Wells and drawing water
Traditional meaning and context
The Zhougong manual associates a well bubbling or boiling over with acquiring wealth and a dry well with wealth dispersing. Clear water drawn from a well is favourable, muddy water adverse. The well’s supply and condition form the contrast.
The well bubbles or boils over
The manual links this bubbling overflow with acquiring wealth.
The well has dried up
The dry-well entry is associated with household wealth dispersing.
Falling into a well
A separate entry gives this an adverse illness association. It is a fall, not the act of drawing water, and is not a diagnosis.
Drawing clear or muddy water
The text distinguishes clear water as favourable and muddy water as adverse.
These are historical omen associations, not evidence of what will happen to you or your family.
MingSez’s reading
A well brings access to something needed into focus. An available supply, an empty source and difficult retrieval give different experiences. We explore what you were trying to obtain and whether you could reach it. Falling into the well instead concerns a sudden loss of footing and access to help; climbing out changes that experience.
How the scene changes the meaning
You draw clear water and share it.
Access and provision are both present in the action.
You fall into a well and find a way to climb out.
The sudden fall and recovery are both part of this plot. It differs from lowering an empty bucket or merely seeing low water.
A question to take with you: Was the important part the supply, its quality, or whether you could reach it?
Sources and related reading
- Received Zhougong Jiemeng: Doors, Wells, Stoves, Kitchens and Latrines
Bubbling/boiling-over well, dried well, falling bodily into a well and clear/muddy drawn water. Fixed Wikisource revision 7907671; underlying print edition unidentified. The title does not establish authorship by the historical Duke of Zhou.