履 → 震
Hexagram 10: Treading → Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 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 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
本根不固，花葉落去；更為孤嫗，不得相親。
The root is not firmly set; flowers and leaves fall away. Becoming a lonely old woman; unable to draw close to kin.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the lake, but the roots are insecure. Without a firm foundation, flowers and leaves fall away, and one becomes a solitary old woman with no kin to draw near. The tree without roots is a devastating metaphor for social isolation: beauty and vitality depart when the base is hollow, leaving only abandonment. From Treading to the Arousing, doubled thunder shakes the earth. The rootless tree cannot withstand the shock — where deep roots would absorb and channel the tremor, the uprooted simply topple. The verse warns that conduct without grounding leads to total exposure when the world shakes. Only what is deeply rooted survives the thunder.
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