Treading on a tiger's tail without being bitten: mild, good-humored conduct passing close to strength. The text links safety to caution and to how one has walked.
Lake ☱, whose quality is joy, lies below heaven ☰, whose quality is strength. Zhu Xi reads lü as stepping forward by treading on something. The mild, pleased lake follows right behind strong heaven, so the hexagram pictures walking on a tiger's tail without harm: even in danger, harmony and care keep one from injury.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
履虎尾，不咥人，亨。
Treading on the tiger's tail. It does not bite. Success.
Lü means moving forward by treading on something. The lake trigram, joyful and mild, follows close behind the strong heaven trigram, and Zhu Xi pictures this as walking right on a tiger's tail without being bitten. Harmony and good humor toward what is strong are what keep one from harm here. He sums it up plainly: whoever can act this way stays unhurt even in a dangerous place. Gentleness, in this picture, is a way of passing safely near power rather than a sign of weakness.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
上天下澤，履。君子以辨上下，定民志。
Heaven above, the lake below: Lü. The noble person, accordingly, distinguishes high and low and settles the aims of the people.
Heaven sits above and the lake lies below, each in its own place. Zhu Xi offers no comment of his own here; he says only that Cheng Yi's commentary covers it fully. The sentence itself draws the lesson: making clear what is above and what is below lets people's aims settle.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading
素履，往无咎。
Walking in one's plain way. Going forward: no blame.
A yang line at the very bottom, at the start of the walk, has not yet been pulled off course by anything around it. Zhu Xi describes it as someone simply following their original way. Going forward like that brings no blame. Nothing has been added to the step yet: no display and no ambition, only the path as it is.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
履道坦坦，幽人貞吉。
The road walked is level and smooth. For the person living apart, correct firmness: good fortune.
Firm and central in a low place, the second line has no partner above, since the fifth is also yang. Zhu Xi sees a level, even road and a person living in seclusion who keeps to what is right alone. For such a person treading this road, he says, correctness brings good fortune. Being free of ties is what keeps the road so clear.
Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading
眇能視，跛能履，履虎尾，咥人，凶。武人為于大君。
One-eyed, yet able to see; lame, yet able to walk. It treads on the tiger's tail and is bitten. Misfortune. A warrior plays the great ruler.
Neither central nor correct, soft yet stubborn in will, the third line is the one-eyed who claims to see and the lame who sets off walking. Treading on the strong trigram like that, Zhu Xi says, it is bound to be hurt, which is why the tiger bites. He also sees a forceful person who gets their way and turns violent, naming Qin Zheng and Xiang Ji, and asks how long that could last.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
履虎尾，愬愬，終吉。
Treading on the tiger's tail, in wary fear. In the end, good fortune.
Like the third line, the fourth is neither central nor correct, and it treads right behind the firm fifth line, on the tiger's tail. The difference, Zhu Xi says, is that it is firm in a soft place, so it can stay cautious and afraid. That caution turns the same exposure toward good fortune in the end. Two lines step on one tail; wariness is what separates the bitten from the safe.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
夬履，貞厲。
Treading with resolve. Even when correct and firm: danger.
Firm, central and correct, the fifth line walks in the ruler's place, and the joyful trigram below answers it with ready agreement. Zhu Xi says that with nothing to question or block it, all it wants gets done, hence the image of decisive steps. That is the hazard: even on a correct course it walks a dangerous road, and he calls the warning deep. Confidence that meets no check carries its own risk.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
視履考祥，其旋元吉。
Look back over the steps taken and examine the signs. If the round is complete, great good fortune.
At the end of the walk, the top line looks back over the whole course and weighs its signs. Zhu Xi says that if it has been carried round without a lapse, the result is great good fortune. He adds that for the inquirer, good or ill is not yet fixed; it rests on how one has walked. The verdict is read off the path itself.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.