I Ching Hexagram 48
Hexagram 48: Jing (井)
Composed of 巽 (Xun) below and 坎 (Kan) above · well · shared-resource · cultivation · community-supply
The Judgment
井：改邑不改井，无丧无得，往来井井。汔至，亦未繘井，羸其瓶，凶。
Jing (Jǐng), the Well: the settlement is moved but the well is not moved; nothing is lost, nothing is gained, and people come and go at the well. It has almost reached the water, yet still has not drawn it up - the jar is cracked. Bad. Jing is about a resource that endures by being maintained rather than replaced, and the judgment's cruelty is precise: almost is not enough, and the jar you brought is the thing that fails.
Translation notes
- 汔至: Wilhelm renders "The jug has not yet been drawn up" — 汔 is almost, nearly, just short of - and that is the whole warning. The rope is in the well and the water is right there, so the failure is not difficulty but a shortfall at the last inch. Read literally, this is a hexagram about finishing.
- 羸其瓶: Wilhelm renders "The vessel is cracked" — 羸 here is the thin-skinned, leaky jar, not 'ruined'. The commentaries pair it with a damaged vessel: the equipment itself is the problem, so the defect sits with the person who chose what to bring rather than with the depth of the well.
The judgment above quotes the classical Chinese of the Zhou Yi (public domain); the English gloss and modern reading are our own. Compare with James Legge's The I Ching (Sacred Books of the East, Vol 16) , 1882 (public domain).
Quick Answers
Is hexagram 48 (Jing) good or bad?
The judgment is good and then deliberately withholds it. Jing is a well in a settlement that keeps getting rebuilt around it: the town is moved, the well is not, and that is presented as the definition of reliability - 无丧无得, nothing lost, nothing gained, while people keep coming to draw. But the closing clause turns it bad for a specific reason: 汔至, almost to the water, and 羸其瓶, cracked jar. So the verdict is conditional on maintenance, not on effort. Do the ordinary work and the well stays excellent. Skip the lining and you arrive at good water with a broken vessel, which is the only genuinely unlucky outcome the hexagram describes.
What does hexagram 48 (Jing) mean in love?
It reads as a bond treated as infrastructure rather than as a series of events - something that has survived several moves of the 改邑 kind, and is valuable precisely because it did. The warning is 初六, the well gone to sludge with no birds in it: not conflict, but nobody drawing from it and nobody maintaining it. Line 3 is the harder one, because it is you having done the dredging properly and discovering the feeling has not followed. The healthy sign is 上六 - finish the work and leave it open, because a well that is covered is a well only its owner can use.
What happens when line 5 of hexagram 48 (Jing) changes?
九五 turning yin gives Hexagram 46 (Sheng, the Arising). The present line is the hexagram's uncomplicated good news: 井洌, the water is clear, 寒泉, cold, 食, fit to drink - a functioning public resource that the ruler's provision has actually made usable. The changed picture is that same water rising. Sheng is about gradual ascent: a well that fills rather than a spring that erupts, and the classical image is a steady increase. The practical shift is from maintaining a fixed supply to a supply that is now growing, which is the point at which keeping the vessel in good repair stops being enough on its own and the level itself starts to change.
The Six Lines
Read your line of interest below. Lines are read from the bottom (line 1) to the top (line 6). A changing line means the hexagram is transforming — see the related hexagrams at the bottom.
初六
井泥不食，旧井无禽。The well's mud is not drinkable, and an old well has no birds. A well gone to sludge, with nothing living in it. Changes into Hexagram 5 (Xu).
The first line describes a well that has stopped being usable - not from drought but from neglect, the silt nobody cleared. The second half matters most: a disused well is not even a landmark, the birds have gone. If this is your line, the resource is not broken, it is unmaintained, and the practical question is not whether the situation can be saved but whether anyone has been drawing from it lately.
九二
井谷射鲋，瓮敝漏。Shooting the small fish in the valley of the well; the jar is cracked and leaking. Effort poured into the wrong place, and the container fails too. Changes into Hexagram 39 (Jian).
A small fish is easy to catch and worth little, and this line is the trap of settling for a minor result while your equipment is already failing. 九二 is capable and busy - fishing in a well is real work - and both halves of the line say the return is poor. Read it as a warning about effort aimed where it cannot pay, and about noticing the leak before you need the water.
九三
井渫不食，为我心恻，可用汲，王明，并受其福。The well is dredged but not drunk from; it aches my heart, for it can be drawn from. The king is enlightened, and together they receive its blessing. The best line in the hexagram. Changes into Hexagram 29 (Kan).
The one line where the work is done right and still nobody drinks. The well has been cleaned, so it is ready, and readiness is not the same as use - which is why this line stings rather than rewards. The turn is the last clause: 王明, the ruler sees it, 并受其福, and the two of them together get the benefit. The hexagram's own solution to being the person who did the maintenance nobody noticed is to get it in front of the person who decides.
六四
井甃，无咎。The well is relined with brick, and there is no blame. Repair the lining, nothing more. Changes into Hexagram 28 (Da Guo).
The shortest line in the hexagram and one of the most reassuring. 甃 is the brick lining of a well - unglamorous, structural, and the difference between a hole in the ground and something that holds water. A yin line doing necessary repair work with no blame attached is the hexagram's clearest statement that maintenance is not a lesser role. If this is your line, the instruction is to fix the container rather than go looking for better water.
九五
井洌，寒泉食。The well's water is clear and cold, and it is fit to drink. A leader's line, and a settled one. Changes into Hexagram 46 (Sheng).
Plain praise: the water is clear, it is cold, and it is drinkable. 洌 is the word for water you can see the bottom of. 九五 sits in the top position but the line is about quality rather than authority - what the ruler provides is not ornament but something genuinely usable by ordinary people. For your own reading this is the payoff the judgment withholds elsewhere, and it arrives by doing the small competent things rather than by announcing anything.
上六
井收勿幕，有孚元吉。The well is finished - do not cover it; sincerity brings great good. Complete it and leave it open. Changes into Hexagram 57 (Xun).
The last line closes the sequence and gives the hexagram its motto. 收 is completion, and the instruction is not to put a lid on it: a well that has been properly made is a well other people have to be able to use. That is the difference between a private asset and a shared resource. The last clause names what makes this work - 有孚, actual trust, not standing - and in return gives 元吉, which is about as strong as this text gets.
Hexagram 48 in Love, Career & Decisions
Love & Relationships
Judgment: a relationship that is infrastructure rather than event. 改邑不改井 describes a bond that has outlasted several versions of everybody's life - different cities, different plans, same two people at the same source. What the hexagram warns about is the maintenance gap, and 初六 is the line to check: a well gone to sludge with no birds, meaning nobody is drawing from it and nobody is tending it. The good sign is 上六 - finished but not covered. Line 3 is the sting: having done the repair, noticing that affection has not followed. What to watch is whether the two of you are still building something other people can use, or only maintaining a private holding.
Do the unglamorous tending this week - one shared chore, one question asked plainly - and do not wait for the relationship to feel significant before you service it.
Career & Work
Signal: strong for maintenance, infrastructure and stewardship roles; poor for launches that depend on new containers. Judgment: the hexagram rewards the person who keeps an existing system drawable. 六四 (井甃, relining the brickwork) is the line to work from - repair, no blame, no drama. Line 3 is the professional trap: you dredge the well, the work is clean, and nobody drinks, so the practical move is 王明, put it in front of the decision-maker rather than waiting to be noticed. Line 2 warns against effort spent catching small fish in the wrong place. The judgment's own failure mode, 羸其瓶, suggests the tool or the vessel is the weak link, not the opportunity.
Audit the container before you commit - the process, the tooling, the delivery step - because this hexagram says the shortfall is almost always in the last inch, not the project.
Making a Decision
Decision rule: fix rather than replace, unless the thing is already 初六 - gone to sludge, nobody drawing, and past the point of repair. Proceed if the choice is 九四's, reline the well; hold if the choice is to abandon a sound resource for a newer one, which is 改邑 without 井 and usually means a change of scenery mistaken for progress. The judgment permits moving the settlement and forbids moving the well, so ask plainly whether the proposal relocates your life or replaces the thing that makes it work. Watch for the specific failure: 汔至, the plan that reaches ninety-five percent and then fails on a cracked jar. Line 5 says the outcome is worth it when the water is actually fit to use.
Test the plan at the last mile specifically, then repair that single point before you commit - and if the resource is sound, choose the option that maintains it over the option that reinvents it.
Health & Wellbeing
Tone: restorative, and about upkeep rather than crisis. The image is a clean cold well that people can drink from, which is the hexagram's idea of good condition - plain, functional, and available to others. 初六 (mud, no birds) and 九二 (a leaking jar) are the two images to sit with: neglected systems and equipment that fails quietly at the point of use. Line 3's aching heart is the one the text treats seriously. The judgement's warning is about almost succeeding and then losing the benefit at the end. For entertainment and reflection only, not medical advice.
Treat the small recurring maintenance tasks as the priority this week, and book the check-up you have been meaning to schedule rather than waiting for a symptom.
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