Two yin lines rise from below and yang steps back: a hexagram of timely withdrawal, where the person retreats but the way still goes through.
The upper trigram is Qian ☰, heaven, whose quality is strength; below it is Gen ☶, mountain, whose quality is stopping. Zhu Xi reads the name as retreating and stepping aside. Two yin lines are growing at the bottom, and he links the figure to the sixth month. Yang can no longer hold its ground, so withdrawal becomes a matter of timing: the person steps back, and the way is kept intact.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
遯，亨，小利貞。
Dun: things go through. For the small, it is fitting to stay correct and firm.
Zhu Xi sees two yin lines creeping up from the bottom, the moment when yang should step aside. The fifth line still holds its proper place and has a partner in the second, so it might seem that something could still be done, but the tide below makes withdrawal unavoidable. The success belongs to the noble person who can withdraw: the body retreats, yet the way goes through. 'The small' are the yin lines, petty people, told to keep to what is right instead of pressing on the yang. He compares the situation to the first two lines of Hexagram 12, Pi.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
天下有山，遯。君子以遠小人，不惡而嚴。
Below heaven there is a mountain: Withdrawal. So the noble person keeps petty people at a distance, not out of dislike, but through strictness.
Heaven has no limit, while a mountain, however high, ends somewhere; Zhu Xi sees withdrawal in that gap. The strictness is not aimed at anyone. He calls it the noble person's ordinary way of guarding himself, and petty people simply find they cannot come close.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
遯尾，厲，勿用有攸往。
Withdrawing at the tail. Danger. Do not try to go anywhere.
The first line (初六) is the last in the retreating column, the tail end, and so the most exposed. Zhu Xi's advice is not to set off at all: staying out of view and waiting quietly is how harm is avoided here. When everyone else has already moved, a late, hurried exit can be the riskier choice.
Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading
執之用黃牛之革，莫之勝說。
Held fast with the hide of a yellow ox. No one can work it loose.
The second line (六二) is yin, central and correctly placed. Zhu Xi reads the binding as its own centered, compliant character, the qualities the yellow ox stands for, used to hold itself firm. Nobody can pry that grip open, and he calls it a will fully set on withdrawing. Those who receive the line are told to hold firm in the same way.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
係遯，有疾厲，畜臣妾吉。
Withdrawing while tied. There is affliction and danger. Keeping servants and maids: good fortune.
Sitting right on top of the two yin lines, the third line (九三) is drawn to them, so its withdrawal is held back by ties, which Zhu Xi calls an afflicted and perilous way to go. That closeness suits only one setting, keeping servants and maids, since in those roles, he explains, one need not demand worthiness. The line asks which ties are worth keeping and which only slow the step.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
好遯，君子吉，小人否。
Withdrawing despite fondness. For the noble person, good fortune; for the petty person, not so.
There is a real attachment here: the fourth line (九四) has a partner in the first. But it belongs to Qian, the strong trigram above, and Zhu Xi sees in it the strength to break off that fondness and leave. Only someone who can master himself manages this, which is why the verdict splits: favorable for the noble person, not for the petty one.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
嘉遯，貞吉。
A fine withdrawal. Being correct and firm brings good fortune.
Both partners here are central and correctly placed: the strong fifth line (九五) above, and the yielding second line below. Zhu Xi calls this the most admirable kind of withdrawal, made in good order with nothing forced. The good fortune depends on the same correctness in the one who receives it.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
肥遯，无不利。
Withdrawing at ease. There is nothing that is not favorable.
Standing outside the whole figure, with no partner below to pull it back, the top line (上九) has gone furthest and carries the least. Zhu Xi glosses 'fat' (肥) as roomy and content in oneself, so this is withdrawal as ease rather than flight. With nothing holding it, the text finds nothing unfavorable. Distance freely chosen reads very differently from distance forced.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.