履 → 乾
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
六三 眇能視。跛能履。履虎尾。咥人凶。武人為于大君。
Six in the third place means: 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
東嚮藩垣，相與笑言；子般執鞭，圉人作患。
Facing east at the wicker fence, laughing and talking together. Young Ban grasps the whip; the stable hand causes trouble.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake — treading carefully upon power's edge. Eastward facing a hedge wall, people exchange laughter and pleasantries, the court seemingly at ease. But young lord Ziban holds a whip, and the groom he once punished nurses a grudge. According to the Zuo Zhuan, Ziban, heir of Duke Zhuang of Lu, flogged a palace groom named Luo for an indiscretion, not knowing that the strongman Qingfu would later weaponize that resentment. The groom assassinated Ziban at the Dang residence. From Treading to the Creative, the verse warns that careless conduct in a hierarchical world invites self-generating catastrophe: one misstep on the tiger's tail, and raw creative force devours the unwary.
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