Saju Glossary
Plain-English meanings of the unfamiliar words in Saju and fortune readings. If you are new, start with “Day Master” and “Five Elements.”
Terms in Saju reading
- Saju (Four Pillars)四柱八字 · Bazi
- A table of your birth year, month, day and hour, each written as two characters, eight in all. It is the Korean name for what Chinese tradition calls BaZi.The four pillars are the Year, Month, Day and Hour Pillars, each with two characters, which is why it is called “four pillars, eight characters.”
- Day Master日干 · Rigan
- The top character of your Day Pillar. It stands for “you” in a Saju chart and is the most important character in the reading.There are ten: Jia (big tree), Yi (grass), Bing (sun), Ding (candle flame), Wu (mountain), Ji (soil), Geng (iron), Xin (jewel), Ren (ocean) and Gui (dew).
- Day Pillar日柱 · Rizhu
- The two characters of your birth day (Day Master plus Day Branch). There are 60 of them, and they describe the basic ground of your character.
- Day Branch日支 · Rizhi
- The lower character of your birth day. It stands for your inner self and the spouse palace.
- Month Branch月支 · Yuezhi
- The lower character of your birth month. It shows the season you were born in and your social environment.
- Heavenly Stems & Earthly Branches天干 · 地支
- Every pillar has an upper character (Heavenly Stem) and a lower one (Earthly Branch). The upper shows the energy on the surface, the lower the energy underneath.There are ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches, the twelve zodiac animals (Rat, Ox, Tiger and so on).
- Five Elements五行 · Wuxing
- The five kinds of energy that make up the world: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.Seeing which elements are plentiful or scarce in your chart shows your tendencies and where to watch your health.
- Ten Gods十神 · Shishen
- Ten names for how each other character relates to your Day Master (you).Friend and Rob Wealth (people like you), Eating God and Hurting Officer (expression and talent), Indirect and Direct Wealth (money and the practical world), Seven Killings and Direct Officer (duty and rules), Indirect and Direct Resource (learning and support).
- The five groups of Ten Gods比劫 · 食傷 · 財星 · 官星 · 印星
- The ten Ten Gods grouped into five. Peers = your own side, Output = expression and talent, Wealth = money and reality, Authority = duty and career, Resource = learning and protection.
- Strong & weak Day Master身强 · 身弱
- Whether your own energy (the force that supports your Day Master) is strong or weak. Strong is not “good” and weak is not “bad”: balance is what matters.Strong tends to mean firm views and drive; weak tends to mean sensitivity and being easily influenced. Balanced means in between.
- Useful, Favorable & Unfavorable God用神 · 喜神 · 忌神
- The energy that balances your chart (Useful God), the energy that supports it (Favorable God), and the energy that upsets the balance (Unfavorable God).Keeping the colors, directions, foods and habits of your Useful God element close to you is called “bringing in luck.”
- Climate balance (Tiao Hou)調候
- Adjusting for the temperature of your birth season. A very cold chart needs warmth, a very hot one needs cooling.
- Hidden Stems支藏干
- The upper characters hidden inside each lower character (Earthly Branch). They show the energy that is not visible on the surface.
- Twelve Life Stages十二運星
- Where a character’s energy sits in a 12-step cycle of being born, growing and fading: Growth, Bathing, Capping, Prosperity, Peak, Decline, Illness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, Conception, Nurture.Prosperity and Peak mean energy at its fullest; Death, Tomb and Extinction mean a time to rest or wrap up. They are not only negative.
- Combine, Clash, Penalty & Harm合 · 沖 · 刑 · 害
- How characters relate when they meet. Combine = attract and blend, Clash = collide head-on, Penalty = test each other and tangle, Harm = quiet hurt that builds up.A Clash is not only bad; it is read as “the point where change happens.”
- Symbolic Stars神煞 · Shensha
- Stars read from combinations of characters that describe inborn traits. Treat them as reference traits rather than good or bad verdicts.For example Peach Blossom = charm, Traveling Horse = movement and activity, Canopy = art and solitude.
- Luck Cycles (10-year)大運 · Dayun
- The big seasons of life, changing every ten years. They show what kind of period you are passing through now.
- Annual & Monthly Luck歲運 · 月運
- The luck that changes every year (Annual Luck) and every month (Monthly Luck). Used to read this year’s and this month’s flow.In Saju the new year starts at Lichun (Start of Spring, around February 4), not on January 1.
- Void (Kong Wang)空亡
- Two characters that are left “empty.” The area they touch is read as feeling a little hollow or less engaging.
Terms in Daily horoscope
- Six Harmony & Three Harmony六合 · 三合
- Good relationships between zodiac animals (Earthly Branches): two animals that pair up (Six Harmony) or three that form a team (Three Harmony).For example Rat and Ox form a Six Harmony; Tiger, Horse and Dog form a Three Harmony.
- Resentment & Break怨嗔 · 破
- Relationships where you may dislike each other for no clear reason (Resentment) or where plans tend to go off track (Break).
- Daily Pillar日辰 · Richen
- The two characters that belong to today’s date. They describe the energy of the day.Comparing your Day Master or zodiac animal with today’s Daily Pillar is how a daily horoscope is read.
- Aspect (angle)
- The angle today’s Moon makes with your sun sign in a horoscope. Trine and sextile are smooth; square and opposition bring stimulation and tension.
Terms in MBTI × Saju
- The four MBTI letters
- A combination of E/I (where your energy goes), S/N (how you take in information), T/F (how you decide) and J/P (how you organize life).
Terms in I Ching
- Hexagram & Line卦 · 爻
- The symbols the I Ching uses to picture a situation. One horizontal bar is a line; six lines make a hexagram (one of 64).A solid line is yang (active), a broken line is yin (receptive). If a line is about to change, the hexagram it turns into is read as well.
- Primary & changed hexagram本卦 · 變卦
- The primary hexagram is your situation now; the changed hexagram is the direction it is turning. With no changing lines there is no changed hexagram.
These are simple explanations to aid understanding; interpretations differ between schools.