Treading
- In Chinese
- 履 lǚ
- Above
- The Creative, heaven
- Below
- The Joyous, lake
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 10 means
Hexagram 10 is about how to walk through a hazardous place. Its picture is a person who steps on the tail of a tiger and is not bitten.
The judgment ends well. In Legge's words “There will be progress and success”.
Legge names the way through the danger, taking it from one of the appendixes of the book. It is “the observance of all the rules of courtesy”.
The figure is heaven above and the lake below. Five of its lines are whole and only the third is broken.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
履履虎尾，不咥人。亨。
TREADING. Treading upon the tail of the tiger. It does not bite the man. Success.
success things flow and come through
The image
上天下澤，《履》。君子以辯上下，定民志。
Heaven above, the lake below: The image of TREADING. Thus the superior man discriminates between high and low, And thereby fortifies the thinking of the people.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment says who is treading on whom. In this hexagram “we have (the symbol of) weakness treading on (that of) strength”.
The same commentary explains why the tiger does not bite. The lower trigram “indicates pleasure and satisfaction, and responds to (the upper) indicating strength”.
Legge explains the tiger itself. Treading on its tail “was an old way of expressing what was hazardous”.
He then says what keeps the walker safe. He calls the rules of courtesy stepping-stones, and writes that on them “one may tread safely amid scenes of disorder and peril”.
The image is the sky above a marsh. From it the commentary draws a rule for the superior man, who “discriminates between high and low, and gives settlement to the aims of the people”. Wilhelm ends the same rule with other words. The superior man “fortifies the thinking of the people”.
The commentary on the judgment closes with the fifth line. It is “strong, in the centre, and in its correct place”, and its subject “falls into no distress or failure”. The commentary adds that “(his) action will be brilliant”.
The six lines
First line
素履往，无咎。
Simple conduct. Progress without blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The first step is a plain one. Wilhelm has “Simple conduct”, and Legge shows a person “treading his accustomed path”. Going forward is without error.
The commentary adds that he goes on his own account, since “singly and exclusively he carries out his (long-cherished) wishes”. Legge finds in the line “the ideas of activity, firmness, and correctness”, and says that “One so characterised will act rightly”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 6, Conflict
Second line
履道坦坦，幽人貞吉。
Treading a smooth, level course. The perseverance of a dark man Brings good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The path here is “level and easy”, and the one who walks it is “a quiet and solitary man”. The text gives him good fortune if he is firm and correct.
The commentary says what keeps him steady. It is that “holding the due mean, he will not allow himself to be thrown into disorder”. Legge reads the middle place of the trigram as “a path cut straight and level along the hill-side, or over difficult ground”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 25, Innocence
Third line
眇能視，跛能履，履虎尾，咥人凶。武人為于大君。
A one-eyed man is able to see, A lame man is able to tread. He treads on the tail of the tiger. The tiger bites the man. Misfortune. Thus does a warrior act on behalf of his great prince.
misfortune it goes badly
This is the only broken line, and the only line with ill fortune. Here the tiger bites. The text shows “a one-eyed man (who thinks he) can see” and “a lame man (who thinks he) can walk well”.
The commentary takes the two figures one by one. Of the one-eyed man it says “he is not fit to see clearly”, and of the lame man that “one cannot walk along with him”.
The commentary says the bite comes “from the place not being the proper one for him”. Legge notes that the line is “neither central nor in an even place, which would be proper to it”. He describes a person with strength of will who “goes forward with the evil results so variously emblemed”.
The line closes with “a (mere) bravo acting the part of a great ruler”. The commentary puts this down to “his aims being (too) violent”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 1, The Creative
Fourth line
履虎尾愬愬，終吉。
He treads on the tail of the tiger. Caution and circumspection Lead ultimately to good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The tail of the tiger returns, and this time the end is good. The person “becomes full of apprehensive caution”, and the commentary says that “his aim takes effect”.
Legge explains the caution by the place. The line stands next to the fifth, “whose subject is in the place of authority”. Its own place is “the place proper to a weak or divided line”, and so its subject “bethinks himself, and goes softly”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 61, Inner Truth
Fifth line
夬履貞厲。
Resolute conduct. Perseverance with awareness of danger.
danger there is danger
The fifth line has “the resolute tread”. Even so the text warns that “Though he be firm and correct, there will be peril”. Wilhelm has “Perseverance with awareness of danger”.
The commentary gives the peril a cause. It is “due to his being in the position that is correct and appropriate to him”.
Legge finds humility under this line. For him “the most excellent thing in 'propriety' is humility”. Its subject is to “bear in mind that the higher he is exalted, the greater may be his fall”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 38, Opposition
Sixth line
視履考祥，其旋，元吉。
Look to your conduct and weigh the favorable signs. When everything is fulfilled, supreme good fortune comes.
supreme good fortune it goes very well, from the root
The top line looks back. It tells us “to look at (the whole course) that is trodden, and examine the presage which that gives”. Three lines speak of good fortune, and only this one calls it great.
The good fortune has a condition, that the course be “complete and without failure”. Legge finds the saying good but “only a truism”, and restates it. In his note “if every step has been right and appropriate, the issue will be very good”. The commentary calls great good fortune in the topmost line “great matter for congratulation”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 58, The Joyous
Hexagram 10 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 10 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, where the tiger does not bite and there is progress and success, and the image, which asks to tell high from low.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 10 mean?
It describes a safe passage through a hazardous place, by way of courtesy. The judgment shows one who treads on the tail of a tiger, “which does not bite him”.
What does hexagram 10 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 10 that is the tiger that does not bite, with progress and success, and the rule to tell high from low.
What does hexagram 10 changing to 1 mean?
It is hexagram 10 with its third line moving. That is the only broken line, where the walker is bitten and the text speaks of “ill fortune”. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 1.
What does hexagram 10 changing to 61 mean?
It is hexagram 10 with its fourth line moving. That line treads on the tail of the tiger with “apprehensive caution”, and it ends in good fortune. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 61.
What does treading on the tail of the tiger mean?
Legge says it “was an old way of expressing what was hazardous”. In the judgment the tiger does not bite, and in the third line it does.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Lî in James Legge. Treading in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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