I Ching Jing Meaning: Hexagram 48 Explained

Jing 井 appears, and I first ask students: what do you rely on to feed people, and to feed yourself?

Many people think Jing is a feng-shui well, and drawing it means moving house, changing a tap. Jing does take its image from a water well. In divination it is more often a system, a craft, a source you can draw from again and again. The town may change. The well cannot change with your mood. Hear that, and Jing can be used.

Jing is Water over Wind, Kan above Xun. Kan above — water; Xun below — wind, wood. Wood enters water and goes down; water is drawn up: that is a well. Above and below cannot reverse. Above must be water; below, wind-wood. It shares a lower trigram with Ding 鼎, both Xun; the upper is Kan in one, Li in the other. Jing is drawing water to feed people. Ding is cooking with fire. Mix the pictures and “feeding people” is taught as “founding anew.” The two hexagrams are far apart.

Jing: people oppressed above must return to the well

The Xu Gua says: 「困乎上者必反下，故受之以井。」 Oppressed above, you must return below, so Jing follows. People stuck above must go back down to find the water source. Kun (Oppression) 困 is the mouth flooded, the road covered. Jing is going down to repair the thing you can drink. Draw Jing: often not an order to prove yourself above once more. An order to go home and look: is the craft still there, are the rules still clear, is that well mud or a spring.

The Tuan says: 「巽乎水而上水，井。井養而不窮也。」 Xun into water and bringing water up, Jing. The well feeds and is not exhausted. Jing’s benefit is feeding, and feeding does not run out. Not one explosion. You come, I come, the well is still there. The judgment is very plain: 「改邑不改井，無喪無得，往來井井。汔至亦未繘井，羸其瓶，凶。」 The town may change; the well does not. No great loss, no great gain; coming and going, well upon well. Almost there, the rope has not yet steadied the bottle, the bottle breaks: unfortunate.

I copy this on the board every time. Ask about an exam, a job change, a project: what you fear most is not no water. It is, near success, smashing the vessel. A contract short one signature, a thesis short a week, a client short a last meeting: the person restive, and the bottle is weak.

Career and wealth: can that well of yours still be drunk?

Ask about career and draw Jing: the point is rarely an explosion. It asks: is the craft deep enough, the process clean enough, can the team truly be fed again and again. The town may change, the well does not, in work: the company can change, the city can move, the post can shift. The core you eat from should not be dropped with them. A designer dropping fundamentals to chase a hot title, a teacher dropping classes to be an influencer: both changed the well. The town changing does not matter. The well changed, and coming and going has no water.

In wealth, Jing is not a windfall hexagram. It looks like a source you can draw steadily: salary, professional fees, rent, long-term clients, a technique others cannot leave. No loss, no gain: this hexagram rarely makes you rich overnight, and rarely evaporates you for no reason. True broken wealth often appears in a weak bottle: procedures not finished, risk control not stamped, money about to enter the account spent in advance.

Ask about a city, moving, a water source, a company system: Jing is very on topic. Draw Jing and ask “should I move”: the answer is often people can go; the method of eating should not scatter. Arrive in a new town, the well still that well, and you can stand. If the question is opening a new shop, changing industry: first see whether the old well is mud or a spring. A mud well not to be drunk: the old one could not be drunk anyway; repairing or changing makes sense. A cold spring already drinkable, and you smash the bottle for novelty: hunting misfortune yourself.

Jing in love: can you feed each other again and again

Ask about love and draw Jing: look less at sweet, more at feeding. Can two people come and go at the same well: daily life, trust, body, money, the measure of speech. Coming and going, well upon well: today you draw, tomorrow I draw, the well still clear. One side only takes and does not repair: the well becomes mud.

If you are already together, Jing often reminds you of the house’s system: who keeps the books, who looks after the child, who pulls the atmosphere back. These do not look like love. They are the well wall. Six in the fourth: 「井甃無咎」— lining the well, no blame. Chou 甃 is repairing the well wall. Love at this step is not confessing again. It is patching what leaks. Patched, no great joy — and no blame. What a house often wants is no blame.

If you are single and draw Jing, the match looks more like “someone who can feed you long term,” not the kind thunder strikes. It may also be that you yourself are still an old well with no birds: the well abandoned, birds do not come. First dredge your own well — craft, rest, speech — more useful than downloading another app. The well feeds without exhausting: first there must be a well.

Ask about living in two places, following the other person to move: Jing also often appears. The town can change. Cutting away the craft you settle on, friends, the body’s rhythm: that is changing the well. Before walking with someone, first ask whether the well is still there.

A few lines recognized, so repairing a well does not become smashing a well

The initial six: 「井泥不食，舊井無禽」. Well mud, not to be drunk; an old well, no birds. Mud in the well, cannot drink, old until even birds do not come. Draw the initial six: old methods, old products, old relationships already cannot feed people. This line is not telling you to die guarding tradition. It tells you to admit this well is decommissioned. Still serving guests with muddy water is harming people.

Nine in the second: 「井谷射鮒，甕敝漏」. A well-valley shooting small fish; the jar is broken and leaks. Water only enough to shoot small fish, and the bottle leaks. Some talent, the vessel will not do. Draw nine in the second: common that the technique is still there, the system is broken, the team leaks, the books leak. Adding oil is still leaking. Change the jar first, then talk drawing.

Nine in the third: 「井渫不食，為我心惻，可用汲，王明，並受其福」. The well cleared, not yet drunk; it pains my heart; it can be drawn; the king is bright, and all receive the blessing. The well dredged clean, no one drinking yet, others look on with pity. Usable: only short a clear person to use it. Draw nine in the third: you are often already prepared; what you lack is a superior who knows goods, a market, or daring to hang your name out. The king is bright: not waiting for a sage king. Waiting for a structure willing to use you. This line’s danger is first feeling “no one wants it” and filling the well back in.

Nine in the fifth: 「井冽，寒泉食」. The well is cold and clear; the cold spring is drunk. Water clear, the spring cold, drinkable. This is Jing’s truly in-position line. Draw nine in the fifth: the craft is in place, you can supply people, and you can charge. A cold spring is not a performance of warmth. It is clean, steady, not muddy. In career this line suits setting a standard, letting people come to draw — not chasing people to feed them.

Upper six: 「井收勿幕，有孚元吉」. The well is taken in, do not cover it; there is sincerity, great fortune. The well mouth finished, do not cover it dead; there is trust, great fortune. Feeding people through to the end, and still letting people come. Taking in is finishing, completing. Do not cover: do not monopolize the source. Draw the upper six: it suits sharing method, bringing people, opening a system until it can be used. Covering the well dead to drink only yourself does not match this line.

The initial six is mud; nine in the fifth is a spring. Between them: dredging, lining, not smashing the bottle. Jing’s misfortune is rarely “there is no well.” It is mostly “almost drinking, and you smash it yourself.”

In class I only ask three things again and again

What is your well? Write it down. It may be a craft, a license, a source of clients, a process that still runs. Cannot write it, and drawing Jing you will idle.

Has the town been changing lately? Changing jobs, cities, bosses, platforms: all changing the town. When it changes, did you bring that well? Brought it: no loss, no gain, you can come and go. Did not: looks free, and is an old well with no birds.

Where is the bottle? Contract, body, books, the last procedure: all bottles. Almost there: water almost at the well mouth, you must not be restive. In class I have seen too many people, in nine in the third or nine in the fifth’s place, use the initial six’s self-abandonment or a weak bottle’s impulse, and ruin a good well.

A well’s way, used long, must be changed. The next hexagram is Ge 革: not because the well is bad. A well not repaired, not renewed, and mud returns. The Xu Gua says a well’s way cannot but be changed: that is the meaning. Kun is no water. Jing is finding the source. Ge is that the source’s use cannot stay unchanged.

How Kun holds: I Ching Kun (Oppression) Meaning | Hexagram 47 How to Read: Oppression, How to Hold Through Exhaustion. When a well must change system, change fate: I Ching Ge Meaning | Hexagram 49 How to Read: Revolution, How to Time Change. How the well at home feeds people: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read: The Family, Marriage and Ordering the House.

I Ching Jing FAQ

If I draw Jing, does it suit civil service exams, entering a large institution?

Very on topic. Jing is a system you can draw from steadily. Public service, schools, hospitals, a long craft: all like a well. You still look at the line: a mud well entered is wasted years. A cold spring can truly feed. Do not hear “stable” as “any establishment is fine.”

The town may change, the well does not: is that telling me not to move, not to change jobs?

No. The town may change. People can go, cities can move. What cannot change is the stretch you rely on to feed people: craft, credit, healthy rest, a method still usable. Cutting that stretch to change place is changing the well. The aftermath is not that day. It is coming and going with no water.

A weak bottle: is that always broken wealth?

Broken wealth is a common image. It can also be a broken body, broken credit, a matter almost done broken. Near success, a drinking bout, a mood, a procedure, a send pressed wrong: all bottles. Draw this sentence: finish the close before you celebrate. Celebrate early, and the bottle breaks first.

Jing and Kun appearing together: how do I read it?

Original Kun, resulting Jing: from being stuck back to what can feed. Worth repairing craft and system. Do not put force into defending yourself with words. Original Jing, resulting Kun: the well is almost dry or the bottle about to break. Check leaks first, then talk expansion. The two hexagrams follow each other, and in divination often come as a pair.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.