Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm

Treading
Heaven / Lake
Enthusiasm
Thunder / Earth
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5, 6).

Line 1

初九 素履往。无咎。

simple
treading
wǎngforward
nothing
jiùwrong

Nine at the beginning means: Simple conduct. Progress without blame.

Line 2

九二 履道坦坦。幽人貞吉。

tread
dàoway
tǎnlevel
tǎnsmooth
yōuobscure
rénone's
zhēnpersistence
promising

Nine in the second place means: Treading a smooth, level course. The perseverance of a dark man Brings 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 ThunderThe Creative → The Arousing
Lower TrigramLake EarthThe Joyous → The Receptive

Yilin Verse

封豕溝瀆,水潦空谷;客止舍宿,泥塗至腹。處無黍稷。

The great boar roots in the ditch; floodwater fills the hollow valley. The traveler halts to lodge for the night; mud rises to his belly. There is no millet or grain.

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

Commentary

Heaven above the lake, yet the traveler sinks into a flooded wasteland. A monstrous boar wallows in the ditches, rainwater fills the empty valleys, and the traveler must halt for the night with mud reaching his belly. There is no millet or grain to eat. The image is desolation compounded: swine roaming through waterlogged ruins, the land producing nothing, the body mired halfway to drowning. From Treading to Enthusiasm, thunder breaks from the earth — but here the promise of joyful arousal rings hollow against the verse's misery. The transformation suggests that only a radical eruption of energy, a thunderclap of renewal, can break this paralysis of mud and hunger.

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