革 → 履
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
六二 巳日乃革之。征吉无咎。
Six in the second place means: When one's own day comes, one may create revolution. Starting brings good fortune. No blame.
Line 3
九三 征凶貞厲。革言三就。有孚。
Nine in the third place means: Starting brings misfortune. Perseverance brings danger. When talk of revolution has gone the rounds three times, One may commit himself, And men will believe him.
Line 6
上六 君子豹變。小人革面。征凶。居貞吉。
Six at the top means: The superior man changes like a panther. The inferior man molts in the face. Starting brings misfortune. To remain persevering brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
兩目失明，日暮无光。脛足跛步，不可以行，頓於丘傍。
Both eyes lost to blindness; at nightfall, no light remains. With lame legs and halting steps, one cannot walk, and collapses beside the hill.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake yields to heaven above the lake — the path of proper conduct. Yet both eyes have lost their sight, and by dusk no light remains. Legs and feet limp and stumble; one cannot walk, and collapses beside a hillock. Revolution has stripped away the old, but what follows is Treading — the hexagram of walking carefully upon a tiger's tail. Here the walker is doubly incapacitated: blind and lame, unable to see the path or travel it. The transformation from Revolution to Treading reveals the danger of change without capacity: the old structure is gone, but the body that must navigate the new terrain is broken. One falls not from malice but from sheer inability.
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