Line 1 of
Hexagram 48: 井
“Welling” — King Wen #48 · 初六
Line 1 初六
井泥不食，舊井無禽。
The first SIX, divided, shows a well so muddy that men will not drink of it; or an old well to which neither birds (nor other creatures) resort.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 1 changing turns hexagram 48 into䷄ Hexagram 5: 需 — “Attending”Read line 1 of hexagram 5 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 1 of hexagram 48 is a yielding (yin) line occupying the opening line, where the situation is only beginning to show its shape. The classical line statement — 井泥不食，舊井無禽。 — is what commentators from the Ten Wings onward have read as the figure's own commentary on this one position. James Legge's 1882 rendering, quoted above, keeps the imagery of the original: each line of a hexagram is read as a stage of the same picture, and this page collects the source text for that stage. If you treat the line as moving in the traditional way, flipping it alone produces the changed hexagram linked above; readers have long used that pair of figures to compare a situation as given with the same situation one line different. As always with classical divination texts, this is presented for cultural and reference interest — the text itself carries no prediction about any modern reader's situation.
Questions About Hexagram 48 Line 1
What does line 1 of hexagram 48 say?
The received text reads: 井泥不食，舊井無禽。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The first SIX, divided, shows a well so muddy that men will not drink of it; or an old well to which neither birds (nor other creatures) resort.”
Which hexagram does line 1 change hexagram 48 into?
Changing only line 1 of hexagram 48 (井, “Welling”) gives hexagram 5 — 需 (xū, “Attending”). This is the classical way a changed hexagram is derived from moving lines.
Are line pages available for every hexagram?
Yes. Every one of the 64 hexagrams now has six line pages — one per line from the bottom line up to the top line — each with the classical Chinese text, Legge's 1882 translation, and the changed hexagram that line produces when it moves.
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1882), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and reference — not financial, medical, or life advice.