乾 → 履
Hexagram 1: The Creative → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
九三 君子終日乾乾。夕惕若厲。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: All day long the superior man is creatively active. At nightfall his mind is still beset with cares. Danger. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
空拳握手，倒地更起。富饒豐衍，快樂無已。
Empty fists grip the hands; falling down, rising again. Rich and plentiful abundance; joy without end.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Empty fists grasp at nothing, yet one falls and rises again. Riches overflow, abundance spreads, joy knows no end. From Creative to Treading, heaven stands above the lake — the strong above, the yielding below, each in its proper place. Treading means stepping carefully, even treading on the tiger's tail without being bitten. The verse enacts this: the empty-handed fall is not ruin but the test that proves resilience. Having passed through humiliation with nothing in hand, one discovers that the path itself confers wealth. The joy is boundless because it was earned through the discipline of walking properly, not through grasping.
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