Hexagram 48: Jing

Water over Wind · 水风井 · Tendency: Auspicious

Structure

• Number: 48 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷯
• Upper trigram: Kan (Water)
• Lower trigram: Xun (Wind)
• Lines: yin yang yang yin yang yin (bottom to top)

The statement

改邑不改井，无丧无得。往来井井。汔至，亦未繘井，羸其瓶，凶。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram represents steady supply and long-term value, like well water—unassuming yet important. It is suitable for maintaining basic services, cultivating professional skills, and attending to team or family needs. Do not chase novelty at the expense of the resources that have always supported you.

A Buddhist reading

Jing (The Well) shows Ouyi Zhixu at his most assured. Dig into the ground anywhere and you reach water, he says, just as the buddha-nature within already contains every state of body and mind; deepen the digging with calming and insight, let that nature surface, and nourishing yourself and others becomes inexhaustible. His comparison is exact: carrying water to people waters few, while sinking a well that anyone may draw from waters many. He maps the six lines onto the Tiantai six identities of buddhahood, from the muddy undrinkable well of the first line, which is buddhahood in principle only, to the top line where the wellhead is left uncovered, which is buddhahood fully realized. The curb stays open, everyone draws, and the virtue of nourishing is complete.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous / Inverted: Hexagram 47: Kunthe whole figure turned upside down
• Next: Hexagram 49: Ge
• Opposite: Hexagram 21: Shi Keevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 38: Kuilines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.