Hexagram for the Well

It points to a resource whose value depends on access and care. In the I Ching (Yijing), a Chinese classic used for divination, hexagram 48 is Jing, “The Well”: a six-line figure. The received judgment contrasts a town that moves with a well that stays; broken equipment can keep people from its water.

In a reading, the well hexagram can stand for dependable nourishment, shared resources, and the work that keeps them available. Readers also apply the image to inner reserves, knowledge, relationships, and social systems.

Where does the well image come from?

It combines water above wood in a six-line figure. The classic’s Image describes wood beneath water, a way of imagining water raised from a well. The lower three-line trigram is ☴, traditionally linked to wind and wood; the upper one is ☵, water. These two groups make up ䷯.

The Mawangdui silk copy of the Zhouyi, an early text in the Yijing tradition, was copied about 175 BCE and differs from the later standard version. Texts from the Mawangdui tombs were discovered in 1973 and only partly published in 1993. This history shows the text’s arrangement was not always identical; translations and commentaries can shape readings while ䷯ remains the same sign.

What does ䷯ mean when someone sends it?

By itself, it is a specialist Yijing reference. If the chat is about an I Ching reading, ䷯ names hexagram 48. Elsewhere, treat it as a specialist reference and ask the sender what they mean.