Treading
Upon the Tiger's Tail
You tread on the tiger's tail and it does not bite. Bearing, not strength, is what carries you through.
Treading places the creative heaven of Qian above the joyous lake of Dui, the greatest of the trigrams over the least. The Judgement gives the situation its picture: one treads upon the tail of the tiger, and it does not bite. The weak follows behind the strong and is unharmed, because it goes with good humour and correct conduct rather than with defiance, and the commentarial tradition glosses the name, lu, as li, propriety, so that treading is read as conduct in the sense the rites prescribe. The Image reads the distance between the two trigrams as social order, so that the superior man discriminates between high and low and thereby settles the will of the people.
Light
Signifies correct conduct in a risky position, courtesy, self-possession, a clear sense of one's own station, and safe passage won by manner rather than by strength.
Shadow
Can represent real danger underfoot, rashness or presumption above one's place, propriety kept up only as an appearance, or deference that has slackened into timidity.
