Ching / The Well
above:K'an The Abysmal, Water
below:Sun The Gentle, Wind
Wood is below, water above. The wood goes down into the earth to bring
up water. The image derives from the pole-and-bucket well of ancient
China. The wood represents not the buckets, which in ancient times were
made of clay, but rather the wooden poles by which the water is hauled
up from the well. The image also refers to the world of plants, which
lift water out of the earth by means of their fibers.
The well from which water is drawn conveys the further idea of an
inexhaustible dispensing of nourishment.
The Judgement
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.
In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for
the sake of more favorable location, partly because of a change in
dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of
centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient
times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure
which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is
independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do
nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the
same--this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows
neither less nor more; it exists for one and for all. The generations
come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.
However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or
social organization of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations
of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its
deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order
had ever been made. Carelessness--by which the jug is broken--is also
disastrous. If for instance the military defense of a state is carried
to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is
annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug.
This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in
disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the
same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his
education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man's
nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his
education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed
in convention--a partial education of this sort is as bad as none--or
he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
The Image
Water over wood: the image of THE WELL.
Thus the superior man encourages the people at their work,
And exhorts them to help one another.
The trigram Sun, wood, is below, and the trigram K'an, water, is above it. Wood sucks water upward. Just as wood as an organism imitates the action of the well, which benefits all parts of the plant, the superior man organizes human society, so that, as in a plant organism, its parts co-operate for the benefit of the whole.