初六：井泥不食，旧井无禽。
A silted source cannot nourish merely because it once did. Acknowledge neglect rather than relying on an old reputation.
I Ching Hexagram 48
Jǐng · The Well
井 · Hexagram 48
Jing concerns a dependable source of nourishment and the conditions that make its value available. Water is drawn upward to sustain people. A well can remain through many changes, but maintenance and access matter: water that never reaches anyone has not yet served its purpose.
Upper trigram: Water/Kǎn
Lower trigram: Wind/Xùn
The situation you may be in
You may have enduring skill, knowledge, or support that is not yet useful in practice. The issue may lie in maintenance, a suitable means of use, or access rather than in the absence of value.
How to respond
Care for the source and complete the practical steps that make it accessible. Let appropriate people encounter and use your ability while maintaining its renewal, rather than resting on the fact that it exists.
Judgment and Image
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。
The Well. The town may be changed, but the well cannot be changed. It neither decreases nor increases. They come and go and draw from the well. If one gets down almost to the water and the rope does not go all the way, or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.
Image
木上有水，井；君子以劳民劝相。
Water over wood: The Well. The superior person encourages the people at their work, and exhorts them to help one another.
Applying it to real life
Love & relationships
Long familiarity does not make trust self-sustaining. Maintain everyday response and make requests specific, ensuring that care can actually reach the other person.
Career & work
Maintain and share useful expertise, common resources, and experience. Address the point where something valuable remains unusable so the investment improves actual work or life.
Choice & decisions
Assess whether the option connects you to a dependable source and whether its support is actually accessible. Apparent abundance does not remove the need to check how it can be used and maintained.
Timing & pace
This favors restoring foundations and tending a lasting source. Finish the final act of drawing the water; carelessness near use can waste all the preceding effort.
The six changing lines
The lines unfold from the bottom upward, describing one pattern of change from its first appearance to its extreme. If your reading has a changing line, begin with that position.
九二：井谷射鲋，瓮敝漏。
Some resource remains but is poorly directed and lost in a damaged vessel. Repair how it is drawn and carried.
九三：井渫不食，为我心恻，可用汲，王明，并受其福。
A prepared capability still needs recognition and connection to a real need. Not yet being used does not mean that it lacks value.
六四：井甃，无咎。
Repairing the well wall temporarily interrupts drawing water in order to restore lasting supply. The maintenance itself deserves completion.
九五：井冽，寒泉食。
A clear, usable source is now available. Provide dependable help so its quality becomes tangible through use.
上六：井收勿幕，有孚元吉。
Once the water can be drawn, keep access dependable and open. Do not withhold shared value merely to demonstrate your importance.
A common misreading
Jing does not promise recognition merely for remaining in place. Its lines move from mud to clear water and open access, showing that enduring value needs care and transmission.
Related hexagrams
Text and interpretation
Updated 12 September 2026Reviewed by MysticEast Research
This page preserves the Chinese Judgment, Image, and line texts of the received Zhouyi. MysticEast's modern explanations are newly written to emphasize stages of change and practical judgment rather than fixed good-or-bad predictions.
Read the Zhouyi at the Chinese Text ProjectLet the hexagram meet your actual question
A guide gives you the map. A cast made with a clear question can help locate the exact stage of change you are experiencing.