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.