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Day Pillar (日柱) and Day Master
— Which Character Is “Me” in Saju?

Saju basics · 2026.08.22 · 6 min read · Updated 2026.10.02

Not all eight characters are “me”

This is the most confusing thing when you first look at Saju. It seems like all eight characters describe you, but in fact only one character is “me”.

The upper character of the third pillar, in the middle — that's the Day Master (日干). The other seven characters are the position and conditions this one character is placed in: which season you were born in, whether there are energies around you that help you, and so on.

So a Saju interpretation always has this structure — “I (the Day Master) am placed in this environment (the other seven characters).”

There are 60 day pillars

The day pillar (日柱) is the two characters of the day you were born: the pillar that combines the Day Master and the day branch. Combining 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches, there are 60 of them, from Gapja (甲子) to Gyehae (癸亥). Moving one step each day, the same day pillar comes around every 60 days.

This is what's often covered these days under the name “day pillar theory” (iljuron). It describes tendencies for each of the 60 combinations; it's easy to read, but its precision is limited. Even with the same day pillar, interpretations differ quite a bit depending on the season you were born in, because it looks at only two of the eight characters.

The ten Day Masters — what's your tone?

There are ten Day Masters: the five elements, each with a yang and a yin form. What's written here are tendencies, not answers — they can change a lot depending on the season and surrounding characters.

Wood Trees — Gap · Eul

Gap (甲)

A great tree growing straight. Once the direction is set, it has great drive to push ahead. Bending feels awkward to it, so practicing folding once before it snaps helps.

Eul (乙)

Vines and grass. Its strength is the flexibility to wind its way up as the situation allows. It looks fragile but rarely breaks. What matters is choosing well what to lean on.

Fire Flame — Byeong · Jeong

Byeong (丙)

The sun. It hides nothing and lights up its surroundings. It's breezy and straightforward, but managing its staying power is its challenge.

Jeong (丁)

A candle or lamp. It lights exactly where it's needed. Delicate and long-lasting, but it flickers where the wind blows.

Earth Soil — Mu · Gi

Mu (戊)

Mountains and broad land. It isn't shaken by much. People come to lean on it, which makes it easy to end up carrying everything alone.

Gi (己)

Field soil. It takes in anything and helps it grow. Attentive and practical, but the trap is wearing itself out trying to embrace everything.

Metal Iron — Gyeong · Sin

Gyeong (庚)

Raw ore or an axe. Strong at making clean decisions and cutting ties. Quick to decide, but its words sometimes come out harsh.

Sin (辛)

Jewels and refined metal. Keen senses and high standards. It cares about polish, but holds itself to the same yardstick.

Water Water — Im · Gye

Im (壬)

The sea or a great river. Broad-minded and good at reading the flow. It holds a lot inside, so it rarely shows what it's feeling.

Gye (癸)

Rain and dew. It observes delicately, as if seeping in. Being quick to read the room, it can take on too much of other people's moods.

What changes when you know your Day Master

The most practical thing is that you can read the day's rhythm for yourself. Today's fortune ultimately comes from how today's iljin characters relate to your Day Master.

1. Know your Day MasterLet's say it's ‘Byeong (Fire).’
2. Look at today's iljinIf today's Heavenly Stem is ‘Gyeong (Metal)’,
3. Read the relationshipFire controls Metal, so it's a Wealth star; their yin and yang are the same, so it's Indirect Wealth. Out comes “Opportunities brush past today — the more you move, the more you notice.”

These ten relationship names are the Ten Gods. Know just the one character of your Day Master, and everything else derives from it.

You can find your Day Master without a birth time

Good news: the Day Master comes from the day you were born, so it's calculated accurately even if you don't know your birth time. That means the central axis of a Saju interpretation is fixed regardless of the time.

But if you were born between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., take care. Depending on whether the day's boundary is set at midnight or at 11 p.m., the whole day pillar can change. In that case, some people look at both results and choose the one that fits them.

How to check your Day Master

Look up your birth date in a Manseryeok and you'll find that day's two stem-branch characters. The upper one is your Day Master. But paper Manseryeok are packed with solar terms and lunar dates, so they're confusing at first.

Enter your date of birth in Mutal Unnie, and it automatically calculates and shows the Eight Characters of your birth chart and your Five Elements distribution. Mutal Unnie's Saju engine does the calculation itself, verified against public data from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). The Four Pillars chart table is completely free and open — calculation results aren't something to hide.