履Lü · Treading
In one sentence
There is risk in this, but if you walk carefully and by the rules, you can get through safely.
It is like walking behind a tiger's tail: danger is right beside you, but as long as you are cautious and know your limits, the tiger does not bite. Go by the rules, keep a low posture, and take each step steadily. Don't show off your strength, and don't think you are more capable than you are.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- There is a tiger beside you. It may be a forceful boss, strict rules, or a task where no mistake is allowed. Be pleasant, keep to the rules, be clear about who stands above and below, and walk steadily one step at a time, and it will not bite you. Show off your strength, overstep your place, or assume you have it in hand, and it becomes dangerous.
- Love
- There are places in this relationship that must not be stepped on, perhaps because the other person has a hard temper, perhaps because the situation is sensitive. Speak and act with measure and courtesy, with a pleasant face, and you can get along safely. Do not test the other person's limits, and do not drop all the rules just because the feeling between you is good.
- Money
- This matter carries risk, but that does not mean it cannot be done; the key is keeping to the rules. Contracts, procedures, the regulations that apply: skip none of them. Do not take back doors, and do not show off by doing what is beyond your ability. Walk carefully, step by step, and you can pass safely even through the dangerous part.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsYou step right behind the tiger's tail, yet the tiger does not bite. Things go through. Follow behind the strong one gently and with great care, and even in a dangerous place you come to no harm.
The Tuan commentary
履，柔履剛也。說而應乎乾，是以履虎尾，不咥人，亨。剛中正，履帝位而不疚，光明也。
Lü: the yielding treads on the firm. Glad, and responding to Qian: therefore "treading on the tiger's tail. It does not bite. Success." Firm, in the center and correct, he treads the place of the supreme ruler without fault: this is brightness.
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
上天下澤，履。君子以辯上下，定民志。
Heaven above, the lake below: Lü (Treading). The noble one distinguishes high from low and settles the people's purpose.
The lines
Nine at the beginning
Text素履，往无咎。Treading in plain simplicity. Going on brings no blame.In plain wordsGo forward in the plain, simple way you always have; going brings no blame. You have not yet been pulled off course by outside things, so stay just like this. More on this line →
Nine in the second place
Text履道坦坦，幽人貞吉。Treading a road level and smooth. For the one in seclusion, staying true brings good fortune.In plain wordsThe road you walk is level and even. A person who lives quietly and alone, not seeking to be known, and keeps to the right course: good fortune. More on this line →
Six in the third place
Text眇能視，跛能履，履虎尾，咥人，凶。武人為于大君。The one-eyed thinks he can see, the lame thinks he can walk. He treads on the tiger's tail and it bites him. Misfortune. A warrior acting as a great ruler.In plain wordsBlind in one eye and still thinking you see clearly, lame in one leg and still thinking you walk steadily, you end up stepping on the tiger's tail and getting bitten. Misfortune. Not enough ability and too much ambition, like a mere soldier who insists on being the great king. More on this line →
Nine in the fourth place
Text履虎尾，愬愬終吉。Treading on the tiger's tail. Fearful and cautious: good fortune in the end.In plain wordsYou have stepped on the tiger's tail, but you stay anxious and careful the whole way, and in the end there is good fortune. More on this line →
Nine in the fifth place
Text夬履，貞厲。Treading with sheer decisiveness. Persisting is dangerous.In plain wordsWhatever it is, you decide and do it at once, without a moment's hesitation. Even if you are right, this is dangerous. More on this line →
Nine at the top
Text視履考祥，其旋元吉。Look back over your steps and examine the signs. If the round is complete, supreme good fortune.In plain wordsLook back at the road you have walked; good and bad both come from there. If you have walked it fully and owe nothing, there is great good fortune. More on this line →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Lü belongs to the first pentad of Major Heat, “Fireflies rise from damp grass” (July 23 to July 27, 2027).