履 → 明夷
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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.
Line 6
上九 視履考祥。其旋元吉。
Nine at the top means: Look to your conduct and weigh the favorable signs. When everything is fulfilled, supreme good fortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
築亂不時，使民恨憂；立祉為笑，君危臣騷。
Building recklessly, out of season; the people are filled with resentment and grief. Establishing a monument only to be mocked; the lord is endangered, the ministers agitated.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake, but governance has lost its rhythm. Construction is ordered at the wrong season, conscripting the people when they should be farming, breeding resentment and sorrow. What was meant to bring prosperity becomes a joke; the ruler stands in danger and his ministers are in turmoil. The verse condemns untimely governance — the cardinal sin of the agrarian state, where forced labor outside the farming calendar can cause famine. From Treading to Darkening of the Light, fire sinks into the earth. Brightness is buried: the ruler's misjudgment obscures the very welfare he intended to build, and the people's anger smolders underground like light swallowed by darkness.
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