Lost Something? Don’t Rush to Chase It – Hexagram After Completion’s Six in the Second Place: Some Things Come Back on Their Own

Have you ever lost something? You can’t find your phone, you have no clue where you put your keys, or a really important person suddenly goes out of reach. You’re so anxious that you rummage through everything, make calls left and right, and post on Moments to ask for help.

What happens in the end? Either the thing turns up on its own after a couple of days, or the harder you look for it, the more it stays hidden — only to pop up when you stop searching.

The Six in the Second Place of the After Completion hexagram saw right through this long ago.

The Line Text says:

「妇丧其茀，勿逐，七日得。」

"Fu" refers to a woman, and "fu" (the curtain) is the curtain on a carriage — in ancient times, noble women rode in carriages with curtains to shield them from view. "Sang qi fu" means the curtain is lost. "Wu zhu" — do not chase after it. "Qi ri de" — it will be recovered in seven days.

Wen Laoshi says these six characters convey a profound life truth: some things that seem lost are not truly gone — they have just temporarily slipped out of your sight. If you rush to chase them, you won’t catch them. If you stay steady and hold your ground, they will come back on their own.

1. The Position of the Six in the Second Place

The Six in the Second Place sits in the middle of the lower trigram of the After Completion hexagram. As a Yin Line in a yin position, it is both in proper position and in the central position — its place is perfectly correct. Within the overall framework of After Completion, where "matters are already accomplished," it plays the role of preserving what has been achieved.

Why doesn’t the Six in the Second Place chase after what it has lost? Because it knows its position is correct and its foundation is solid — what is lost will not truly be gone. If your foundation is firm, what belongs to you won’t wander far.

Conversely — if your foundation is shaky and your position is off, what is lost is gone for good, and chasing it won’t bring it back. So the premise of "do not chase" is: you yourself must stand on solid, correct ground.

2. "Do Not Chase, Recovered in Seven Days" in Finding Missing People

Say a friend or business partner suddenly stops contacting you. They don’t reply to your WeChat messages, don’t answer your calls, and the plans you made go silent. You panic — did I offend them? Did something happen to them? Do they not want to work with me anymore?

The Six in the Second Place says: don’t chase them just yet.

"Do not chase" doesn’t mean you don’t care — it means chasing them right now won’t help. The more you pursue them, the more they’ll withdraw; the more anxious you are, the more annoyed they’ll feel. Give them some time and space — seven days. Seven days is not a fixed number; it refers to a "cycle."

Wen Laoshi says most "lost contact" situations in relationships are not permanent breakoffs — the other person just needs some time to handle their own affairs. It could be work pressure, family issues, or just a bad mood that makes them not want to talk. If you press too hard, you’ll only make them feel stressed.

If you don’t chase them, they’ll naturally come back to you once they’ve sorted things out. That’s the real meaning of "recovered in seven days" — it’s not about sitting around waiting for a windfall, but about leaving the other person an opening to come back.

3. The Logic Behind "Recovered in Seven Days"

Why "seven days"?

The ancients used "seven" to represent a complete cycle — seven days make a week, and seven days mark a return. It means things have a natural cycle of turning around. You don’t need to force them to speed up — rushing things will only cause problems.

Wen Laoshi says the biggest problem with modern people is that they "can’t wait seven days." They have to find a lost item the same day, press for a reply half an hour after a message goes unanswered, and switch direction if there’s no result in three days.

What’s the rush? What belongs to you is still on your path, as long as you haven’t lost your foundation or strayed from your proper position. What you need to do right now is not chase — but steady yourself.

4. When to Chase, and When Not To

"Do not chase" does not apply to every situation. You need to judge:

First, is what you lost an "external possession" or a "foundation thing"? A lost curtain is an external possession — your carriage is still there, your position is still there, your status is still there. But if you’ve lost something foundational — like your reputation has collapsed, or your abilities have declined — then you must chase it, and fast.

Second, can you actually catch it? If the direction of the chase is clear and the cost is manageable — then go after it. If the direction is unclear and the price is too high — you’re better off staying steady.

Third, are you "in the correct position"? The reason the Six in the Second Place can "not chase" is that its position is correct and its foundation is solid. If you yourself are acting out of line, yet you expect things to come back on their own — that’s not composure, that’s self-deception.

Wen Laoshi says the Six in the Second Place of After Completion teaches a kind of "sure-footedness" — you know what belongs to you won’t run away, so you don’t panic. When you don’t panic, your rhythm won’t fall apart. When your rhythm holds, things remain within your control.

Put simply, people with real confidence don’t chase — not because they don’t care, but because they know what can’t be lost.