Wonjin (Resentment Pairs) in Saju: The Six Pairs Explained
"Those two are wonjin; it will never work" is a line you hear whenever Koreans talk about compatibility. Wonjin (원진, 怨嗔), or wonjinsal (원진살, 怨嗔殺), is made of two characters meaning resentment and anger. The name is harsh, but what it describes is closer to the small, persistent friction of daily life than to open conflict. It is also a distinctly Korean reading: the six pairs are watched closely in Korean saju and appear in few of the standard Chinese BaZi textbooks, which list the six clashes, harms and punishments instead. This guide gives the six pairs, translates the old rhymes that explain them, shows where the pairs sit inside a single chart, and explains how to use, and how not to overuse, wonjin in compatibility.
One seat beside the clash
Wonjin is a relationship between two earthly branches, and there are exactly six pairs: 子–未 (Zi and Wei), 丑–午 (Chou and Wu), 寅–酉 (Yin and You), 卯–申 (Mao and Shen), 辰–亥 (Chen and Hai) and 巳–戌 (Si and Xu).
The pairs follow a rule. Arrange the twelve branches in a circle like a clock and each branch clashes with the one directly opposite, six seats away. Wonjin is the branch right next to the clash partner. 子 clashes 午, and its wonjin is the next seat, 未; 丑 clashes 未, and its wonjin is the seat before, 午. For the yang branches (子寅辰午申戌) the wonjin is one seat after the clash partner; for the yin branches (丑卯巳未酉亥) it is one seat before. As a result two wonjin branches are always five or seven seats apart.
The geometry explains the character of the pair. A clash is a head-on collision; wonjin is a glancing one. It is not the big fight that ends things but the slow accumulation of hurt feelings from mismatched tempo, tone and expectations. Korean readers therefore call wonjin the relationship "that feels wronged for no reason." Our gunghap guide covers the clashes and combinations that sit beside it.
The six pairs and the old rhymes
Wonjin is usually spoken of in terms of the zodiac animals, and the old teachers memorized it with a rhyme that blames each animal's looks and habits.
| Branches | Animals | Rhyme | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 子 Zi – 未 Wei | Rat – Goat | 鼠忌羊頭角 | The rat dreads the horns on the goat's head. |
| 丑 Chou – 午 Wu | Ox – Horse | 牛憎馬不耕 | The ox resents the horse that does not plow. |
| 寅 Yin – 酉 You | Tiger – Rooster | 虎憎鷄嘴短 | The tiger despises the rooster's short beak. |
| 卯 Mao – 申 Shen | Rabbit – Monkey | 兎怨猴不平 | The rabbit resents the monkey's restlessness. |
| 辰 Chen – 亥 Hai | Dragon – Pig | 龍嫌猪面黑 | The dragon dislikes the pig's black face. |
| 巳 Si – 戌 Xu | Snake – Dog | 蛇驚犬吠聲 | The snake is startled by the dog's barking. |
Read the rhymes and you notice how small the grievances are: the shape of a pair of horns, the length of a beak, the sound of barking. Nobody has done anything wrong; the other animal is simply built differently, and that is irritating. That is the whole psychology of wonjin. It is friction born of difference, not of fault.
- Cast your chart on the calculator and write down your four branches: year, month, day and hour.
- Look for any of the six pairs among them. Two branches make a wonjin pair wherever they sit.
- For compatibility, compare your year branch (your animal) with the other person's, and then, more importantly, your day branch with theirs.
Wonjin inside one chart: which seats
Wonjin is not only a compatibility tool. When two of the four branches in a single chart form a pair, readers expect friction between the two areas of life those seats govern.
- Year and month: the environment you grew up in against the direction you take into society. Typically the family's expectations and the path you chose do not line up, and the tension is felt in early adulthood.
- Month and day: work against home. The person you are outside and the person you are at home move differently, and a clear boundary between the two helps.
- Day and hour: the spouse seat against the children's seat. Within the family this shows as a difference of pace between generations.
- Year and day: the elders against you, or the elders against your spouse: a difference in grain between the family you came from and the household you make.
In every case the pair marks a point where friction is likely, not a prophecy of estrangement. Knowing where the contact point is lets you adjust distance and tone before feelings pile up.
Which animal is your wonjin, and how much it weighs
Each zodiac animal has exactly one wonjin animal: Rat and Goat, Ox and Horse, Tiger and Rooster, Rabbit and Monkey, Dragon and Pig, Snake and Dog. In a couple reading the year-branch wonjin compares one character out of eight, and saju compatibility puts far more weight on the two Day Masters, the two day branches and whether the two charts' elements fill each other's gaps. A couple whose animals are wonjin but whose Day Masters combine, or whose day branches form a six harmony, has a very different texture from what the animal pairing alone suggests.
The arithmetic keeps the animal version in proportion.
- Of the twelve animals, only one is your wonjin: a one-in-twelve chance with a random partner.
- Because the pairs are five or seven seats apart, an animal wonjin only occurs between people born five or seven years apart (or seventeen or nineteen, adding a cycle), and even then only in half of those cases.
- Animals change at Ipchun, around February 4, not on January 1. Someone born in January or early February usually belongs to the previous animal, and a wrong animal gives a wrong wonjin. See the Ipchun rule.
Sajucheop's zodiac compatibility chart counts wonjin as one friction among the branch relationships it scores; the Day Pillar score on the match page leaves it out, because at that level the Day Masters and day branches carry the reading.
When it arrives: 2026, 2027 and 2028
When the branch of a year is wonjin to your year branch or your day branch, readers say the year calls for care with subtle misunderstandings between people. The branch of a ten-year luck pillar is read the same way.
- 2026, Bing Wu (丙午): 午 is wonjin to 丑. That covers Oxen, and everyone whose day branch is 丑: the Yi Chou, Ding Chou, Ji Chou, Xin Chou and Gui Chou day pillars. 丑 and 午 also form a harm (해, 害), so the two relationships overlap.
- 2027, Ding Wei (丁未): from Ipchun on February 4, 2027, the year branch is 未, wonjin to 子. That covers Rats, and the 子 day branches: Jia Zi, Bing Zi, Wu Zi, Geng Zi and Ren Zi. 子 and 未 are a harm pair as well.
- 2028, Wu Shen (戊申): 申 is wonjin to 卯. Rabbits, and the 卯 day branches Yi Mao, Ding Mao, Ji Mao, Xin Mao and Gui Mao, get their turn.
The practical habits for a wonjin year are modest. Put important things in writing, say what bothered you the same day instead of storing it, and meet in groups more often than one-on-one when a relationship is running hot. The year-by-year pages for each animal, such as the Rat in 2027, walk through the details.
The modern reading
Strengths first. A wonjin pair, in a chart or between two people, is a difference of make-up that becomes visible up close. Difference is also complementarity: the ox that plows and the horse that runs are good at different things, and couples and colleagues who name the difference rather than resent it often make it their strength. Because wonjin is friction rather than rupture, it is one of the more manageable patterns in the catalog, answered by distance, timing and tone rather than by any big decision.
Then the cautions. The risk with wonjin is accumulation. Small irritations left unspoken harden into a story about the other person, and the story does more damage than any of the irritations did. The other caution is about the reading itself: wonjin is one of several branch relationships, alongside combinations, clashes, harms, punishments and breaks, and it is never enough on its own to judge a chart or a couple.
Questions people ask
We are wonjin. Should we not get married?
Wonjin is not a reason to end anything. It tells two people where the friction is likely to come from and suggests what to adjust: a little more distance, a warmer tone, a habit of clearing the air early. Plenty of long marriages are wonjin pairs by animal; they simply learned where the edges were.
Is wonjin the same as gwimun gwansal?
No, though the two are often named together. Gwimun gwansal (귀문관살, 鬼門關殺), the "ghost gate" star, shares four pairs with wonjin (丑午, 卯申, 辰亥, 巳戌) but uses 子酉 and 寅未 in place of wonjin's 子未 and 寅酉. It is read as a different kind of sensitivity, and the two should not be merged.
Is wonjin only used for zodiac compatibility?
No. As the sections above show, it is read between the branches of a single chart, and between a chart and its luck pillars and years. The zodiac version is simply the best known because it needs only two birth years.
To check a pair, look up both animals on the zodiac compatibility chart, and to go beyond the year branch, put both birth dates into the match page, which compares the Day Masters and day branches too. The related patterns are covered in Peach Blossom and the special stars.
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