What is saju?
Saju (사주, “four pillars”) is the Korean tradition of reading the moment you were born as eight characters — the same Four Pillars system known in Chinese as BaZi, practiced in Korea for centuries.
What is saju?
Saju is a way of describing a person through the year, month, day and hour of their birth. Each of those four becomes a “pillar” written with two characters, so a full chart has eight — which is why Koreans call it saju palja, “four pillars, eight characters.”
What are the four pillars and the eight characters?
The four pillars are year, month, day and hour. Each pillar pairs a heavenly stem (one of ten) on top with an earthly branch (one of twelve) below, and every stem and branch carries one of the five elements.
What is a Day Master in saju?
The Day Master is the heavenly stem of your day pillar — the character that stands for you in the chart. Every other character is read in relation to it, which is why the Day Master is the usual starting point of a reading.
What are the five elements in saju?
The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. They feed each other in one cycle (wood feeds fire, fire makes earth, earth bears metal, metal carries water, water nourishes wood) and check each other in another, and a chart is read by how they balance.
Why do birth time and birthplace matter in saju?
The hour pillar changes every two hours, and the clock on the wall is not the same as the sun’s position where you were born — in Seoul, for example, clock time runs about 30 minutes ahead of the sun. PAL:JA corrects every chart to true solar time — the sun’s actual position at your birthplace — using the longitude of 259 birthplaces across 196 countries and territories, including historical daylight-saving rules.
What if I don’t know my birth time?
Your chart can still be read from the year, month and day pillars — six of the eight characters, including your Day Master. The hour pillar adds detail, so anything that depends on it is simply left out rather than guessed.
Is Korean saju the same as Chinese BaZi?
They share the same foundation: the same ten stems, twelve branches, five elements and four pillars. The difference is mostly in language and in the interpretive habits each tradition developed over time.
What can saju tell you — and what can’t it?
Saju describes tendencies: how you tend to take in the world, where your energy tends to go, which kinds of people and seasons tend to feel easier or harder. It does not decide what happens to you, and a good reading never tells you it does.
How do I get my saju reading?
Enter your birth date, time and birthplace in the calculator on this page. PAL:JA calculates your eight characters, Day Master and five-element balance for free.
Calculate your chart — free
FAQ
Is saju accurate?
The calculation can be exact — the eight characters follow fixed rules from your birth moment, and PAL:JA corrects for true solar time. The interpretation is a centuries-old tradition, not a science, so it is best read as a description of tendencies.
Is saju the same as Korean astrology?
Yes — in English, saju is often called Korean astrology, and that is usually what the term refers to. Its Korean name, 사주 (四柱), means “four pillars”: the year, month, day and hour of birth, written as eight characters.
Where do people get saju readings in Korea?
Many Koreans visit saju cafés and readers, especially around the new year, before a big decision, or before marriage. Visitors to Seoul often seek them out too.
Is calculating my saju free?
Yes. Your eight characters, Day Master and five-element balance are free to calculate on PAL:JA; longer written readings are optional.