Hexagram 48 · line 1
The Well
井Jǐng
A muddy well is not used for drinking. No birds come to an old well.
Line statement
初六
井泥不食，舊井无禽。
A muddy well is not used for drinking. No birds come to an old well.
Mud leaves the well unused in Line 1; even birds no longer visit it. Changing the base makes Heaven below Water, Hexagram 5. Waiting offers a comparison with the well’s present disuse.
Computed position
How this place works
- Trigram position
- inner · base
Line 1 is the base of the inner trigram.
- Polarity and place
- yin in an odd place: not aligned
Its yin polarity does not match the traditional odd-place convention.
- Correspondence
- Line 4: same polarity
Its counterpart is Line 4; the two share a polarity, so this structural correspondence is not responsive.
One line changes