I Ching Hexagram 10
Hexagram 10: Lu (履)
Composed of 兑 (Dui) below and 乾 (Qian) above · treading · correct-conduct · caution · manners
The Judgment
履虎尾，不咥人，亨。
Lu, Treading: you have your foot on the tiger's tail and it does not bite. It works. The whole judgment is about walking correctly in a situation that would punish almost any other footing - the danger is real and the conduct is what makes it survivable.
Translation notes
- 履: Wilhelm renders "treading / to tread" — 履 is also a shoe, and the glosses note the pun deliberately. The point is not only caution but correctness of fit - you are on ground that is not yours, moving with an attention to each step. Caution that is precise beats caution that is nervous.
- 咥: Wilhelm renders "to bite" — 咥 is a sound-text compound - it is the word for biting and the noise of biting. The judgment's choice of a word rather than a statement of fact is deliberate: the non-biting is something happening moment to moment, not a settled guarantee.
The judgment above quotes the classical Chinese of the Zhou Yi (public domain); the English gloss and modern reading are our own. Compare with James Legge's The I Ching (Sacred Books of the East, Vol 16) , 1882 (public domain).
Quick Answers
Is hexagram 10 (Lu) good or bad?
Good. The judgment is the shortest affirmation in the book and the conditions are clear: you step on the tiger's tail and it does not bite, so the way opens. What makes it a good reading rather than a safe one is that the danger is stated up front - the situation is genuinely hazardous and the answer is not to avoid it but to do it correctly. The whole hexagram is a defence of conduct over luck. Six-three is the failure it exists to prevent, and the top line makes reviewing your own behaviour part of the practice.
What does hexagram 10 (Lu) mean in love?
It means the relationship is bigger than your comfort and you should treat it accordingly. Whether the imbalance is age, money, family, or history, Lu says you can stay in it and be fine as long as you are precise about how you behave - no performing strength you do not have, no being so certain you are right that you stop listening. For someone single, it is a good sign for approaching someone formidable if you do it carefully. For someone partnered, it is a description of a real constraint in the relationship, and the instruction from the top line is to look honestly at your own conduct in it.
What happens when line 3 of hexagram 10 (Lu) changes?
Line 3 is 六三, 眇能视跛能履履虎尾咥人凶 - half-capable and pretending otherwise, treading the tiger's tail, and being bitten. Flipping that single yin line to yang turns Lu into Hexagram 1 (Qian). The direction is the corrective: the enforced caution gives way to genuine capability. In practice this line shows a period of pretending you can do something you cannot - a role, a workload, a level of commitment - ending with an obvious, public failure, after which the actual competence has to be built from the ground up rather than borrowed from confidence.
The Six Lines
Read your line of interest below. Lines are read from the bottom (line 1) to the top (line 6). A changing line means the hexagram is transforming — see the related hexagrams at the bottom.
初九
素履，往无咎。You tread in plain shoes, following your own simple way. To go forward, no fault. Change this and you get Hexagram 6 (Song, Conflict).
The lowest line and the safest one: no rank, no audience, no reputation at stake, so conduct is simple and mistakes cost little. 素 means undyed, undecorated. If this line is changing, the plain approach stops being enough and something more assertive - possibly a dispute - comes into it.
九二
履道坦坦，幽人贞吉。You tread a broad, level road. The person who keeps to their own darkness holds correct and is fortunate. Change this and you get Hexagram 25 (Wu Wang, Innocence).
The road itself is open and flat, so the difficulty is not external. 幽人 is the one who stays out of sight and has no interest in the spotlight, and the line honors that. This is the case where the correct move is to keep your head down and keep walking rather than to be noticed.
六三
眇能视，跛能履，履虎尾，咥人，凶。武人于大君。One-eyed and yet sees; lame and yet walks. He treads the tiger's tail and it bites him. Bad fortune. A warrior would force himself on the great lord. Change this and you get Hexagram 1 (Qian).
The warning line. Functioning at half capacity while pretending to full capacity, exactly where the stakes are highest. The text has no patience for it - the tiger bites. The closing phrase is the diagnosis: forcing your way past a limit you cannot see. In modern terms, pushing a role you are not actually equipped for and calling it initiative.
九四
履虎尾，愬愬，终吉。He treads the tiger's tail, and is frightened, fearful - and in the end, good fortune. Change this and you get Hexagram 61 (Zhong Fu, Inner Truth).
The same position as the previous line, opposite result: the tiger's tail again, but this time properly frightened. 愬愬 is the honest internal response - the heart hammering. The line says caution that comes from real awareness is the thing that keeps you safe, and the fear is not the problem to eliminate, it is the signal that makes the care real.
九五
夬履，贞厉。You tread with resolution and decisiveness. Hold to it, but it is dangerous. Change this and you get Hexagram 38 (Kui, Opposition).
At the best position, the temptation is to be firm - and the line immediately adds 厉, danger. Decisiveness held correctly is fine, but asserted from this height it starts to look like domination. The balance point is a firm, clear manner that does not need anyone to be diminished.
上九
视履考祥，其旋元吉。Look back over the course you have walked and examine its signs. Turning back, supreme good fortune. Change this and you get Hexagram 58 (Dui, the Joyous).
The hexagram ends by reviewing rather than continuing. 考祥 means examining the evidence of how the walk has gone, line by line, including the parts you would rather not look at. This line rewards a deliberate review of your own conduct, and it says reversing or correcting course is the fortunate move rather than a failure.
Hexagram 10 in Love, Career & Decisions
Love & Relationships
Lu in love is about how you behave in a relationship that is more powerful than either person - a real difference in power, history, family expectation, or status. It is favorable to this, provided your conduct is deliberate and you are not performing a capacity you do not have. Single, it points to approaching someone or something intimidating with care and accuracy rather than force, and to the fact that the asymmetry itself is not the problem. Partnered, it names the two failure modes directly: 六三, pushing past a limit you cannot see because you want it to work; and 九五, being so certain of your position that firmness becomes domination. The top line's instruction is to review how you have actually been behaving.
Review your last three arguments and change the one thing you keep doing in them.
Career & Work
Lu is the hexagram for operating inside a structure that is bigger than you - a large company, a hierarchy, a regulated industry - and it is favorable to doing that well. The practical translation is care over force: know the rules precisely, do the thing properly rather than impressively, and let competence rather than confidence carry you. 九五 is the caution that matters most at seniority, where firmness starts to be experienced as hindrance. And the top line makes reviewing your own conduct a deliberate, scheduled practice rather than something that happens after a bad result.
Study the unwritten rules of your organization and adjust your behavior to what they actually require.
Making a Decision
Conditional, leaning yes. Yes, if you are entering a situation that frightens you and you can do it correctly - the judgment puts you on the tiger's tail and says you will not be bitten. No, if your reason for going is that you have already committed and do not want to be seen to flinch, which is the 六三 pattern of half-capability pushed forward as bravado. The check the hexagram gives you is internal: is the fear here the honest kind described at 九四, or is it the absence of fear that should worry you? Watch how you are behaving in the smallest version of the decision you are about to make at scale.
Ask whether your hesitation is prudent caution or avoidance, and proceed only if it is caution.
Health & Wellbeing
Lu reads as living carefully inside a real constraint - a chronic condition, a physical limitation, a schedule that does not bend - and the reading is encouraging in a specific way: careful conduct inside a genuine risk is the technique that works. Nothing here suggests pushing through, and 六三 is the clearest warning in the book against functioning at half capacity and calling it fine. The emphasis is on precision - exact pacing, real rest, adaptation to the limit instead of denial of it. For entertainment and reflection only, not medical advice. Any symptom, diagnosis, or treatment question belongs with a qualified clinician, and this reading has no bearing on that.
Adjust the plan to the limit instead of pushing against it, and pace the day around what your body actually allows.
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