Ching / The Well
above:K'an The Abysmal, Water
below:Sun The Gentle, Wind
(Looking at) Ching, (we think of) how (the site of) a town
may be changed while (the fashion of) its wells undergoes no
change. (The water of a well) never disappears and never
receives (any great) increase, and those who come and those
who go can draw and enjoy the benefit. If (the drawing) have
nearly been accomplished, but, before the rope has quite
reached the water, the bucket is broken, this is evil.
Overall Meaning
Well, the symbol of source
Ching, which gives its name to this hexagram, is the symbol of a well.
The character originally was pictorial, intended to represent a portion of
land, divided into nine parts, the central portion belonging to the
government, and being cultivated by the joint labor of the eight families
settled on the other divisions. In the center of it, moreover, was a well,
which was the joint property of all the occupants.
What is said on Ching might be styled 'Moralizings on a well', or
'Lessons to be learned from a well for the good order and government of a
country'. What a well is to those in its neighborhood, and indeed to men in
general, that is government to a people. If rulers would only rightly
appreciate the principles of government handed down from the good ages of the
past, and faithfully apply them to the regulation of the present, they would
be blessed themselves and their people with them.
In the Thwan we have the well, substantially the same through many
changes of society; a sure source of dependance to men, for their refreshment
and for use in the cultivation of the ground. Its form is what I have seen
in the plains of northern China; what may be seen among ourselves in many
places in Europe. It is deep, and the water is drawn up by a vessel let down
from the top; and the value of the well depends on the water being actually
raised. And so the principles of government must actually be carried out.