履 → 大畜
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 26: Great Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
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
兩人俱爭，莫能有定；心乖不同，訟言起凶。
Two men vie with each other; neither can prevail. Hearts divided, they disagree; the lawsuit stirs misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake, two people locked in irreconcilable dispute. Neither party can settle the matter; hearts diverge and refuse to align. Quarrelsome words arise, litigation spirals, and contention brings misfortune to all involved. The verse mirrors 10-4 in theme but darkens the outcome considerably: where that verse showed mere confusion, here the quarrel erupts into active harm, with hostile speech generating its own momentum. From Treading to Great Taming, heaven is stored within the mountain. The transformation suggests that the disputants' ferocious energy, if properly contained and channeled, could become accumulated wisdom — but left uncontained, it merely generates destructive friction that consumes both parties. The mountain must hold heaven; otherwise the pressure explodes outward.
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