What Is Saju?
A way of writing the moment of birth as eight characters, then reading innate tendencies and the flow of life from how those characters relate to each other.
Four pillars, eight characters
Saju (Four Pillars astrology, 四柱) means "four pillars." The year, month, day and hour of birth each become one pillar, and every pillar holds a pair of characters, one on top and one below. The upper character is called the heavenly stem (천간) and the lower one the earthly branch (지지). Four pillars with two characters each make eight characters in all, which is why saju is also called Saju Palja (四柱八字).
For example, the saju of someone born in Seoul at 00:50 on 25 August 2001 is as follows. Traditionally it is written from right to left, starting with the year pillar and ending with the hour pillar.
| Hour pillar (시주) | Day pillar (일주) | Month pillar (월주) | Year pillar (연주) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem (top) | 丙 Byeong | 庚 Gyeong | 丙 Byeong | 辛 Sin |
| Branch (bottom) | 子 Ja | 申 Sin | 申 Sin | 巳 Sa |
The manseryeok (perpetual calendar): a calendar that turns dates into characters
The 60 combinations (60 gapja) made by pairing ten stems with twelve branches come round in turn for years, months, days and hours. The calendar that records which character belongs to which day is called the manseryeok (만세력). The year and the month change at the solar terms, not on 1 January in the solar calendar or on Seollal (Lunar New Year), so they are tricky to work out by hand. Halmeoni takes your birth date, time and city and does this calculation for you.
What is read in a saju
- Day Master (일간): the upper character of the day you were born, which stands for "you" in the saju.
- Five Elements (오행): how much wood, fire, earth, metal and water there is among the eight characters, and how balanced they are.
- Ten Gods (십신): what role each of the other characters plays for "you" (friends, wealth, work, study and so on).
- Structure (격국): what kind of frame the whole chart forms, centred on the season of birth.
- Luck Cycles (대운) and Yearly Luck (세운): how the energy arriving every ten years and every year meets the chart you were born with.
Reading the example chart from the beginning
Let us follow the chart above, for someone born in Seoul at 00:50 on 25 August 2001, in the order Halmeoni calculates it. All the numbers and names in the table are values produced by Halmeoni's calculation engine, and a detailed explanation of each step is in "Further reading" below.
| Step | What was calculated for this chart | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Correcting the time | Clock 00:50 → solar 00:17 (longitude correction for Seoul of about 32 minutes) | Falls in the Ja hour (자시, 23:00–01:00), so the hour pillar is 丙子 |
| 2. Day Master | 庚 Gyeong metal (yang metal) | "You", likened to hard rock or raw iron |
| 3. Season | Month branch 申 (after Ipchu (start of autumn, 입추), early autumn) | The season of metal, the same as the Day Master, so it gains strength (득령) |
| 4. Five Elements | Metal 4, fire 3, water 1, wood 0, earth 0 | Energy like mine and energy that restrains me both stand out |
| 5. Ten Gods | Seven Killings (편관) 3, Friend (비견) 2, Rob Wealth (겁재) 1, Hurting Officer (상관) 1 | Many characters of responsibility and pressure, and many on my own side |
| 6. Strength | 55 out of 100, Strong (신강) | On the strong side, right at the border with Balanced (중화) |
| 7. Structure | Prosperity structure (건록격) | The name given because the month branch 申 is the place where 庚 stands on its own strength (the Prosperity position, 녹) |
| 8. Favourable elements | Fire (Officer), water (Output), wood (Wealth) | The side that refines the overflowing strength or puts it to use outward |
Halmeoni does not look at this table alone and say "this person is like this." Having three Seven Killings is often read as meaning a lot of pressure, but when the Day Master is on the strong side, as in this chart, the Seven Killings is the energy that refines the overflowing strength, so it ranks first among the favourable elements (fire). One fact takes on its meaning only when placed alongside other facts, and that is also why a reading goes step by step.
What Halmeoni asks, and why
| Input | Where it is used | If unknown or not chosen |
|---|---|---|
| Date of birth (solar or lunar) | All four pillars. A lunar date is first converted to the solar calendar | Cannot be calculated |
| Time of birth | The hour pillar, and the day pillar if near midnight | Read with six characters, without the hour pillar |
| City of birth | Longitude correction, and the standard time and daylight saving of that era | If it is not on the list, choose a nearby city in the same time zone |
| Gender (optional) | Direction of the Luck Cycles, the traditional spouse Ten God | No Luck Cycle reading is given, and talk of a spouse does not rely on gender |
Terms that are easy to confuse
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Saju Palja (사주팔자) | The four pillars (saju) of the year, month, day and hour of birth, and their eight characters (palja) |
| Myeongnihak (명리학) | The scholarly tradition of reading innate tendencies and the flow of time from the relations among a chart's characters |
| Manseryeok (만세력) | A calendar that converts dates and times into 60 gapja characters |
| Birth chart (원국) | The eight characters you were born with, as they are. The term used to set them apart from the Luck Cycles and Yearly Luck |
| Daily pillar (일진) | The day pillar of a given day. Today's fortune compares that day's characters with the birth chart |
| Luck Cycles and Yearly Luck (대운·세운) | The energy of the times that arrives in ten-year and one-year units |
| Compatibility (궁합) | Comparing two people's charts to see whether they help or clash with each other |
Everyday phrases such as "having a strong palja" (팔자가 세다) usually point to a vague impression. Instead of such phrases, Halmeoni first states facts that can be checked by calculation, such as the strength of the Day Master and the distribution of the Five Elements, and then adds what tendencies those facts may lead to.
How is saju different from the zodiac animal?
The zodiac animal (띠) people usually talk about is only one of the eight characters: the year branch. Everyone born in the same year shares the same animal, but once the month, day and hour are added, the eight characters differ widely. For each of the 60 year pillars there are 12 month pillars, and for each of the 60 day pillars there are 12 hour pillars, so in theory there are 60×12×60×12 = 518,400 possible charts. A fortune based on the zodiac animal alone looks at just one of those characters.
Compared with Western astrology, saju is similar in that its months also change along the path of the sun (the solar terms). The difference is that it writes the day and the hour as characters too, and reads whether those characters help or restrain each other, and whether they bind or clash.
Common misconceptions
- A saju is fixed as good or bad: Halmeoni does not score charts. Strength and structure are names for tendencies and frames, not grades.
- The same saju means the same life: there are many people with the same eight characters even within one country. Saju is a tool for seeing tendencies, and surroundings and choices change a life greatly.
- The new year begins on 1 January or Seollal: the saju year changes at Ipchun (start of spring, 입춘, around 4 February in the solar calendar). So people born in January often belong to the previous year's animal.
- Bad times cannot be avoided: a time with many clashes is read only as a time of much change and movement, and it does not foretell a fixed event.
Frequently asked questions
- Can my chart be read if I don't know my time of birth? Yes. It is read with the six characters other than the hour pillar, and nothing that relies on the hour pillar is said.
- I only know my lunar birthday. If you enter it as a lunar date, it is converted to the solar calendar for the calculation. If you were born in a leap month, also select that it was a leap month.
- I was born abroad. If you choose your city of birth, the calculation is done the same way using that place's time zone and longitude.
- Do twins have the same saju? If they were born within the same double hour (a two-hour slot), their eight characters are the same. It is natural to see them as two people with the same ingredients who live by making different choices.
- Can saju tell the future? Halmeoni only describes the character of the energy arriving at each time, and never asserts that a particular event will surely happen.
- My result differs from other sites. If the handling of the Ja hour, the longitude correction, or the way structure and favourable elements are decided differs, the results differ too. Halmeoni's standards are gathered in "How Halmeoni Reads a Chart".
How to take it
Saju is closer to a mirror that reflects innate tendencies and the flow of time than to a prophecy that tells you a fixed fate. People with the same saju live completely different lives depending on their surroundings and choices. Use a reading as material for looking back at yourself, and for decisions involving health, legal matters or large sums of money, be sure to consult an expert in that field.