EN (English)
䷠
Hexagram 33 of 64
Retreat
遁 · Dùn
Two yin lines rising at the bottom while the strong lines withdraw upward. The hexagram is about strategic retreat, and it insists that the timing and the manner are the whole of it.
retreat
withdrawal
distance
timing
- King Wen number
- 33 of 64
- Above
- ☰ Qián · Heaven
- Below
- ☶ Gèn · Mountain
- Composition
- Heaven over Mountain
- Lines, bottom to top
- Broken · broken · solid · solid · solid · solid
- Chinese
- 遁 · Dùn
The Judgment
Success. In small matters, steadfastness rewards.
Retreat is filed under success, which is the classic's point. Withdrawing at the right moment is a win, not a loss.
The Image
The mountain under heaven: Retreat. So the noble person keeps small people at a distance, not with anger but with reserve.
Distance without hostility. Anger would be a form of engagement, which is exactly what retreat is avoiding.
What it means
Dun has two yin lines at the bottom pushing upward, and the four strong lines above are already moving out. The classic reads it as the hour when conditions turn against you, and its counsel is to go.
What distinguishes the hexagram is its insistence that retreat is a skill with grades. The line texts run from the tail of the retreat, where you are last out and exposed, to a cheerful retreat at the top, where you left early and gladly and nothing was lost. In between are the people who cannot leave because they are bound, and the ones whose withdrawal is snagged on obligations they will not abandon.
The fourth line makes the real distinction. A willing retreat is good fortune for one person and ruin for another, and the difference is not circumstance, it is whether you are capable of letting go on purpose.
The Image adds the manner. Keep the difficult people at a distance without anger, because anger is a form of engagement, and this hexagram is about disengaging. Reserve is the instrument, not hostility.
In a reading
Retreat as an answer says step back. The conditions are turning and the advantage now lies in distance rather than in position.
The counsel is to go early, go voluntarily, and go without a quarrel. If you cannot leave because of an obligation, the third line says honour it and look after the people involved. The hexagram treats a well-timed withdrawal as a success in its own right.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Nine at the top
Cheerful retreat. Nothing that does not further.
Out clean, early, and glad about it. The best possible version of the whole manoeuvre.
-
Nine in the fifth place
Friendly retreat. Steadfastness brings good fortune.
Leaving without a rupture. The ruling line, and the model the hexagram is built around.
-
Nine in the fourth place
Willing retreat. Good fortune for the noble person, ruin for the small person.
The same act, and the difference is whether you can let go voluntarily.
-
Nine in the third place
A retreat that is held up. Nervous strain and danger. Keeping servants and dependants brings good fortune.
Withdrawal snagged on obligations. The classic says look after the people attached to you rather than cutting loose.
-
Six in the second place
Held fast with yellow oxhide. No one can pull him loose.
Bound to the situation by something central and strong. Retreat is not available here.
-
Six at the beginning
At the tail of the retreat. Danger. Do not undertake anything.
Last out, which is the worst place to be. The line's only advice is to stop making it worse.
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