Hexagram 10 for work
Hexagram 10 Stepping for work and career
In work Lü is the hexagram of conduct in the presence of power: serving a formidable boss, taking a role where one wrong step is visible. The judgment says the tiger does not bite — proper behaviour and good grace carry one through — and the Tuan credits that safety to Dui's cheerful compliance toward Qian. The Great Image adds the manager's task: distinguish ranks clearly so that people know where they stand.
The lines are a manual for walking near the tiger. One works plainly and alone, two keeps to a level road and refuses to be unsettled, three overreaches and is bitten, four treads close to the ruler with a caution that gets its aim carried out, five is the decisive leader whose very correctness is a hazard, and six is the final review. A changing line in the lower trigram concerns how you carry yourself as the junior party; in the upper trigram it concerns the exercise of authority, and the top line asks you to audit the whole project before claiming it.
The hexagram in brief
Heaven above the lake: treading on the tiger's tail without being bitten. Correct conduct and courtesy carry one through danger; know your place and walk carefully.
Mind your manners and your footing; proceed respectfully even among the powerful and the risky.
The judgment
履虎尾，不咥人，亨。(Lî suggests the idea of) one treading on the tail of a tiger, which does not bite him. There will be progress and success.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 履 Stepping has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningplain treading · simplicity · going alone
- 九二Nine in the second placelevel road · the recluse · inner calm
- 六三Six in the third placeone-eyed, lame · bitten by the tiger · overreach
- 九四Nine in the fourth placetiger's tail · trembling caution · good end
- 九五Nine in the fifth placeresolute tread · peril in correctness · the ruler
- 上九Nine at the topreview the path · signs examined · great blessing
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 10, Stepping, mean for a career question?
- In work Lü is the hexagram of conduct in the presence of power: serving a formidable boss, taking a role where one wrong step is visible. The judgment says the tiger does not bite — proper behaviour and good grace carry one through — and the Tuan credits that safety to Dui's cheerful compliance toward Qian. The Great Image adds the manager's task: distinguish ranks clearly so that people know where they stand.
- What does Hexagram 10, 履 Stepping, mean?
- Heaven above the lake: treading on the tiger's tail without being bitten. Correct conduct and courtesy carry one through danger; know your place and walk carefully.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).