different, and the sequence flips. But “going” is walking on the correct path, not walking on desire. Going out and in without illness: this coming and going does not hurt much. Friends come, no blame: the right people will come back. Return again and again on its path: the road has to walk back that original correct one, not open a more stimulating one.

The Tuan says Fu opening is 「剛反」, the firm returning. 「動而以順行」: Zhen below is movement, Kun above following; move but walk along. Seven days to return: Heaven’s motion. Does Fu see the heart of Heaven and Earth? Heaven and Earth’s heart is this bit of yang that will not let life be cut clean.

The Xiang says: 「雷在地中，復。先王以至日閉關，商旅不行，后不省方。」 Thunder in the earth, Fu. The former kings, on the solstice, closed the pass; merchants did not travel; the ruler did not inspect the regions. One yang too tender: take it out to blow and it will go out. Draw Fu and feast every day, announce great plans every day: blowing the yang just back, back again.

Career and wealth: “return to the correct,” not “charge wildly”

Ask about career and draw Fu: overall you can move, but the first move is returning to the proper matter. Contacting a stopped client again, picking up interrupted homework, changing a wrong process back: all Fu. A new brand, new market, new leverage: often still early. Beneficial to go forth: going is the correct road, not the fresh.

The most expensive tuition then is “I waited for this yang a long time; I will take it all back at once.” Yang has just returned; you want half a year’s loss back at once: making Fu into a new Bo. Plans can be written, people seen; the step should be small. First make the proper work familiar; first let the right people come back. Friends come, no blame: wait for the right people, not flipping the whole contact list.

For wealth, Fu is like qi in the earth again; income will start to loosen, but it is not a harvest year. Good for clearing old accounts, collecting what should be collected, warming small business that can still be done. Large expansion, staking principal at once into a new project: does not fit the hexagram. Seven days to return: the point is a cycle, not doubling tomorrow. Give it a coming-and-going of time. Do not dig it up every day to see if it has grown.

Fu’s six lines differ a long way in luck. The initial nine is best; the upper six most unlucky. In the middle there is resting return, frequent return, returning alone: attitude different, result different. Draw Fu and you must look at which line. Lost a moment and come back, and lost to the end and still not returning: a whole plate of luck apart.

Love: you can turn back, but it has to be truly back

Ask about love and draw Fu: common is an old person, old words, an old road. Contact after a breakup, speaking again after a cold war, first taking your own temper back: all Fu. Not fated reunion. In this stretch, “returning to correct treatment” is more useful than opening a new game.

If you are already together, Fu reminds: harm can stop; ritual can be picked up. Not-far return is best: words said heavy, taken back the same day — more useful than dragging three months then writing a long letter. Frequent return is also possible: changed and offend again, offend and change again — dangerous, but no blame. What you most fear is lost return: knowing it is wrong, still walking the crooked road, saying you are waiting for fate.

If you are single and draw Fu, an old person may appear. First ask whether this return is the correct path, or an addiction. The correct path is changing what was wrong then, then meeting. Addiction is lonely, so you dial. The judgment says return again and again on its path; the word path cannot be dropped. Using more new dates to flee old unfinished business is not Fu. It is starting another round of recklessness.

Workplace people and Fu: good for connecting a broken relationship — apologizing, returning a favor, talking a cooled cooperation again. No need for a great banquet, no need to publicly praise yourself for turning back. Yang is under the earth; the move should be small, the heart correct. People come, no blame. People have not come and you first issue a victory report: like opening the city gate at the winter solstice.

Not-far return is best; lost return is most unlucky

In class I teach Fu as “will you turn back.” The turn has just come; people most easily do two things: not take it as a thing, or celebrate too far. The lines wrote both ends.

Initial nine: 不遠復，無祇悔，元吉. Walked not far and come back. 祇 is great; no great regret, regret is not large. Draw this line: almost Fu’s cleanest luck. Error just starting, change at once. At work, a plan leans and you pull it back; in love, words heavy and you take them back. Do not wait for something to happen then return.

Six in the second: 休復，吉. Rest is beauty, resting because of a person. Yourself yielding, able to rely on yang like the initial nine coming back. Draw this line: luck is in “walking back the correct path with the right person.” Find the person still working, still holding correct. Do not invent a direction yourself in the dark.

Six in the third: 頻復，厲無咎. Frequent is again and again. Changed and offend again, offend and change again. Dangerous, tiring. No blame, because they still always know to return. Draw this line: do not think yourself motivational. Write down that point of repeating; offend one time less: then it is called return, not walking in place.

Six in the fourth: 中行獨復. Walking in the middle of the troop, yet returning yourself. Around still yin; only they walk toward yang. Draw this line: often the team has not woken, the family has not changed; you change first. You will be alone. Returning alone is not loftiness. The place is there; you cannot not return.

Upper six: 迷復，凶，有災眚. Lost and still not returning. Fu walked to the top and still lost: yang already used up, unluck is true unluck. Disaster from Heaven, fault you brought. Use it to move the army, and in the end a great defeat: going out, laying cards down, campaigning now will fail thoroughly, hard to turn in ten years. Draw the upper six: stop at once. Do not prove more, chase more, gamble a last round. Lost return and peeling the hut are relatives: both strangling the chance to come back yourself.

So when people say “I drew Fu, there is a turn,” ask again: are you not-far return, or lost return? The turn is there; the person does not return, and the turn is not yours.

In class I have students do three steps for Fu

First step, say the correct path you will return to. Return to what, exactly? To the proper work, a schedule, that person, not lying. If the name is unclear, Fu will return into another pit.

Second step, immediately do one small turning-back action. The call today, the impulsive sum deleted today, the desk put back today. Fu is Zhen, movement. Only returning in the heart, and yang is still buried.

Third step, close the pass to raise that one yang. Not becoming a hermit. In seven days, one cycle: fewer feasts, fewer announcements, less taking a tender result to swap for applause. Merchants do not travel; the ruler does not inspect. Let friends come themselves.

Bo and Fu have to be read together. Just out of Bo, first read I Ching Bo Meaning | Hexagram 23 How to Read: Splitting Apart, How to Hold the Last Fruit. Fu’s next hexagram is Wu Wang 無妄; after returning, do not act recklessly: I Ching Wu Wang Meaning | Hexagram 25 How to Read: Innocence, Do Not Act Recklessly. The lower trigram is Zhen; how that move fears, how you hold it: compare I Ching Zhen Meaning | Hexagram 51 How to Read. Zhen is thunder hitting outside; Fu is thunder in the earth just waking. One startles; one returns.

I Ching Fu FAQ

Seven days to return: will it get better in exactly seven days?

Not seven on a calendar. Seven is a cycle, the coming and going of yang from peeled-out to back. Some people see effect in a week; some in a solar term. The point is letting it walk through. Do not dig it up every day to measure. Hear “seven days” as a countdown, and on the sixth day you celebrate early, and spend the yang again.

I drew Fu. Can I resign, get back together, invest?

You can go, but go correctly. Resigning and Fu: first return to what you truly want to do, not flee. Getting back together and Fu: first change the error, then open the mouth. Investing and Fu: first fill the old hole, then talk of the new. Beneficial to go forth is not beneficial to charge forth.

Is frequent return hopeless?

There is hope, so it says no blame. Hopeless is lost return. People of frequent return are tired, people around them tired, but they still recognize the road. Offending the same error one time less is more useful than a poisonous oath. Draw this line: take away the trigger of “again,” more real than attacking yourself.

Original Bo, changing Fu, or original Fu, changing Wu Wang: how do I read it?

Bo changing to Fu: dropped complete, starting to return; still leave the ripe fruit. Fu changing to Wu Wang: come back; the next step becomes “do not move recklessly.” The direction is right; you still have to pass this hexagram’s time. Weather reports warmth; the sprout in the earth still cannot be taken out to sun.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.