Hexagram 10 line 4: Treading, yang in the fourth place

What changes when line 4 moves

Line 4 of Hexagram 10 is yang, a solid line. When it is cast as old yang (a 9) it flips, and the hexagram becomes Hexagram 61, Inner Truth: Wind over the lake, an empty centre: sincerity so complete that it moves pigs and fishes, and crosses the great water.

Read together, the reading moves from Treading toward Inner Truth. Careful conduct in a delicate situation: treading on the tiger's tail, and not being bitten. Lake below, wind above: wind moving the surface of the water, the influence of the invisible on the visible. The hexagram's shape has two yielding lines at its centre, an emptiness in the middle, which the tradition reads as a heart free of prejudice and open to truth. The primary hexagram describes the situation; the changing line is the point of movement in it; the resulting hexagram is where that movement leads. Both hexagrams belong to the reading, and the changing line is the hinge between them.

Hexagram 10 changing to 61 →

Line 4 in context

Love & relationships

If you must take the dangerous step, take it deliberately and carefully. In love and relationships, Hexagram 10 reads: A delicate situation with someone whose reaction you cannot predict. Tact matters more than truth-telling for its own sake. Be kind, be careful, and do not test the tiger to see if it bites.

Career

If you must take the dangerous step, take it deliberately and carefully. In career, Hexagram 10 reads: You are dealing with a powerful person or a dangerous situation. The reading favours impeccable conduct: polite, correct, unhurried, never presumptuous. Know your place in the order and act from it.

Money

If you must take the dangerous step, take it deliberately and carefully. In money, Hexagram 10 reads: Proceed with care in a situation where a misstep is costly. Read the terms. Do not provoke a stronger party. Modest, correct dealings get through where clever ones get bitten.

A decision

If you must take the dangerous step, take it deliberately and carefully. In decisions, Hexagram 10 reads: Choose the option that lets you move carefully and correctly. If the decision requires you to step on the tiger, do it with full attention and good manners, not bravado.