Hexagram 48 as yes or no
Hexagram 48 Well as a yes-or-no answer
As an answer to a yes-or-no question Jing asks you to reframe: a well is not something you decide about, it is something you tend and draw from. The judgment gives no 'favourable to go somewhere'; it describes what endures when everything else is moved, then warns about the one thing that turns good into ill — breaking the jar just before the rope reaches the water. So its answer to 'should I' is: yes if the question is the patient completion of something already begun, no if it means abandoning a source for a new site.
A changing line in the lower trigram, Xun, says the source is not yet ready: line one says it is silted and must be cleared, line two that it is leaking for lack of a partner, line three that it is ready but unrecognised. A changing line in the upper trigram, Kan, says the water is there: line four says repair first, line five says draw now, and the top line says yes, provided you keep what you draw open to others.
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
- Does hexagram 48, Well, mean yes or no?
- As an answer to a yes-or-no question Jing asks you to reframe: a well is not something you decide about, it is something you tend and draw from. The judgment gives no 'favourable to go somewhere'; it describes what endures when everything else is moved, then warns about the one thing that turns good into ill — breaking the jar just before the rope reaches the water. So its answer to 'should I' is: yes if the question is the patient completion of something already begun, no if it means abandoning a source for a new site.
- 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).