شش خطی 10
قدم‌برداشتن، محقق شدن (لو Lü)

Treading means forward progress. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is heaven , strong, and below is lake , joyous. Yin is rejoicing in yang; with the advance of one yin, the hexagram will change into pure yang. Representing this, it is therefore called treading.

This hexagram symbolizes progression of yang and prevention of danger; it follows on the preceding hexagram accord. In accord, yin follows yang. But if you want yin to follow, it is necessary first to advance yang. When the progression of yang reaches proper balance, yin naturally follows it. This is the appropriate priority of the path of advancing yang.

The true yang in people is inherent and need not be sought from another. When it mixes with acquired conditioning, true feeling is obscured and arbitrary feelings arise; then true yang runs away outside. This is likened to a tiger running off and staying elsewhere as a member of another house; though it is in another house, originally the tiger is one’s own. It is just that people are not willing to call it back.

The way of calling it back is not sought in heaven, or earth, or fire, or water, but only in lake. Lake, as the youngest daughter,2 travels the path of receptive submission in place of mother earth, and is able to revert to yang by the culmination of yin. Its nature is harmonious and joyous. Being harmonious, it can relax; being joyous it can trust. Being relaxed, it can go gradually; trusting, it can endure long. Able to relax and trust, powerful practice unrelenting, it is thereby possible to advance to the stage of indestructible firmness and strength, to again see the original face of heaven, and not be injured by false yin and false yang. This is likened to treading on a tiger’s tail without its biting people, and having a way of development and growth.

A tiger is something that bites people; it is most dangerous to tread on it. If one can tread with harmony and joyfulness, without excessive ferocity, it is like treading on a tiger’s tail. If one is careful, as if treading on a tiger’s tail, looking ahead and behind, striking a balance without obsession or indifference, proceeding gradually in an orderly manner, forestalling danger, aware of perils, carrying out the firing process without error, then the yin can be transmuted into yang, and the yang can be restored to purity. Not only is one not bitten by the tiger—one can even take over the living energy in its killing, and preserve life and being whole. This path of development and achievement without obstruction or hindrance through advancement of yang, treading strongly with harmony and joy, is of great benefit.

Treading means progressive ascent. Above is heaven , below is lake ; the sky covers the lake, the lake looks up to the sky—so above and below have fixed positions, which cannot be mixed up. This is the image of treading.

What superior people see in this is that the metaphysical is called the Tao and the physical is called the vessel; there is a distinction between the greater and lesser, a difference between the noble and the base. The higher is not to be considered lower, and the lower is not to be considered higher; the greater is not to be considered lesser, the lesser is not to be considered greater; the noble is not to be considered base, the base is not to be considered noble. This is whereby to distinguish above and below and settle the will of the people, not allowing transgression through false ideas.

The celestial is the ruler; this is higher, above. The earthly is the citizenry; this is lower, below. When one can distinguish the higher and lower, then right and wrong, sanity and aberration, are clear; not doing anything inappropriate, sustaining the celestial and controlling the earthly, cultivating the real and dissolving the false, thoughts not arising inwardly, external things not entering the mind, myriad things are all empty of absoluteness, and all mundane feelings involved with objects are settled.

In the body of the hexagram, lake is the mundane, representing arbitrary feelings; heaven is the celestial, representing true sense. When the mundane treads under the celestial and the celestial treads on top of the mundane, then arbitrary feelings do not arise and true sense is always present. True sense is unemotional sense; using unemotional sense to control feelings is like a cat catching a mouse, like boiling water being poured on snow—in a short time calamity turns to fortune, the "will of the people" is settled, and there is nothing to thwart the Tao. Then one gradually puts into practice the pure, unadulterated vitality of firm strength in proper balance.

But settling the will of the people is all a matter of being able to distinguish the higher and the lower; the stability attained will be in proportion to the degree to which this distinction is successfully made. If there is any lack of clarity in this distinction, there will be that much instability. Therefore the sages' science of fulfillment of nature in comprehension of life requires thorough investigation of principle as the first step.