Hexagram 10 as yes or no
Hexagram 10 Stepping as a yes-or-no answer
To a yes-or-no question Lü answers 'yes, if you mind your step.' The judgment is a tiger whose tail is trodden without a bite: the thing you ask about involves someone or something stronger than you, and it can be approached safely provided the approach is correct, courteous and without pretence. The hexagram does not say the tiger is harmless; it says conduct is what keeps you unbitten.
The changing line sets the tone of the yes. One and two are a plain yes — go in your own colours, keep to the level road. Three is the hexagram's only no: you are overestimating your sight or your footing, and this is where the bite happens. Four is yes with trembling — proceed, but close to power and fully aware of it. Five is yes with a built-in warning that your own decisiveness is the risk. Six says not to decide forward at all until you have reviewed the road already travelled; if it holds together, the answer is the best in the hexagram.
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
- Does hexagram 10, Stepping, mean yes or no?
- To a yes-or-no question Lü answers 'yes, if you mind your step.' The judgment is a tiger whose tail is trodden without a bite: the thing you ask about involves someone or something stronger than you, and it can be approached safely provided the approach is correct, courteous and without pretence. The hexagram does not say the tiger is harmless; it says conduct is what keeps you unbitten.
- 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).