Searching "how to read Saju" usually buries you in Chinese characters until you give up. This guide cuts to the essentials so even a first-timer can read their own chart in five minutes.
What you need: birth date and time
Saju (사주, the Korean Four Pillars of Destiny) is read from four units: the year, month, day, and hour of your birth. So you'll need your birth date and, ideally, your birth time. If you don't know the time, the day-based reading still reveals personality and aptitude — so don't worry.
Step 1 — Pull your four pillars
Enter your birth date and time into a Ten Thousand Year Calendar (manse-ryeok) and you'll get four pillars: year, month, day, and hour. Each pillar is two characters — a heavenly stem (top) and an earthly branch (bottom). Eight characters total: that's your Eight Characters (팔자). Hand-calculating is hard, so a calculator is the accurate route.
Step 2 — Find your Day Master (일간)
The top character of the day pillar (the Day Master) is you. Gap/Eul are Wood, Byeong/Jeong are Fire, and so on — the element of your Day Master is the starting point of your innate temperament. Every Saju reading is anchored to this character and how the others relate to it.
Step 3 — Read your five-element balance
Count how your eight characters spread across the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
- An element you have a lot of → a strong tendency in that area
- An element you're missing or short on → an area worth strengthening (your "useful god," yongshin)
This balance and these gaps shape the big picture of personality, health, and money flow.
Step 4 — Read the flow with Ten Gods and Luck Pillars
The relationships between your Day Master and the other characters form the Ten Gods (wealth, officer, output, etc.), revealing tendencies in money, relationships, and work. Add the Luck Pillars (daeun) that shift every 10 years and you can read "what season of life am I in now." This is where combinations explode in complexity — getting help from AI or an expert is the fast path.
FAQ
Q. I don't know my birth time. Personality and aptitude readings still work from the Day Master and elements. The hour pillar mainly affects later life, children, and precise timing.
Q. Lunar or solar calendar? A good calculator auto-converts both, so just enter your date accurately.
Q. Is Saju a fixed fate? Think of Saju as your innate "weather map." The point is to know the flow and adjust your choices.
Read your Saju now, for free
No hard math — just enter your birth date and time to see your four pillars, elements, and Day Master instantly. Pull your chart with the free Saju calculator, then ask an AI fortune teller anything you're still curious about.