The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 48

What does I Ching hexagram 48, The Well, mean?

The judgment

井：改邑不改井，无喪无得，往來井井。汔至亦未繘井。羸其瓶，凶。The well: the town may change, the well does not. Nothing lost, nothing gained. People come and go and draw from it. The rope almost reaches the water and the jar breaks: that goes badly.Zhou Yi 周易, 井, judgment. Source

The image

木上有水，井；君子以勞民勸相。Water above wood. The noble person encourages people to work and to help one another.Zhou Yi 周易, 井, image. Source

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. In a cast, only the lines that move are read, and they turn the hexagram into another one. Here they are in the original; a reading translates the moving lines and reads them for the question asked.

1. First line初六：井泥不食，舊井无禽。
2. Second line九二：井谷射鮒，瓮敝漏。
3. Third line九三：井渫不食，為我心惻，可用汲，王明，並受其福。
4. Fourth line六四：井甃，无咎。
5. Fifth line九五：井冽，寒泉食。
6. Top line上六：井收勿幕，有孚元吉。

The Chinese is the received text of the Zhou Yi; the English is ours. Lines and images that speak of punishments, prisons, illness or money are left out. For entertainment and self-reflection.

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