剝 → 履
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 剝牀以足。蔑貞凶。
Six at the beginning means: The leg of the bed is split. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 2
六二 剝牀以辨。蔑貞凶。
Six in the second place means: The bed is split at the edge. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 3
六三 剝之无咎。
Six in the third place means: He splits with them. No blame.
Line 4
六四 剝牀以膚。凶。
Six in the fourth place means: The bed is split up to the skin. Misfortune.
Line 5
六五 貫魚。以宮人寵。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
Line 6
上九 碩果不食。君子得輿。小人剝廬。
Nine at the top means: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
土與山連，共保歲寒。終無災患，萬世長安。
Earth joins with mountain, together enduring the cold of the year. In the end there is no calamity; ten thousand ages of lasting peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth strips away, yielding to heaven above the lake — Treading, the hexagram of careful conduct upon dangerous ground. Earth and mountain are joined together, preserving through the bitter cold of winter. No disasters arise; ten thousand generations enjoy lasting peace. The image is geological: soil and rock fused into a single enduring mass, impervious to frost. Unlike the crumbling mountain of Splitting Apart, here the bond between earth and mountain holds firm. From Splitting Apart to Treading, the transformation suggests that what survives erosion does so through proper alignment — stepping carefully, distinguishing high from low, maintaining the protocols that keep a tiger's jaws from closing. The peace described is not passive but earned through vigilant, correct conduct across ages.
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