履 → 賁
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 22: Grace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5).
Line 2
九二 履道坦坦。幽人貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: Treading a smooth, level course. The perseverance of a dark man Brings good fortune.
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.
Line 4
九四 履虎尾。愬愬終吉。
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。
Nine in the fifth place means: Resolute conduct. Perseverance with awareness of danger.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
上山求魚，入水捕狸；市非其歸，自令久留。
Climbing the mountain to seek fish; entering the water to catch a wildcat. The market is not the right destination; one makes oneself linger too long.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake, but the seeker looks in all the wrong places. Climbing a mountain to catch fish, diving into water to hunt a fox — every method is inverted, every effort futile. The marketplace is not where one belongs, yet one lingers there pointlessly. This echoes Mencius's famous metaphor of 'climbing a tree to seek fish' (緣木求魚): a fundamental mismatch between means and ends. From Treading to Grace, fire glows beneath the mountain — beauty adorns substance. The verse warns that misapplied effort produces neither utility nor beauty. Only when action aligns with its proper domain can form and function harmonize.
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