SIX LINES
Aqueduct of Nero
䷯

Hexagram 48

井

Jǐng

The Well

Aqueduct of Nero — Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1775

An 18th-century etching of Roman ruins. Giovanni Battista Piranesi documents the Aqua Claudia, an ancient aqueduct bringing mountain spring water to Rome across forty miles of stone arches. His architectural print shows the weathered structure cutting through the countryside, its repeated arches creating perspective depth. The infrastructure endures fifteen centuries after construction—built to serve generations, maintained across dynasties, the well that serves not one household but an entire city.

Read full treatise ↓

Piranesi was an 18th-century Italian architect and printmaker who documented Roman ruins. This etching shows the remains of Aqua Claudia, an ancient aqueduct bringing water from mountain springs to Rome. The structure represents infrastructure that draws water from a distant source and distributes it to the city, relating to hexagram 48's image of the well. This is Jǐng (井), The Well, the hexagram representing the unchanging source that serves the changing community. The character depicts the grid pattern of fields surrounding a central well—eight families drawing from one shared source. The trigram structure places Water (Kǎn) above Wind (Xùn): water drawn upward by wood, the rope and bucket penetrating the depths to bring sustenance to the surface. Piranesi's aqueduct extends this principle monumentally—the ancient well become public infrastructure, mountain springs channeled through engineering to supply urban populations. The Judgment text states: "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." The text emphasizes the well's constancy—dynasties rise and fall, populations migrate, but the water source remains. Piranesi's aqueduct embodies this principle: Republican Rome becomes Imperial Rome becomes Papal Rome, yet the Aqua Claudia continues carrying water from the same Anio springs. The text also warns that the well requires proper maintenance—broken jugs and short ropes bring misfortune. Piranesi documents precisely this concern: the aqueduct endures but requires care, its weathered stones testimony to both Roman engineering and centuries of upkeep. The Image Text observes: "Water over wood: the image of The Well. Thus the superior person encourages the people at their work, and exhorts them to help one another." Water rests above wood in the hexagram structure, but the practical image is the wooden bucket drawing water upward—the tool that makes the well functional. Piranesi's aqueduct serves the same function on civic scale, the infrastructure that enables city life. In the I-Ching sequence, Jǐng follows Kùn (oppression): after exhaustion comes the reminder of the reliable source, the well that neither increases in abundance nor decreases in drought, requiring only maintenance and proper use. The aqueduct's repetitive arches create rhythm across the landscape, each section like another family drawing from the shared source, the ancient infrastructure still nourishing Rome fifteen centuries after the engineers who planned it returned to earth.

Upper Trigram

☵

坎 Kǎn

Water — Abysmal

ElementWaterDirectionWestFamilySecond SonQualitiesdangerous, flowing, fluid

Lower Trigram

☴

巽 Xùn

Wind — Gentle

ElementWoodDirectionSoutheastFamilyEldest DaughterQualitiesgentle, penetrating, persistent

Classical Texts

The Judgment

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 the rope does not go all the way down, or the jug breaks, misfortune. Political structures change, nations rise and fall, but life with its needs remains eternally the same. Life is inexhaustible—it exists for one and for all. Two prerequisites: go down to the very foundations. Superficial ordering that leaves deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as no attempt at all. And carelessness by which the jug is broken is equally disastrous.

The Lines

Line 1

One does not drink the mud of the well. No animals come to an old well. If you wander in swampy lowlands, your life is submerged in mud. Such a person loses all significance for mankind. He who throws himself away is no longer sought out by others. In the end, no one troubles about him.

Line 2

At the wellhole one shoots fishes. The jug is broken and leaks. The water is clear but not being used. The well is a place where only fish stay; whoever comes only catches fish. One possessing good qualities but neglecting them. No one bothers about you. As a result, the mind deteriorates. Association with inferior people; nothing worthwhile accomplished.

Line 3

The well is cleaned, but no one drinks from it. This is my heart's sorrow. One might draw from it. If the king were clear-minded, good fortune might be enjoyed in common. An able person is available like a purified well with drinkable water. But no use is made of them. The sorrow of those who know. One wishes the prince might learn of it—good fortune for all concerned.

Line 4

The well is being lined. No blame. While the work is going on, the well cannot be used. But the work is not in vain—the water will stay clear. In life too, there are times when you must put yourself in order. You can do nothing for others during such a time, but the work is valuable. By enhancing powers through inner development, you can accomplish all the more later.

Line 5

In the well there is a clear, cold spring from which one can drink. A well fed by living water is a good well. A person with such virtues is born to be a leader and savior—they have the water of life. But 'good fortune' is left out. The all-important thing about a well is that its water be drawn. The best water is only potential refreshment until brought up. It is all-important to drink from the spring of wise words and translate them into life.

Line 6

One draws from the well without hindrance. It is dependable. Supreme good fortune. The well is there for all. No one is forbidden to take water. No matter how many come, all find what they need—the well is dependable, with a spring that never runs dry. A great blessing to the whole land. The same is true of the really great person, whose inner wealth is inexhaustible: the more that people draw from them, the greater their wealth becomes.

Yilin: Forest of Changes

From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 48 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.

Yilin artwork for Hexagram 48
躓跛未起，失利後市，不得鹿子。

Stumbling and lame, unable to rise; arriving late at the market, he loses his profit and cannot catch the deer.

Read full commentary ↓

Water drawn up through wood — but the well gazes into its own reflection and sees only stagnation. Stumbling and lame, unable to rise, one arrives too late at the market and fails to catch the young deer. The doubled well (source and target identical) intensifies the hexagram's inherent danger: a well that never changes, never moves, risks becoming a trap rather than a resource. The lame figure who misses the market recalls the well's line texts about fouled water and unused potential. From The Well to The Well, the pattern is self-referential: without transformation, the well's virtue calcifies. What should nourish becomes a prison of repetition, and opportunity slips away while the structure remains frozen in place.

中文注释

木上有水，井觀自身之影而見停滯——同卦相變，不動之極。躓跛未起——跌倒不能站起，失利後市——趕到集市時好物已售罄，不得鹿子。井變井，同卦重疊強化其固有之險：井不遷不變，水不流則腐。跛者失市如井爻辭「井泥不食」——潛力在而不能發揮。從井至井，無變化則井德僵固：養人者反成重複之牢籠，水清則養，水滯則害。

Transformations

Hexagram 48 transforming into each of the 64 hexagrams, with Yilin verses.

䷀1䷁2䷂3䷃4䷄5䷅6䷆7䷇8䷈9䷉10䷊11䷋12䷌13䷍14䷎15䷏16䷐17䷑18䷒19䷓20䷔21䷕22䷖23䷗24䷘25䷙26䷚27䷛28䷜29䷝30䷞31䷟32䷠33䷡34䷢35䷣36䷤37䷥38䷦39䷧40䷨41䷩42䷪43䷫44䷬45䷭46䷮47䷯48䷰49䷱50䷲51䷳52䷴53䷵54䷶55䷷56䷸57䷹58䷺59䷻60䷼61䷽62䷾63䷿64

Related Hexagrams

Same upper trigram: Water (坎)

䷂屯Difficulty at the Beginning䷄需Waiting䷇比Holding Together䷜坎The Abysmal Water䷦蹇Obstruction䷻節Limitation䷾既濟After Completion

Same lower trigram: Wind (巽)

䷑蠱Work on the Decayed䷛大過Great Exceeding䷟恆Duration䷫姤Coming to Meet䷭升Pushing Upward䷱鼎The Cauldron䷸巽The Gentle Wind
← Hexagram 47AllHexagram 49 →