履 → 困
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 6).
Line 1
初九 素履往。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Simple conduct. Progress without blame.
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
日出溫谷，臨照萬國；高明淑仁，虞夏配德。
The sun rises from the warm valley, shining upon the myriad lands. Lofty, bright, virtuous, and humane; Yu and Xia are matched in merit.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake, and the sun rises from the Valley of Warmth to illuminate ten thousand states. Its radiance is lofty, brilliant, gentle, and humane — qualities matching the virtue of the legendary Yu and Xia dynasties. The sun emerging from its eastern cradle is a cosmic image of benevolent sovereignty: light that excludes no one. The pairing with Yu and Xia invokes the golden age of sage-kings whose moral radiance matched the sun's physical warmth. From Treading to Oppression, the lake drains dry above water — a shocking reversal. The verse holds up the sunlit ideal precisely because what follows is its absence. Even memory of such radiance sustains hope in dark times.
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