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How to Read Saju: Complete Guide
— From Terms to Steps
Reading Saju goes in this order: find the eight characters → identify which one is 'you' → read its relationships with the rest. Just follow the five steps below and you'll see where each unfamiliar term fits.
In this article 10 topics
What is Saju?
Saju (四柱) means 'four pillars'. The year, month, day and hour of your birth each take two characters, making eight in total — hence the name Saju palja (四柱八字, the Four Pillars and Eight Characters).
These eight characters are called your birth chart (wonguk 原局). It's the part that never changes in your lifetime, and by layering the flow of time on top of it, you see what kind of period you're in now.
| Category | Year pillar | Month pillar | Day pillar | Hour pillar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavenly Stem (top) | Ancestors · roots | Society | Me | Future |
| Earthly Branch (bottom) | Background | Environment | Spouse | Children |
Step 1 — Find your Eight Characters in a manseryeok
A manseryeok (萬歲曆, the Saju perpetual calendar) is a Saju calendar that lists the stem-branch pair for every date. Enter your date and time of birth and out come your Eight Characters.
There's something to verify first here. If your birth falls on a boundary, the characters can change entirely.
- Ipchun — the Saju new year isn't January 1 but Ipchun (立春, Start of Spring; around February 4). People born in January use the previous year's stem-branch pair
- Solar terms — months, too, are divided by solar terms rather than the calendar. Birthdays near a solar term can get a different month pillar
- Ja hour — births between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. may get a different day pillar
- Daylight saving time — for births in 1948–51, 1955–60 and 1987–88, you need to subtract 1 hour from the clock time
Because of these points, results can differ from place to place. We've covered where and why they diverge separately.
Step 2 — Find your Day Master: this is 'you'
It may seem as though all eight characters describe you, but in fact 'you' are a single character: the top character of your birth day, the Day Master (ilgan 日干).
The other seven are the position and conditions this one character is placed in. So a Saju reading always has this structure: “I (the Day Master) am placed in this kind of environment.”
There are ten Day Masters: Gap and Eul (Wood), Byeong and Jeong (Fire), Mu and Gi (Earth), Gyeong and Sin (Metal), Im and Gye (Water). The tone of each is covered in Day pillars and Day Masters.
Good news — the Day Master comes from the day you were born, so it can be calculated accurately even if you don't know your birth time. That means the central axis of the reading is settled regardless of the hour.
Step 3 — Count your Five Elements
Sort the Eight Characters into Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and count them. Which energies are plentiful or scarce is the basic material for reading your tendencies and needs.
It's actually rare for all five to be evenly represented. Missing one isn't a problem; it just means you can draw strength in that area from elsewhere. See the generating and controlling cycles, and how to make up for a missing element for details.
Step 4 — Read relationships through the Ten Gods
Naming the relationship between the Day Master and each other character is what the Ten Gods (sipsin 十神) do. There are ten of them.
| Relationship | Name | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| Same element as me | Companion (Bigyeon) · Rob Wealth (Geopjae) | Your own pace · competition |
| Element that generates me | Indirect Resource (Pyeonin) · Direct Resource (Jeongin) | Being replenished · learning · recovery |
| Element I generate | Eating God · Hurting Officer | Expression · making things · ease |
| Element I control | Indirect Wealth (Pyeonjae) · Direct Wealth (Jeongjae) | Opportunity · results · movement |
| Element that controls me | Indirect Officer · Direct Officer | Discipline · tension · responsibility |
It's a difference in tone, not good versus bad. What kind of day each of the ten makes is covered in The 10 Ten Gods.
Step 5 — Layer on the flow of time
Your birth chart never changes in your lifetime. On top of it, you layer levels of time to see the present.
| Layer | Cycle | In a metaphor | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth chart | Lifetime | The role you play | Day pillars and Day Masters |
| Daeun | 10 years | The backdrop of the stage | 10-year luck cycles |
| Annual luck | 1 year | The mood of this act | Samjae and the year |
| Iljin | One day | Today's weather | What is iljin? |
25 common terms
We've gathered the words that tend to trip people up when reading about Saju. Each one links to a detailed explanation.
| Term | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| Saju palja (四柱八字) | The four pillars of your birth year, month, day and hour, and their eight characters | See |
| Birth chart (wonguk 原局) | Your full set of eight inborn characters. The part that never changes in your lifetime | See |
| Manseryeok (萬歲曆) | A Saju calendar listing the stem-branch pair for each date | See |
| Heavenly Stems (cheongan 天干) | The ten characters Gap, Eul, Byeong, Jeong, Mu, Gi, Gyeong, Sin, Im and Gye. The top character of each pillar | See |
| Earthly Branches (jiji 地支) | The twelve characters Ja, Chuk, In, Myo, Jin, Sa, O, Mi, Sin, Yu, Sul and Hae. The bottom character of each pillar | See |
| Day Master (ilgan 日干) | The top character of your birth day. In Saju, it stands for you | See |
| Day pillar (ilju 日柱) | The two characters of your birth day. There are 60 kinds | See |
| Iljin (日辰) | The two characters attached to a given day. A 60-day cycle | See |
| Five Elements (ohaeng 五行) | The five energies: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water | See |
| Generating and controlling cycles | How the elements give rise to and hold each other in check | See |
| Ten Gods (sipsin 十神) | Ten names given to the relationship between the Day Master and the other characters | See |
| Companion, Output, Wealth, Officer and Resource stars | The Ten Gods grouped into five families by elemental relationship | See |
| 10-year luck cycle (Daeun 大運) | The big-picture flow that changes every 10 years | See |
| Annual luck (seun 歲運) | The flow of a given year. It changes every year | See |
| Samjae (三災) | A period of 3 years in every 12 that comes round for each group of zodiac animals | See |
| Sinsal (神殺) | Names attached to positions in the chart, such as Dohwasal, Yeongmasal and Hwagaesal | See |
| Twelve Sinsal | Twelve names attached in order to the twelve Earthly Branches | See |
| Gongmang (空亡) | The two branches left without a partner in the sixty Gapja | See |
| Nayin element | A symbolic element attached to each of the sixty Gapja, such as Gold in the Sea or Wood of the Great Forest | See |
| Solar terms (jeolgi 節氣) | The division of the year into twenty-four by the sun's position. They set the Saju months | See |
| Ipchun (立春) | The point at which the year changes in Saju. Around February 4 | See |
| Hour pillar (siju 時柱) | The two characters of your birth time. If unknown, the chart is read as Three Pillars | See |
| Three Pillars (samju 三柱) | Reading the chart from six characters, leaving out the hour pillar, when the birth time is unknown | See |
| Date selection (taegil 擇日) | Choosing a date that suits a purpose | See |
| Clash (chung 沖) | The relationship between opposite branches that collide. Avoided in date selection | See |
Five common misconceptions
- “Your zodiac animal tells your fortune”Your zodiac animal is one character out of eight. In Korea alone, over 4 million people share each zodiac animal. In order of precision: zodiac animal (1 character) → day pillar (2 characters) → full Saju (8 characters).
- “You can't read it without a birth time”The birth time only determines two characters. The other six come from your date of birth alone. However, guessing an unknown time and entering it is worse than leaving it out.
- “There are good Saju and bad Saju”Both the Five Elements and the Ten Gods are differences in character, not rankings. They're tools for seeing what you need right now, not for grading you.
- “During Samjae, you shouldn't do anything”Samjae is 3 years in every 12. That's a quarter of your life. Avoid everything and you lose that much of it.
- “There's no way to check whether fortunes are right”There is, if they're written so they can be checked. One way is to issue forecasts in a scorable form and compare them with what happened.
Where to check your Saju
Paper manseryeok books are packed with solar terms and lunar dates, so they're hard at first. Enter your date of birth into Mutal Unnie and your eight birth-chart characters, Five Elements distribution, Ten Gods, sinsal and Gongmang appear on a single screen. The Four Pillars chart table is fully open for free, even on paid reading screens.
And every morning, a single rhythm card shows how today's iljin relates to your Saju, written in sentences so you can read it even without knowing the terms.
Check your Eight Characters first
Just enter your date of birth to see your birth chart, Five Elements and Ten Gods on one screen.
Get the app for iPhone & AndroidFAQ
In what order do you read Saju?
① Find your Eight Characters in a manseryeok → ② check your Day Master as the reference point → ③ count your Five Elements distribution → ④ read relationships through the Ten Gods → ⑤ layer on the 10-year luck cycle, annual luck and iljin. That's the order.
What exactly does Saju palja mean?
It means four pillars (四柱) and eight characters (八字). The year, month, day and hour of your birth each take two characters. These eight characters are called your birth chart, and they never change throughout your life.
How do you read a manseryeok?
Look up a date and you'll find that day's two stem-branch characters. But because months are divided by solar terms and years by Ipchun, birthdays that fall on a boundary can give different results. These days, apps calculate it for you automatically.
Which character should you look at first in a Saju chart?
Your Day Master. It's the top character of your birth day and stands for 'you' in Saju. All the other seven characters are read in relation to this one.
How is Saju different from today's fortune?
Saju is eight characters that never change in your lifetime; today's fortune is an interpretation that compares the day's iljin with your Saju. The iljin is the same for everyone, but because everyone's Saju differs, the results differ.
How much should I trust Saju?
The calculation has one right answer, but interpretation varies with perspective. It's more realistic to use it as a clue for deciding what to do today than as a tool that settles the future. Be wary of readings that scare you or make definite claims.