Hexagram 48, Jǐng (The Well): Line 6 (top)

井卦上六 · 水风井 · 中文版

上六:井收勿幕,有孚元吉。

The line (Legge)

The topmost SIX, divided, shows (the water from) the well brought to the top, which is not allowed to be covered. This suggests the idea of sincerity. There will be great good fortune.

Small Image commentary

'The great good fortune' at the topmost place indicates the grand accomplishment (of the idea in the hexagram).

象曰:元吉在上,大成也。

In plain words

The water has been drawn: do not cover the well; with sincerity, supreme good fortune. The top line is the end of the hexagram: the well's work is done, and everyone may draw from it. The Small Image says this is great completion.

Applying it to your situation

If you have achieved something, this line suggests not keeping it to yourself but letting more people benefit. How could more people share in what you have achieved?

Position

A broken (yin) line in the top place, which is a yin (even) place, so it is in its proper place. Its partner is line 3; one is yin and the other yang, so they respond to each other.

If this line moves

With this line moving alone, Jǐng changes into Hexagram 57 Xùn (The Gentle Wind). The Jiaoshi Yilin verse for this change (Chinese): 焦氏易林·井之巽.

A recorded case from Takashima

Jing to Xun: a year in the raw silk trade: In 1897 Takashima cast on the year's foreign trade and got the top line of Jing, "the well is drawn from and left uncovered; supreme good fortune". Japan did not ship its own exports but waited for foreign buyers, as a well waits to be drawn from; counting the fourth to top lines as July–August to November–December, the year-end would be best. Raw silk was indeed slack in the first half and soared in the second.

The hexagram

Hexagram 48 Jǐng (The Well). The Judgment: (Looking at) Jing, (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.

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English text: James Legge, The Yi King (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16, 1882), public domain, as transcribed by the Chinese Text Project. Chinese: the received text. Offered for study and reflection, not as prediction. Plain-English readings and position notes by this site.

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