# Hexagram 10: Treading

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/10
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Qian 乾](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/qian), Heaven, the creative, strong
- **Lower trigram:** [Dui 兌](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/dui), Lake, the joyous, open
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 110111 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Treading: walking carefully in a place where missteps are costly. You are in a delicate position. Grace, tact, and a steady inner calm carry you through where force or protest would turn a manageable situation into disaster.

## Image

Heaven above, the lake below. One walks on the tail of the tiger and is not bitten. The superior person distinguishes between high and low and so establishes the inclinations of the people.

## Counsel

Mind your conduct in small matters. How you speak, how you listen, how you move through this: all of it is being weighed, often by people who will decide what happens next. Do not compromise your integrity to be liked, but do not needlessly antagonize either. Grace is power here.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A nine at the beginning means:
> Simple conduct. Progress without blame.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> Treading a plain, level path.
> The perseverance of a dark person brings good fortune.

### Line 3

> A six in the third place means:
> A one-eyed person can see, a lame person can tread.
> They tread upon the tiger's tail. It bites them.
> Misfortune!
> A warrior acts thus for their great prince.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> They tread upon the tiger's tail.
> Caution and circumspection lead in the end to good fortune.

### Line 5

> A nine in the fifth place means:
> Resolute conduct.
> Perseverance in awareness of danger.

### Line 6

> A nine at the top means:
> Look to your conduct and examine the favorable signs.
> If all is complete, sublime good fortune comes.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [37 The Family](https://thefreeiching.com/library/37)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [9 Small Taming](https://thefreeiching.com/library/9)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [15 Modesty](https://thefreeiching.com/library/15)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [6 Conflict](https://thefreeiching.com/library/6) |
| Line 2 | [25 Innocence](https://thefreeiching.com/library/25) |
| Line 3 | [1 The Creative](https://thefreeiching.com/library/1) |
| Line 4 | [61 Inner Truth](https://thefreeiching.com/library/61) |
| Line 5 | [38 Opposition](https://thefreeiching.com/library/38) |
| Line 6 | [58 The Joyous](https://thefreeiching.com/library/58) |

Previous: [9 Small Taming](https://thefreeiching.com/library/9). Next: [11 Peace](https://thefreeiching.com/library/11). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 10: Treading." https://thefreeiching.com/library/10 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/10). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.