夬 → 履
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
九三 壯于頄。有凶。君子夬夬。獨行遇雨。若濡有慍。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: To be powerful in the cheekbones Brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, And people murmur against him. No blame.
Line 6
上六 无號。終有凶。
Six at the top means: No cry. In the end misfortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
飢蠱作害，偏多亂纏，緒不可得。
Hunger and pestilence bring harm; confusion overwhelms on every side. The tangled threads cannot be found.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven gives way to treading carefully beneath it. Hunger breeds vermin that cause harm; complications multiply and twist together until no thread can be found. The verse is terse and bleak — famine invites pestilence, and pestilence breeds disorder so tangled that no clear path through it remains. The gu-worms of starvation eat away at every attempt to sort things out. From Breakthrough to Treading, the decisive break must yield to cautious, step-by-step conduct. Treading means walking on the tiger's tail without being bitten — it demands propriety and care. But here the ground is so corrupted by want and confusion that even careful steps find no purchase. The mess must first be acknowledged before any proper path can be discerned.
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