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__  __ Hexagram Forty-Eight:  
       Ching / The Well

Deep Waters Penetrated
and drawn to the surface:
The Superior Person
refreshes the people
with constant encouragement
to help one another.

Encampments, settlements,
walled cities, whole empires
may rise and fall,
yet the Well at the center endures,
never drying to dust,
never overflowing.
It served those before
and will serve those after.
Again and again
you may draw from the Well,
but if the bucket breaks
or the rope is too short
there will be misfortune.



Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line One:
The water in this old well
has seeped into the mud.
Not even the animals
come to drink from it.


Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line Two:
Shooting at fish in the well
puts holes in the bucket.
No one can draw
from this well.


Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line Three:
This well has been cleansed,
but no one will drink from it.
This is a tragic mistake,
for it has much to offer
prince and pauper alike.


Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line Four:
The well is carefully retiled,
and in time
made pure again.


Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line Five:
The water in this well
comes from a cool, deep,
inexhaustible spring.


Hexagram Forty-Eight/Line Six:
This well is dependable
and available to all.
Supreme good fortune.

Copyright 1995-1996 Roger Norton Consulting. All rights reserved.