Saju & BaZi glossary

Korean saju and Chinese BaZi share one system and one set of characters; mostly the readings differ. Korean reads 正官 as jeonggwan, Mandarin as zheng guan, and English writers translate it as Direct Officer. Where a term is Korean only, such as wonjin or son-eomneun-nal, the pinyin field is empty. Use the Korean reading with a Korean reader and the Chinese one with BaZi books.

Foundations 18

Saju四柱사주Si Zhu

The Korean name for the Four Pillars system: four stem-and-branch pairs drawn from the year, month, day and hour of birth, eight characters in all. Saju is the everyday Korean word for both the chart and the reading of it, from a quick cafe consultation to the serious study of myeongnihak. Read more →

BaZi八字팔자Ba Zi

Literally eight characters, the Chinese name for the same four-pillar chart. BaZi is the term used in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and most English books; saju is its Korean counterpart. The characters, the calendar and the core rules are shared, so a BaZi chart and a saju chart of one birth normally match character for character. Read more →

Four Pillars四柱사주Si Zhu

The English name for the chart. Each pillar is a column with a Heavenly Stem on top and an Earthly Branch below, one column each for the year, month, day and hour of birth. Charts put the year on the right and the hour on the left, so they read right to left, in the order of a life. Read more →

Heavenly Stems天干천간Tian Gan

The ten characters that occupy the top row of a chart: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren and Gui. Each stem is one element in one polarity, so Jia is yang Wood and Yi is yin Wood. Stems show what is visible and public in a chart; branches hold what is underneath. Read more →

Earthly Branches地支지지Di Zhi

The twelve characters of the bottom row, Zi through Hai, better known abroad as the twelve zodiac animals from Rat to Pig. Each branch carries an element, a season, a two-hour block of the day and one to three hidden stems, which makes branches denser and slower to read than stems. Read more →

Sixty pillars (Jiazi cycle)六十甲子육십갑자Liu Shi Jia Zi

The sixty stem-and-branch pairs, ganji, made by pairing the ten stems with the twelve branches in step, from Jia Zi to Gui Hai. Years, months, days and hours each run through this cycle, which is why the year pillar repeats every sixty years and a sixtieth birthday, hwangap, is a milestone in Korea. Read more →

Day Master日主 / 日干일간Ri Zhu

The Heavenly Stem of the day pillar, the character that stands for you. Every other character in the chart is read by its relationship to this one: the Ten Gods, strength, the useful god and the luck pillars all start here. Korean readers say ilgan, the day stem, where Chinese books say day master. Read more →

Yin and yang陰陽음양Yin Yang

The two polarities that every stem and branch carries. Yang stems (Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, Ren) and yang branches are read as outward, active and expansive; yin ones as inward, receptive and precise. Polarity decides whether a Ten God is direct or indirect and whether the luck pillars run forward or backward. Read more →

Five Elements五行오행Wu Xing

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, the five phases that every character belongs to. They are not substances but qualities of movement: growth, expansion, stabilising, contracting, storing. Counting how many of each a chart holds, and how they feed or check one another, is the first step of any reading. Read more →

Production cycle相生상생Xiang Sheng

The order in which each element feeds the next: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth yields Metal, Metal collects Water, Water grows Wood. In the Ten Gods the element that produces the Day Master is Resource and the element it produces is Output. Koreans call it sangsaeng, mutual generation. Read more →

Control cycle相剋상극Xiang Ke

The order in which each element restrains another: Wood breaks Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Metal, Metal cuts Wood. The element the Day Master controls is Wealth; the element that controls the Day Master is Officer. Control is not bad in itself; a chart with no control lacks structure. Read more →

Natal chart命式 / 原局명식 / 원국Ming Shi / Yuan Ju

The eight characters fixed at birth, as opposed to the moving luck pillars and annual pillars laid over them. Korean readers call it wonguk, the original board, or myeongsik. A natal chart never changes; what a reading tracks is how each passing decade and year interacts with it. Read more →

Ipchun (Li Chun)立春입춘Li Chun

Start of Spring, the solar term at which the Sun reaches 315 degrees of longitude, on or about 4 February. The saju year and its zodiac animal change at this instant, not on 1 January or at Lunar New Year. Someone born on 1 February 1990, after Seollal but before Ipchun, has the Snake year pillar of 1989. Read more →

Solar terms節氣절기Jie Qi

The twenty-four points of the solar year, one every fifteen degrees of the Sun's apparent longitude, on which the saju calendar is built. They are astronomical moments, timed to the minute, and they, not lunar months, decide the month pillar. Korea publishes their times each year in its official almanac. Read more →

Jie and qi節 · 氣절 · 기Jie, Qi

The two kinds of solar term. The twelve jie, sectional terms (jeol in Korean) such as Ipchun and Gyeongchip, open the months and are the only ones that move the pillars. The twelve qi, or mid-terms, such as the equinoxes and solstices, mark the middle of each month and matter for the lunar calendar instead. Read more →

True solar time眞太陽時진태양시Zhen Tai Yang Shi

Clock time corrected to the Sun's actual position at the birthplace. Korea sets its clocks to the 135-degree meridian, so a Seoul clock runs about half an hour ahead of the local Sun, and Korean calculators usually subtract that offset before choosing the hour pillar. The correction only matters near the edge of a two-hour block. Read more →

Zi hour (Rat hour)子時자시Zi Shi

The two-hour block from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., the first of the twelve that divide a day and the one that straddles midnight. Schools disagree on which day an 11:30 p.m. birth belongs to. Korean practice, and this site, keep the day pillar until midnight and give the hour pillar the next day's stem: the yajasi rule. Read more →

Unknown birth time생시 미상

A chart drawn without the hour pillar, six characters instead of eight. The year, month and day pillars, the Day Master, the Ten Gods and the luck pillars remain valid; what goes missing is the hour's weight in the strength judgement and the children palace. Guessing an hour from personality is common in practice but is not calculation. Read more →

The pillars 12

Year pillar年柱연주Nian Zhu

The stem and branch of the birth year, counted from Ipchun to Ipchun. Its branch is the zodiac animal. As a palace it stands for ancestors, grandparents, the family you were born into and the wider social climate of childhood; by age it covers roughly the first fifteen to twenty years. Read more →

Month pillar月柱월주Yue Zhu

The stem and branch of the solar month, changing at each jie term rather than on the first of a calendar month. Its branch is the month command, the strongest single influence on Day Master strength. As a palace it stands for parents, siblings and career, and for the years from youth to about forty. Read more →

Day pillar日柱일주Ri Zhu

The stem and branch of the birth day, changing at midnight. The stem is the Day Master, you; the branch is the spouse palace, your partner and private life. There are sixty possible day pillars, and Korean iljuron, day-pillar theory, gives each of them a character sketch that readers use as a first impression. Read more →

Hour pillar時柱시주Shi Zhu

The stem and branch of the two-hour block of birth. The branch comes straight from the clock, corrected for true solar time if you choose; the stem is derived from the day stem. As a palace it stands for children, subordinates, later life and the results of what the other pillars set in motion. Read more →

Spouse palace配偶宮배우자궁Pei Ou Gong

The day branch, the character sitting directly under the Day Master. Readers look here for the kind of partner you draw and how married life feels: its element, its Ten God relative to you, and whether an annual pillar clashes or combines with it. It complements the partner star, which is a Ten God rather than a position. Read more →

Children palace子女宮자녀궁Zi Nü Gong

The hour pillar read as the position of children and of everything you produce and leave behind, including students, staff and the circumstances of later life. Classical readers paired it with the children stars, Output for a woman and Officer for a man, to judge how a person and their children get on. Read more →

Parents palace父母宮부모궁Fu Mu Gong

The month pillar read as the position of parents and the home you grew up in, with the month stem often taken as the father and the month branch as the mother. Because the same pillar also stands for career, a reader checks it against the Resource stars, which represent the mother and support in general. Read more →

Hidden stems支藏干지장간Cang Gan

The one to three Heavenly Stems stored inside each Earthly Branch; Yin 寅, for instance, holds Jia, Bing and Wu. They give branches their element and supply the Ten Gods that are not visible on the top row, which is why a chart with no Wealth stem may still have Wealth underneath. Read more →

Main qi本氣 / 正氣본기 / 정기Ben Qi

The principal hidden stem of a branch, the one that shares its element and gives it its name: Jia in Yin, Ding in Wu, Gui in Zi. Beside it may sit a middle qi and a residual qi, weaker stems carried over from the neighbouring seasons. Simplified charts print the main qi only. Read more →

Root通根통근Tong Gen

A stem is rooted when a branch in the chart holds its element among the hidden stems. A rooted stem is real and durable; an unrooted one floats, in the traditional image, and is easily pushed around. The Day Master's roots, especially in the month and day branches, are the core of a strength judgement. Read more →

Seasonal strength旺相休囚死왕상휴수사Wang Xiang Xiu Qiu Si

The five grades of an element's condition by month: flourishing in its own season, supported in the season that feeds it, resting in the season it feeds, imprisoned in the season it controls, dead in the season that controls it. Wood is flourishing in spring and dead in autumn. It is the quickest gauge of Day Master strength. Read more →

Month command月令월령Yue Ling

The month branch, treated as the commander of the chart because it fixes the season every other character lives in. Whether the Day Master is in season is decided here first, and the classical method of naming a chart's structure starts from the hidden stem of the month command that also appears on a stem. Read more →

The Ten Gods 15

Ten Gods十神 / 十星십성 / 십신Shi Shen

The ten relationships a character can have with the Day Master: the five element relations (same, feeding, fed by, controlling, controlled by), each split by polarity. Same polarity gives the indirect (pyeon) form, opposite polarity the direct (jeong) form. Sipseong in Korean. Every stem carries one label, and the labels hold most of a reading. Read more →

Friend比肩비견Bi Jian

Same element and same polarity as the Day Master: a second self. It stands for siblings, peers, colleagues and competitors, and for independence and self-reliance. A chart with many Friends belongs to someone who stands on their own feet but also shares, and sometimes divides, whatever wealth the chart holds. Read more →

Rob Wealth劫財겁재Jie Cai

Same element as the Day Master, opposite polarity. The name means seizing wealth: a rival who competes for the same resources, but also a bold partner, a gambler's nerve and the drive to act. Well placed it is read as courage and social pull; in excess, as losses through friends, spending and impulsive bets. Read more →

Eating God食神식신Shi Shen

The element the Day Master produces, in the same polarity. It is the gentle Output star: appetite, talent expressed at ease, food, good living, and the children star for women. Eating God controls Seven Killings, so a chart with both is read as pressure kept in check by skill. Read more →

Hurting Officer傷官상관Shang Guan

The element the Day Master produces, in the opposite polarity. It is the sharp Output star: eloquence, invention, performance, criticism and a dislike of rules. Its name comes from its habit of attacking Direct Officer, the star of authority and, for women, the husband, which is why classical texts treated it with caution. Read more →

Indirect Wealth偏財편재Pian Cai

The element the Day Master controls, in the same polarity. Money that moves: business income, windfalls, investments, generosity and a wide circle of acquaintances. It is the father star for everyone and, for a man, a lover. People with prominent Indirect Wealth are read as sociable spenders who earn in bursts rather than by salary. Read more →

Direct Wealth正財정재Zheng Cai

The element the Day Master controls, in the opposite polarity. Money that stays: salary, savings, property, thrift and careful management. For a man it is the wife star, the partner he settles with. A strong Day Master can carry much Wealth; a weak one is said to be unable to hold it. Read more →

Seven Killings七殺 (偏官)편관 / 칠살Qi Sha

The element that controls the Day Master, in the same polarity, also called Indirect Officer. The name counts seven places round the stem cycle to the character that attacks it. It stands for pressure, discipline, danger, rank won by force and, for women, a lover; tamed by Eating God or Resource it becomes authority. Read more →

Direct Officer正官정관Zheng Guan

The element that controls the Day Master, in the opposite polarity. The star of lawful authority: position, reputation, rules followed willingly, public office and the conscience that keeps you in line. For a woman it is the husband star. One clear Direct Officer, unbroken by Hurting Officer, was the classical mark of a respectable career. Read more →

Indirect Resource偏印 (梟神)편인Pian Yin

The element that produces the Day Master, in the same polarity, nicknamed the Owl. It stands for unconventional learning, intuition, specialist skills, religion and the stepmother: nourishment of an unusual kind. Its classical vice is that it swallows Eating God, taking the ease and appetite out of life, which is why old texts feared it. Read more →

Direct Resource正印정인Zheng Yin

The element that produces the Day Master, in the opposite polarity. The mother star, and with it schooling, qualifications, documents, protection and a settled sense of being cared for. Resource absorbs Officer pressure and strengthens a weak Day Master, which is why it is so often named the useful god. Read more →

Partner star夫星 · 妻星배우자성Fu Xing / Qi Xing

The Ten God that represents a spouse: for a woman the Officer stars (Direct Officer first, Seven Killings second), for a man the Wealth stars (Direct Wealth first). Readers check whether the star is present, where it sits, whether it is rooted, and how it meets the spouse palace and the passing luck pillars. Read more →

Wealth star財星재성Cai Xing

The pair Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth taken together: the element the Day Master controls. It covers money, possessions, the father, and for men the wife. Korean readers speak of jaeseong when they mean money luck in general, and of jaedasinyak, much Wealth with a weak self, for a chart that cannot hold what it earns. Read more →

Resource star印星인성Yin Xing

Direct Resource and Indirect Resource together: the element that produces the Day Master. The name means seal, the stamp of office, and the pair covers the mother, learning, credentials, shelter and everything that supports you without being earned. Too much Resource is read as dependence and inertia, too little as a lack of backing. Read more →

Output star食傷식상Shi Shang

Eating God and Hurting Officer together, siksang in Korean: the element the Day Master produces. It is what you put out into the world, speech, work, creativity, performance, and for women the children star. Output drains the Day Master, so it suits a strong chart and tires a weak one; it also produces Wealth. Read more →

Relations 13

Six Harmony六合육합Liu He

The six pairs of branches that bind one to one: Zi with Chou, Yin with Hai, Mao with Xu, Chen with You, Si with Shen, Wu with Wei. A harmony is read as attraction and attachment, quietly tying up both characters. Between two people's year or day branches it is the classic sign of an easy match. Read more →

Trine (Three Harmony)三合삼합San He

Four groups of three branches, spaced four apart, that combine into one element: Shen-Zi-Chen into Water, Hai-Mao-Wei into Wood, Yin-Wu-Xu into Fire, Si-You-Chou into Metal. Each group runs from the element's Birth stage through its peak to its Grave. Two of the three make a half trine; in zodiac gunghap, trine animals are the friendliest pairing. Read more →

Seasonal trio方合방합Fang He

Three consecutive branches of one season and one compass direction: Yin-Mao-Chen is spring and east, Si-Wu-Wei summer and south, Shen-You-Xu autumn and west, Hai-Zi-Chou winter and north. A complete trio makes that element overwhelmingly strong. Banghap in Korean, it is a heavier and more one-sided union than the trine. Read more →

Clash沖 (冲)충Chong

Two branches six places apart, directly opposite on the twelve-branch circle: Zi and Wu, Chou and Wei, Yin and Shen, Mao and You, Chen and Xu, Si and Hai. A clash is movement and disruption: a move, a break-up, a change of job. Whether it is welcome depends on which character gets pushed out. Read more →

Punishment刑형Xing

Branch relations read as friction that wears rather than breaks: the ungrateful punishment Yin-Si-Shen, the bullying punishment Chou-Xu-Wei, the rude punishment Zi-Mao, and the self-punishments Chen-Chen, Wu-Wu, You-You and Hai-Hai. Readers associate it with legal trouble, illness and relationships that hurt without ending. Hyeong in Korean. Read more →

Harm害 (穿)해Hai

Six pairs of branches that each break up a Six Harmony: Zi-Wei, Chou-Wu, Yin-Si, Mao-Chen, You-Xu, Shen-Hai. Because it spoils a union, harm is read as betrayal by someone close, quiet damage or health wear rather than open conflict. It is a minor relation, weighed after clash and punishment. Read more →

Break破파Po

Six pairs three places apart, Zi-You, Chou-Chen, Yin-Hai, Mao-Wu, Si-Shen, Wei-Xu, read as things coming apart at the finish: a plan that collapses late, a deal that falls through. Break is the weakest of the branch relations, and many readers ignore it unless a stronger relation points the same way. Read more →

Wonjin怨嗔 (元嗔)원진

A Korean relation of six branch pairs, Zi-Wei, Chou-Wu, Yin-You, Mao-Shen, Chen-Hai, Si-Xu, read as resentment without a clear cause: two people who irritate each other the closer they get. It is rare in Chinese BaZi but a fixture of Korean gunghap, where it is checked between year branches and between day branches. Read more →

Stem combination天干合천간합Tian Gan He

Five pairs of Heavenly Stems that attract and may merge: Jia-Ji into Earth, Yi-Geng into Metal, Bing-Xin into Water, Ding-Ren into Wood, Wu-Gui into Fire. Each pair is one yang stem with the yin stem it controls, which the classics likened to marriage. A combined stem is distracted from its own role. Read more →

Stem clash天干沖천간충Tian Gan Chong

Four pairs of stems of the same polarity whose elements fight: Jia-Geng, Yi-Xin, Bing-Ren, Ding-Gui, Metal against Wood and Water against Fire. Earth stems have no partner, though some readers add Wu-Ren and Ji-Gui. Stem clashes are open and quick, a visible conflict or a sudden decision, lighter than branch clashes, which drag roots with them. Read more →

Transformation合化합화He Hua

What happens when a combination goes all the way and both characters turn into the new element, as when Bing and Xin become Water. Transformation needs the right season and support, so most combinations only bind without transforming. Readers argue about it more than almost anything else, and cautious ones treat it as rare.

Fu Yin伏吟복음Fu Yin

A pillar met by its exact twin: a luck pillar or annual pillar that repeats a natal pillar, or two identical pillars within the chart. The name means a suppressed moan. Traditionally it is read as a stretch of stalling, grief or being stuck in place, since nothing new enters, only more of the same. Read more →

Fan Yin反吟반음Fan Yin

The mirror of Fu Yin: a pillar met by one that clashes it on both stem and branch, such as Jia Zi against Geng Wu. It is read as a reversal, a period in which something is turned round or taken away. Fan Yin and Fu Yin are the two pillar-level events readers check first in a new luck pillar. Read more →

Strength and balance 10

Strong Day Master身強신강Shen Qiang

A chart in which the Day Master is in season, rooted, and backed by Friends and Resource, so the self outweighs the rest. A strong Day Master can carry Wealth and Officer, so those elements are usually welcome; what it needs is somewhere to spend its energy, and more support only makes it rigid. Read more →

Weak Day Master身弱신약Shen Ruo

A chart in which the Day Master is out of season, unrooted, or outnumbered by Output, Wealth and Officer. It does not mean a weak person; it means the self needs support, so Resource and Friends are welcome and heavy Wealth or Officer become burdens. Most charts lean one way or the other. Read more →

Balanced Day Master中和중화Zhong He

The ideal the classics describe and few charts reach: the self and its surroundings in rough equilibrium, with every element represented and none dominant. Such a chart tolerates most luck pillars without strain. Readers still choose a useful god for it, usually the element that keeps the balance from tipping. Read more →

Useful god用神용신Yong Shen

The element a chart most needs, chosen to restore balance: support for a weak Day Master, an outlet or restraint for a strong one, warmth for a cold chart. Yongsin is the hinge of a Korean reading; luck pillars and years that bring it are called good, and those that harm it are called hard. Read more →

Favourable element喜神희신Xi Shen

The element that helps the useful god, usually the one that produces it or clears the way for it. Korean readers list the useful god and the favourable element together as the pair a chart welcomes. A luck pillar in either is read as supportive; the two are often given as good colours, directions or careers. Read more →

Unfavourable element忌神기신Ji Shen

The element that damages the useful god or deepens the chart's imbalance, gisin in Korean. Its helper is sometimes named separately as the enemy god (gusin). Luck pillars and years in the unfavourable element are the ones a reader flags for caution, though the flag is a call for care, not a forecast of disaster. Read more →

Missing element없는 오행

An element that appears nowhere among the eight characters, not even as a hidden stem. Korean readers make much of it: a chart with no Water is said to lack the qualities Water stands for. Absence alone does not make it the useful god, but it is the usual reason a naming expert adds a character of that element. Read more →

Excess element太過태과Tai Guo

An element that takes up four or more of the eight characters, or dominates through the month command and hidden stems. Excess is read as the qualities of that element run to extremes: too much Fire as impatience and burnout, too much Earth as stubbornness. The usual counterweight is the element that drains or controls it. Read more →

Follow structure從格종격Cong Ge

A special case in which the Day Master is so weak, with no root and no support, that it gives up and follows the dominant element instead of resisting it. Follow-Wealth, Follow-Killings and Follow-Output are the common types. Their useful gods are the reverse of the normal rule, so misreading one inverts the whole chart. Read more →

Structure (pattern)格局격국Ge Ju

The classical way of naming a chart by its leading Ten God, usually the hidden stem of the month command that also shows on a stem: a Direct Officer structure, an Eating God structure. The structure says what kind of life the chart is built for; the useful god says what it needs to run well. Read more →

Time and luck 11

Luck Pillars大運대운Da Yun

The ten-year periods that step through the sixty-pillar cycle from the month pillar, each bringing a new stem and branch to lay over the natal chart. Daeun in Korean. The stem is usually read for the first five years and the branch for the second. They are the main tool for timing in a reading. Read more →

Luck pillar direction順行 · 逆行순행 · 역행Shun Xing / Ni Xing

Whether the luck pillars count forward or backward through the cycle from the month pillar. Men born in a yang year and women born in a yin year run forward; men born in a yin year and women in a yang year run backward. It is the only step in chart calculation that depends on sex. Read more →

Starting age大運數대운수Qi Yun

The age at which the first luck pillar begins, daeunsu in Korean. Count the days from birth to the next jie term for forward luck, or back to the previous one for backward luck, and divide by three; three days stand for one year. Korean charts often print it in Korean age, so treat it as approximate. Read more →

Annual pillar歲運 / 流年세운Liu Nian

The stem and branch of a year, from one Ipchun to the next, read against the natal chart and the current luck pillar. Seun in Korean, liu nian in Chinese. Its branch is the year's Tai Sui, so a clash between it and your day or year branch is the first thing a yearly reading checks. Read more →

Monthly pillar月運 / 流月월운Liu Yue

The stem and branch of each solar month, changing at the jie terms; worun in Korean. A month whose branch combines with your day branch is read as quiet and social, one that clashes it as busy or unsettled. A monthly reading only means much inside the frame of the year and the luck pillar. Read more →

Daily pillar日辰 / 流日일진Liu Ri

The stem and branch of a single day, iljin in Korean, the same pair that appears as the day pillar of anyone born that day. Daily fortune columns compare it with your day branch or zodiac animal. It is the finest and least reliable layer of timing, useful for choosing a date, not for judging a life. Read more →

Samjae三災삼재

A Korean folk cycle of three cautious years in every twelve, set by zodiac animal: each trine group enters samjae in its Traveling Horse year and leaves in its Flower Canopy year. Tigers, Horses and Dogs, for instance, run from a Monkey year to a Dog year. It is popular but not part of classical chart reading. Read more →

Tojeong Secret土亭祕訣토정비결

Tojeong bigyeol, the New Year fortune book Koreans have consulted for centuries, traditionally credited to the Joseon scholar Yi Ji-ham. It uses your age and lunar birth month and day, not the four pillars, to pick one of 144 yearly readings. It is a Seollal custom rather than saju, though the two are often sold together. Read more →

Twelve Life Stages十二運星십이운성Shi Er Chang Sheng

A cycle of twelve stages, Birth, Bath, Cap and Belt, Official, Prosperity, Decline, Sickness, Death, Grave, Extinction, Conception and Nurture, that describes the condition of a stem on each branch as a life from cradle to grave. Sibi unseong in Korean. Readers apply it mainly to the Day Master over the four pillars and the luck pillars. Read more →

Birth stage長生장생Chang Sheng

The first of the Twelve Life Stages, the branch where a stem is newly born and growing: Hai for Jia Wood, Yin for Bing Fire, Si for Geng Metal, Shen for Ren Water. A Day Master sitting on its Birth branch is read as steadily supported, with a fresh, learning quality. Jangsaeng in Korean. Read more →

Grave stage (storehouse)墓 (庫)묘 / 고Mu / Ku

The stage where an element is stored away, always one of the four Earth branches: Chen holds Water, Xu holds Fire, Chou holds Metal, Wei holds Wood, each as a residual hidden stem. Called a storehouse when the element is welcome and a grave when it is not; a clash is said to open the storehouse. Read more →

Special stars 9

Sinsal (special stars)神殺신살Shen Sha

The named stars and afflictions found by matching one character of the chart, usually the day or year branch, against a table: Nobleman, Peach Blossom, Traveling Horse and dozens more. Korean readers use them freely as colour after the Ten Gods; strict BaZi schools keep only a handful. None of them overrides the chart's balance. Read more →

Nobleman天乙貴人천을귀인Tian Yi Gui Ren

The best-known auspicious star, found from the day stem: Jia, Wu 戊 and Geng take Chou and Wei, Yi and Ji take Zi and Shen, Bing and Ding take Hai and You, Ren and Gui take Si and Mao, Xin takes Wu 午 and Yin 寅. Cheoneul gwiin is read as help from other people arriving at the right moment. Read more →

Peach Blossom桃花도화Tao Hua

The star of attraction, charm and romance, found from the year or day branch: Shen-Zi-Chen charts take You, Hai-Mao-Wei take Zi, Yin-Wu-Xu take Mao, Si-You-Chou take Wu. It is the Bath stage of each trine. Old texts warned about it; modern Korean readers treat dohwa as popularity and appeal, an asset in public work. Read more →

Traveling Horse驛馬역마Yi Ma

The star of movement, found from the year or day branch: Shen-Zi-Chen charts take Yin, Yin-Wu-Xu take Shen, Si-You-Chou take Hai, Hai-Mao-Wei take Si, the branch that clashes the trine's first member. Yeokma is read as travel, relocation, transport, trade and a restless career, and as the year samjae begins. Read more →

Flower Canopy華蓋화개Hua Gai

The star of solitude, art and religion, always the last member of a trine, one of the Earth branches: Shen-Zi-Chen take Chen, Yin-Wu-Xu take Xu, Si-You-Chou take Chou, Hai-Mao-Wei take Wei. Hwagae is read as a taste for study, temples and creative work done alone; the year of the Canopy ends a samjae period. Read more →

Yang Blade羊刃양인Yang Ren

The branch where a yang Day Master peaks, its Prosperity stage: Mao for Jia, Wu 午 for Bing and for Wu 戊 Earth, You for Geng, Zi for Ren. Yangin is a surplus of the self's own element: decisiveness, surgical or martial skill, and a temper. It suits work with blades, tools and pressure, and dislikes further support. Read more →

White Tiger白虎백호Bai Hu

In Korean practice, baekho daesal: seven pillars, Jia Chen, Yi Wei, Bing Xu, Ding Chou, Wu Chen, Ren Xu and Gui Chou, that old texts linked to blood, accidents and sudden loss. Modern readers soften it to intensity and a strong stomach for crisis; the traditional examples are surgeons, soldiers and butchers. Read more →

Kui Gang (Goegang)魁罡괴강Kui Gang

Four day pillars, Geng Chen, Geng Xu, Ren Chen and Wu Xu, sitting on the two Earth branches Chen and Xu, the gates of heaven in the classics. People born on them are described as forceful, clever and uncompromising, doing well in command and badly when the pillar is clashed or the Day Master is weak. Read more →

Void空亡공망Kong Wang

The two branches left over in each ten-pillar group of the sixty cycle, since ten stems pair with twelve branches: the group from Jia Zi to Gui You leaves Xu and Hai void. Found from the day pillar, a void branch is read as hollow, its meaning present but hard to hold. Gongmang is a favourite of Korean readers. Read more →

Korean culture 12

Saju cafe사주카페

A cafe where a reader sits at your table and reads your chart for the price of a drink plus a fee, roughly 20,000 to 50,000 won for twenty to thirty minutes. Clustered around Hongdae, Sinchon and Gangnam in Seoul, they turned saju from a back-street visit into a date activity, and some now offer readings in English. Read more →

Gunghap宮合궁합

Compatibility between two charts, the reading Korean couples and their parents ask for before marriage. A reader compares day pillars, checks harmony and clash between branches, looks at each person's partner star, and weighs whether the elements each lacks are supplied by the other. The Chinese equivalent is hehun, matching a marriage. Read more →

Jakmyeong (naming)作名작명

Choosing a name by the chart: a naming expert reads which element the baby's saju lacks or needs and picks hanja whose element, by meaning and radical, supplies it, while also counting strokes and checking the sound. Korean parents still pay for this, and the same logic is used when adults change their names. Read more →

Taegil (date selection)擇日택일Ze Ri

Picking an auspicious date for a wedding, a move, an opening or surgery. A Korean taegil reading avoids days that clash the couple's year or day branches, weighs the day pillar's stars, and consults the almanac's good and bad days. Its Chinese cousin, ze ri, is a whole discipline with its own manuals.

Son-eomneun-nal손없는 날

Literally a day without the son, the spirits believed to roam a different compass direction on each date and obstruct whatever is done there. By the lunar calendar the 9th, 10th, 19th, 20th, 29th and 30th are free of them, so Koreans book moving vans and weddings for those days and movers charge more.

Korean age세는 나이

The traditional count in which you are one at birth and gain a year every Seollal or every 1 January, so a baby born in December turns two within weeks. Korea switched its legal age to international counting in June 2023, but saju readers, luck-pillar tables and many older people still use the traditional count. Read more →

Lunar birthday陰曆 生日음력 생일

A birthday kept by the lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different solar date each year. Many older Koreans were registered by a lunar date, and older relatives still celebrate by it. For saju the lunar date must first be converted to the solar calendar, because the pillars are counted by the Sun. Read more →

Seollal설날

Korean Lunar New Year, the first day of the first lunar month, the same day as Chinese New Year in most years. Koreans traditionally add a year to their age that day and read the Tojeong Secret. It is not the saju new year, which begins at Ipchun; the two can fall on opposite sides of a birth. Read more →

Saju palja四柱八字사주팔자Si Zhu Ba Zi

Four pillars, eight characters: the full name of the chart and, in everyday Korean, a word for fate itself. Palja alone means your lot in life, as in palja-ga seda, a hard fate, or nae palja-ya, it is just my lot. The phrase carries a shrug that the technical system does not. Read more →

Myeongnihak命理學명리학Ming Li Xue

The study of the principles of fate, the formal name for the discipline behind saju and BaZi. Its classics, the Yuanhai Ziping, Sanming Tonghui, Ditian Sui and Qiongtong Baojian, were written in Chinese and read in Korea for centuries. Today it is taught in Korean university extension courses and private academies. Read more →

Cheolhakgwan哲學館철학관

Literally a philosophy hall, the traditional storefront of a professional saju reader in Korea: usually a small office with a sign listing saju, naming and date selection. The label became common in the twentieth century, when readers preferred a scholarly word to fortune-teller. Readings there run longer and cost more than at a cafe. Read more →

MBTI comparisonMBTI 비교

Young Koreans use MBTI and saju side by side, and readers often map one onto the other: a chart heavy in Output as an E and P type, one built on Officer and Resource as a J. The comparison is loose. MBTI is a self-report questionnaire; saju is computed from a birth time and never asks how you feel. Read more →

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