Jing · The Well

The meaning

What the name means Jing is a well: it does not move and yet it feeds people.

The picture Water over wood, a bucket drawing up water that comes from below.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about a source and what it serves. The water of a well does not change though a household moves away. Look after what is basic, do not let the well collapse, and do not dig it only to leave it unused.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

Well water feeds people, but someone has to clear it and tend it. Do not only draw from it; look after it too.

The upper trigram is Water and the lower is Wind: Water above, Wind below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

改邑不改井，無喪無得，往來井井。汔至亦未繘井，羸其瓶，兇。

The image

木上有水，井；君子以勞民勸相。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初六井泥不食，舊井無禽。
2. 九二井谷射鮒，甕敝漏。
3. 九三井渫不食，為我心惻，可用汲，王明，並受其福。
4. 六四井甃，無咎。
5. 九五井洌，寒泉食。
6. 上六井收勿幕，有孚元吉。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".