井 → 家人
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
Line 1
初六 井泥不食。舊井无禽。
Six at the beginning means: One does not drink the mud of the well. No animals come to an old well.
Line 2
九二 井谷射鮒。甕敝漏。
Nine in the second place means: At the wellhole one shoots fishes. The jug is broken and leaks.
Line 6
上六 井收勿幕。有孚元吉。
Six at the top means: One draws from the well Without hindrance. It is dependable. Supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
八子同巢，心勞相思，雖苦无憂。
Eight young share one nest; hearts toil in longing for each other. Though the labor is bitter, there is no sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood, the well sustains the household gathered around it. Eight chicks share a single nest, their hearts laboring with longing for one another. Though the toil is bitter, there is no grief. The image of nestlings crowded together captures the warmth and strain of a large family: resources are stretched, labor is constant, yet the bond itself provides comfort. From The Well to The Family, wind emerges from fire, carrying warmth outward in words and deeds. The well's communal provision finds its most intimate expression in the family hearth: what nourishes is not abundance but the constancy of shared effort, where hardship borne together becomes its own consolation.
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