Hexagram 48 for work
Hexagram 48 Well for work and career
At work Jing is the dependable resource — a skill, a body of knowledge, an institution — that people come and go to draw on. The Great Image says the superior person 'comforts the people and encourages mutual help' (勞民勸相): the well is a public good, and its keeper's job is to keep it clean and shared. The judgment's warning about the broken jar is the hexagram's one real failure: nearly completing the work and spoiling it at the end.
For a project, a job or a negotiation, the lines are stages of the well's condition. Line two is talent leaking away for want of a partner above; line three is the cleared well that needs a clear-sighted boss; line four is maintenance that earns no credit but prevents collapse; line five is the resource at its best, with someone drawing on it. A changing line in the lower trigram says tend the source before expecting output; in the upper trigram, the source is good and the question is use — and the top line says the finishing act is to keep it uncovered.
The hexagram in brief
Water drawn up through wood: the well. Towns move, the well stays; it neither increases nor decreases — but a broken rope or a muddy well helps no one.
Tend your sources — skills, relationships, inner life — so they stay clear and usable for yourself and others.
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。(Looking at) Žing, (we think of) how (the site of) a town may be changed, while (the fashion of) its wells undergoes no change. (The water of a well) never disappears and never receives (any great) increase, and those who come and those who go can draw and enjoy the benefit. If (the drawing) have nearly been accomplished, but, before the rope has quite reached the water, the bucket is broken, this is evil.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 井 Well has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningmuddy well · no one drinks · abandoned by time
- 九二Nine in the second placewater leaking to the minnows · a cracked jar · no one above to help
- 九三Nine in the third placecleared but not drunk · a grief · if the king were clear-sighted
- 六四Six in the fourth placelining the well · repair · no blame
- 九五Nine in the fifth placeclear well · cold spring · freely drunk
- 上六Six at the topdrawn to the top · do not cover it · sincerity, great fortune
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 48, Well, mean for a career question?
- At work Jing is the dependable resource — a skill, a body of knowledge, an institution — that people come and go to draw on. The Great Image says the superior person 'comforts the people and encourages mutual help' (勞民勸相): the well is a public good, and its keeper's job is to keep it clean and shared. The judgment's warning about the broken jar is the hexagram's one real failure: nearly completing the work and spoiling it at the end.
- What does Hexagram 48, 井 Well, mean?
- Water drawn up through wood: the well. Towns move, the well stays; it neither increases nor decreases — but a broken rope or a muddy well helps no one.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).