Hexagram 48 · 水风井

The Well

Water · Zhen palace

Shared, unchanging source; maintain the system.

Meaning

Water below the earth, drawn upward: the village well. The Well concerns enduring systems and shared resources that outlast individuals.

Decision Framework

Maintain the source; the resource outlives you.

Decision Guidance

The Well is the hexagram of enduring provision. It appears when the relevant subject is not this transaction but the system that supplies it—a process, a relationship, an institution, a stock of capability.

Its imagery is carefully chosen: the well is the same for everyone, it does not change because one person draws from it, and its value depends entirely on the rope reaching the water. The practical reading concerns maintenance and access. Look after the source, ensure people can actually reach it, and stop equating personal recognition with value delivered. The well is what matters, not who draws the bucket.

Judgment — Classical Text

改邑不改井，无丧无得。往来井井，汔至亦未繘井，羸其瓶，凶。

EN The town may be moved, the well not; nothing is lost, nothing gained. Coming and going to the well, if the rope does not reach or the jar breaks — misfortune.

The Six Lines — Classical Text

初六：井泥不食，旧井无禽。
EN Initial six: a muddy well is not drunk; an old well has no game.
九二：井谷射鲋，瓮敝漏。
EN Nine in the second: the well gully shoots at minnows — the jar is broken and leaks.
九三：井渫不食，为我心恻。
EN Nine in the third: the well is cleaned but not drunk — this grieves my heart; one could draw from it, but the king is not clear — this brings blessing.
六四：井甃，无咎。
EN Six in the fourth: the well is lined with brick — no blame.
九五：井冽，寒泉食。
EN Nine in the fifth: the well is clear and the cold spring is drunk.
上六：井收勿幕，有孚元吉。
EN Topmost six: the well is drawn from openly — do not cover it: sincerity, supreme good fortune.

Keywords

I Ching hexagram 48, The Well hexagram, Jing hexagram meaning, hexagram for systems