Lü (履): treading on the tiger's tail, three ways

A marsh under heaven: the shape of Lü

The upper trigram of Lü (履) is Qian (乾, heaven) and the lower is Dui (兌, marsh), so it is read as Dui below, Qian above. Line three is the single yin line, drawn broken, and the other five lines are all yang. The Shuo Gua glosses Qian as strength and Dui as delight.

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Lü and its inverse hexagram Qian (謙): a figure with its yin in place three and a figure with its yang in place three are each other's inverse.

One phrase, three endings

"Treading on the tiger's tail" occurs three times in the hexagram: once in the Judgment, once in line 3, and once in line 4. The tail is the same each time, but the second half of the sentence is different.

For the Judgment's "does not bite", the Commentary on the Judgments finds the reason in the trigram virtues: "delighted, and answering Qian", since Dui is delight and answers the Qian above it. For line 3's "bites", the Small Image (小象) gives four characters: "the place is not fitting", a yin line standing in the third place, which belongs to yang. For line 4's "wary and alarmed", the usual reading is an anxious, watchful manner, and the Small Image says "his will is carried out".

Lü means the yielding treads on the firm. Delighted, and answering Qian, so he treads on the tiger's tail and is not bitten: success. Firm, central and upright, he treads the ruler's seat without distress: this is brightness.

The last two phrases come down on the fifth line: firm, central and in the right place, it treads the ruler's seat without feeling guilty, which is why it is called "brightness".

The Great Image: heaven above, marsh below

The Great Image (大象) of Lü reads: heaven above, the marsh below, Lü; the noble person uses it to tell above from below and to settle the people's aims. The first half is the figure: heaven high, marsh low, each in its own place. The second half is the conduct: telling above from below, and settling the aims of the many.

Six lines: six ways of walking

Every line statement of Lü is about walking: what is worn on the feet, what road is taken, how the step is made, and how one looks back afterwards.

First nine: "plain sandals; going on, no blame". Plain means unadorned, and the Small Image says "he walks alone by his own wish". Nine in the second place: "the road he treads is smooth and level; a secluded person, steadfast: good fortune", with the Small Image "within, he does not fall into disorder".

Line 4 is back at the tiger's tail, and this time it is "wary and alarmed, in the end good fortune". Nine in the fifth place: "resolute treading; steadfast, but dangerous", where resolute means decisive. Top nine: "look at the steps he has trodden and read the omen in them; when he turns back, supreme good fortune", and the Small Image says "supreme good fortune at the top: great blessing".

The word "place" appears twice in the Small Image, once as not fitting and once as right: six in the third place is a yin line on a yang place, "the place is not fitting"; nine in the fifth place is a yang line on a yang place, "the place is right and fitting".

The neighbors of Lü: Qian (謙), Xiaoxu and Jiaren

The inverse hexagram of Lü is Qian (謙, modesty), the same sound as the hexagram Qian (乾) but a different character: where Lü has one yin among five yang, it has one yang among five yin, and the odd line again stands in place three. The reversed hexagram is Xiaoxu, the yin line rising to place four when the figure is turned over, so the two read as one shape from opposite ends. The nuclear hexagram is Jiaren, made by taking lines two to five and regrouping them as two new trigrams.

Once things are gathered there is ritual, so it was followed by Lü.

The Xu Gua links Lü to ritual. After Lü comes Tai, and the Xu Gua's way of putting it is that after this stretch is walked, there is peace. The Za Gua gives Lü three characters, "does not stay": it does not stop.