Hexagram 10
Treading
Heaven over Lake
The judgment
履虎尾，不咥人，亨You are walking on the tiger's tail. Courtesy is what keeps the teeth off you, and it stays underfoot.
The image
Heaven above and the lake below, each in its place. Clear footing is what lets the high and the low meet.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初九Line 1
素履，往无咎
At the start, move in your plain, unadorned way without testing the ground, and the path stays open.
Marked in the textno blame
- 九二Line 2
履道坦坦，幽人贞吉
On open ground, choose solitude over the crowd at the edges, and your footing holds.
Marked in the textauspicious
- 六三Line 3
眇能视，跛能履，履虎尾，咥人，凶。武人为于大君
Half-blind but still straining to see, lame but still trying to walk; to step on a tiger's tail this way is to be the one bitten. To serve a ruler with raw brute force is to spend strength in the wrong place.
Marked in the textominous
- 九四Line 4
履虎尾，愬愬终吉
Treading close to the seat of power, each step tense, and that very wariness keeps the footing careful.
Marked in the textauspicious
- 九五Line 5
夬履，贞厉
Deciding alone while holding authority, cutting too cleanly, and no one nearby dares to intervene.
Marked in the textdanger
- 上九Line 6
视履考详，其旋元吉
At the end, turn and check the whole path step by step; once it is clear, wheel around and come back. That turn is not a retreat—it gathers the whole road into the hand.
Marked in the textauspicious
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram