Lu / Treading [Conduct]
above: Ch'ien The Creative, Heaven
below: Tui The Joyous, Lake
(Li suggests the idea of) one treading on the tail of a tiger
which does not bite him. There will be progress and success.
Overall Meaning
Treading carefully, the symbol of deliberate action
The character giving its name to the hexagram plays an important part also in its symbolism; and this may be the reason why it does not, as the name, occupy the first place in the Thwan. Looking at the figure, we see it is made up of the trigrams Tui, representing a marsh, and Khien, representing the sky. Tui is a yin trigram, and its top line is divided. Below Khien, the great symbol of strength, it may readily suggest the idea of treading on a tiger's tail, which was an old way of suggesting the hazardous. But what suggests the statement that 'the tiger does not bite the treader'? The attribute of Tui is pleased satisfaction. Of course such an attribute could not be predicated of one who was in the fangs of the tiger. The coming scatheless out of such danger further suggests the idea of 'progress and success', in the course which King Wan had in his mind. And according to Appendix VI, that course was 'propriety', the observance of all rules of courtesy. On these, as so many stepping-stones, one may tread safely amid scenes of disorder and peril.