Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 11: Peace

Treading
Heaven / Lake
Peace
Earth / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).

Line 3

六三 眇能視。跛能履。履虎尾。咥人凶。武人為于大君。

miǎoone-eyed
néngcan
shìto see
lame
néngcan
to walk
treading
tiger
wěitail
diéthe bitten
rénone's
xiōngmisfortune
military
rénone
wéiacts
in the place of
great
jūnsuperior

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.

Line 4

九四 履虎尾。愬愬終吉。

treading
tiger
wěitail
pleading
pleading
zhōngwill end
promise

Nine in the fourth place means: He treads on the tail of the tiger. Caution and circumspection Lead ultimately to good fortune.

Line 5

九五 夬履。貞厲。

guàidetermined
tread
zhēnpersistence
stressful

Nine in the fifth place means: Resolute conduct. Perseverance with awareness of danger.

Line 6

上九 視履考祥。其旋元吉。

shìstudy
footsteps
kǎoexamine
xiángomens
if
xuáncome full circle
yuánsupreme
good fortune

Nine at the top means: Look to your conduct and weigh the favorable signs. When everything is fulfilled, supreme good fortune comes.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramHeaven EarthThe Creative → The Receptive
Lower TrigramLake HeavenThe Joyous → The Creative

Yilin Verse

蠆室蜂戶,螫我手足;不利旅客,為吾害咎。

A scorpion is chamber, a wasp is door; they sting my hands and feet. Ill-suited for the traveler; bringing me harm and blame.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Heaven above the lake, yet every step stings. The dwelling is a scorpion's chamber, the doorway a wasp's nest — venomous creatures sting hands and feet at every turn. The traveler finds no safe lodging; everything encountered inflicts harm, and the journey breeds only suffering. This is Treading at its most hostile: the path itself has become poisonous, and proper conduct alone cannot neutralize so saturated an environment. From Treading to Peace, the transformation is sharply ironic. Heaven and earth commune — the great convergence of cosmic forces — but only after passing through this gauntlet of stinging hazards. The promise of Peace demands endurance through pain, and only the traveler who survives the scorpion's chamber reaches the communion beyond it.

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