履
lǚ

10. Treading [Conduct]

䷉
Above
乾 qián
The Creative, Heaven
Below
兌 duì
The Joyous, Lake

The name of the hexa­gram means on the one hand the right way of con­duct­ing one­self. Heav­en, the fa­ther, is above, and the lake, the youngest daugh­ter, is below. This shows the dif­fer­ence be­tween high and low, upon which com­po­sure, cor­rect so­cial con­duct, de­pends. On the other hand, the word for the name of the hexa­gram, TREAD­ING, means lit­er­al­ly tread­ing upon some­thing. The small and cheer­ful treads upon the large and strong. The di­rec­tion of move­ment of the two pri­ma­ry tri­grams is up­ward. The fact that the strong treads on the weak is not men­tioned in the Book of Changes, be­cause it is taken for grant­ed. For the weak to take a stand against the strong is not dan­ger­ous here, be­cause it hap­pens in good humor and with­out pre­sump­tion, so that the strong man is not ir­ri­tat­ed but takes it all in good part.

The Judgement

Treading. Treading upon the tail of the tiger.
It does not bite the man. Success.

The sit­u­a­tion is re­al­ly dif­fi­cult. That which is strongest and that which is weak­est are close to­geth­er. The weak fol­lows be­hind the strong and wor­ries it. The strong, how­ev­er, ac­qui­esces and does not hurt the weak, be­cause the con­tact is in good humor and harm­less.

In terms of a human sit­u­a­tion, one is han­dling wild, in­tractable peo­ple. In such a case one’s pur­pose will be achieved if one be­haves with deco­rum. Pleas­ant man­ners suc­ceed even with ir­ri­ta­ble peo­ple.

The Image

Heaven above, the lake below:
The image of treading.
Thus the superior man discriminates between high and low,
And thereby fortifies the thinking of the people.

Heav­en and the lake show a dif­fer­ence of el­e­va­tion that in­heres in the na­tures of the two, hence no envy aris­es. Among mankind also there are nec­es­sar­i­ly dif­fer­ences of el­e­va­tion; it is im­pos­si­ble to bring about uni­ver­sal equal­i­ty. But it is im­por­tant that dif­fer­ences in so­cial rank should not be ar­bi­trary and un­just, for if this oc­curs, envy and class strug­gle are the in­evitable con­se­quences. If, on the other hand, ex­ter­nal dif­fer­ences in rank cor­re­spond with dif­fer­ences in inner worth, and if inner worth forms the cri­te­ri­on of ex­ter­nal rank, peo­ple ac­qui­esce and order reigns in so­ci­ety.

The Lines

Nine at the beginning means:
Simple conduct. Progress without blame.

The sit­u­a­tion is one in which we are still not bound by any oblig­a­tions of so­cial in­ter­course. If our con­duct is sim­ple, we re­main free of them. We can qui­et­ly fol­low our predilec­tions as long as we are con­tent and make no de­mands on peo­ple.

The mean­ing of the hexa­gram is not stand­still but progress. A man finds him­self in an al­to­geth­er in­fe­ri­or po­si­tion at the start. How­ev­er, he has the inner strength that guar­an­tees progress. If he can be con­tent with sim­plic­i­ty, he can make progress with­out blame. When a man is dis­sat­is­fied with mod­est cir­cum­stances, he is rest­less and am­bi­tious and tries to ad­vance, not for the sake of ac­com­plish­ing any­thing worth while, but mere­ly in order to es­cape from low­li­ness and pover­ty by dint of his con­duct. Once his pur­pose is achieved, he is cer­tain to be­come ar­ro­gant and lux­u­ry-lov­ing. There­fore blame at­tach­es to his progress. On the other hand, a man who is good at his work is con­tent to be­have sim­ply. He wish­es to make progress in order to ac­com­plish some­thing. When he at­tains his goal, he does some­thing worth while, and all is well.

Nine in the second place means:
Treading a smooth, level course.
The perseverance of a dark man
Brings good fortune.

The sit­u­a­tion of a lone­ly sage is in­di­cat­ed here. He re­mains with­drawn from the bus­tle of life, seeks noth­ing, asks noth­ing of any­one, and is not daz­zled by en­tic­ing goals. He is true to him­self and trav­els through life unas­sailed, on a level road. Since he is con­tent and does not chal­lenge fate, he re­mains free of en­tan­gle­ments.

Six in the third place means:
A one-eyed man is able to see,
A lame man is able to tread.
He treads on the tail of the tiger.
The tiger bites the man.
Misfortune.
Thus does a warrior act on behalf of his great prince.

A one-eyed man can in­deed see, but not enough for clear vi­sion. A lame man can in­deed tread, but not enough to make progress. If in spite of such de­fects a man con­sid­ers him­self strong and con­se­quent­ly ex­pos­es him­self to dan­ger, he is invit­ing dis­as­ter, for he is un­der­tak­ing some­thing be­yond his strength. This reck­less way of plung­ing ahead, re­gard­less of the ad­e­qua­cy of one’s pow­ers, can be jus­ti­fied only in the case of a war­rior bat­tling for his prince.

Nine in the fourth place means:
He treads on the tail of the tiger.
Caution and circumspection
Lead ultimately to good fortune.

This text refers to a dan­ger­ous en­ter­prise. The inner power to carry it through is there, but this inner power is com­bined with hes­i­tat­ing cau­tion in one’s ex­ter­nal at­ti­tude. This line con­trasts with the pre­ced­ing line, which is weak with­in but out­ward­ly press­es for­ward. Here one is sure of ul­ti­mate suc­cess, which con­sists in achiev­ing one’s pur­pose, that is, in over­com­ing dan­ger by going for­ward.

Nine in the fifth place means:
Resolute conduct.
Perseverance with awareness of danger.

This refers to the ruler of the hexa­gram as a whole. One sees that one has to be res­olute in con­duct. But at the same time one must re­main con­scious of the dan­ger con­nect­ed with such res­olute­ness, es­pe­cial­ly if it is to be per­se­vered in. Only aware­ness of the dan­ger makes suc­cess pos­si­ble.

Nine at the top means:
Look to your conduct and weigh the favorable signs.
When everything is fulfilled, supreme good fortune comes.

The work is ended. If we want to know whether good for­tune will fol­low, we must look back upon our con­duct and its con­se­quences. If the ef­fects are good, then good for­tune is cer­tain. No one knows him­self. It is only by the con­se­quences of his ac­tions, by the fruit of his labors, that a man can judge what he is to ex­pect.