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Hexagram 1 — Fu, Return
Chronological no. 1 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 24 · 復
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the mother
the eldest son
Thunder within the Earth: the image of return. The vital force, buried deep in winter, has not vanished — it waits, invisible, for the moment to rise again. This is the figure of renewal hidden within apparent stillness. Thus the ancient kings, at the solstice, closed the passes; merchants and travelers no longer moved about: there are moments when the greatest act is to hasten nothing, letting the return accomplish itself.
The vital principle returns at the very heart of the deepest night. Nothing is ever truly lost as long as, somewhere, that tiny seed persists which begins again. This line says that the lowest point already contains, in seed, the movement of return — it is precisely in the deepest darkness that light begins to grow once more.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The receptive earth reaches its fullness: the silent welcome that carried the lower figure is about to assert itself.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, emptiness reaches its fullest extent and closes: the furthest opening turns toward its opposite.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
Eight 12×12 Jacquard patterns are generated from this hexagram, one for each admissible family of the system. Each has its own page: cell, tiling, recolourings and data.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
0 — Kun, The Receptive · 2 — Shi, The Army
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☷ Kun): 0 — Kun, The Receptive · 2 — Shi, The Army · 3 — Lin, Approach · 4 — Qian, Modesty · 5 — Ming Yi, Darkening of the Light · 6 — Sheng, Pushing Upward · 7 — Tai, Peace
Same lower trigram (☳ Zhen): 9 — Zhen, The Arousing · 17 — Zhun, Difficulty at the Beginning · 25 — Sui, Following · 33 — Yi, Nourishment · 41 — Shi He, Biting Through · 49 — Yi, Increase · 57 — Wu Wang, Innocence
