Saju (사주)

Korea’s Four Pillars of Destiny

Overview

Saju — fully Saju Palja (사주팔자, four pillars, eight characters) — is the Korean form of the Chinese Four Pillars of Destiny. From the year, month, day, and hour of birth it builds four pillars, each a Heavenly Stem paired with an Earthly Branch, yielding eight characters read through Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. Practitioners weigh the Ten Gods, the chart’s elemental balance, and the ten-year Daeun luck cycles to map temperament, career, wealth, and relationships. It is the most consulted destiny system in Korea, woven into career, dating, and naming decisions alike.

Origin & history

Saju descends from Chinese BaZi (八字), systematised in the Tang dynasty (618–907) and refined by Song-era masters such as Xu Ziping. The method crossed into Korea through Confucian and Daoist scholarship, where it was absorbed into the broader study of fate-principles known as Myeongrihak (명리학, 命理學).

Across the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) Saju was studied by court astronomers at the Gwansanggam and consulted for naming, marriage, and statecraft. After modernisation it survived in folk practice, and in recent decades it has surged among younger Koreans through saju cafés, apps, and a thriving online culture of myeongri readers.

How it works

The four pillars are derived from a birth moment using the sexagenary cycle of ten stems and twelve branches, producing eight characters. A reader interprets the Five Elements’ balance, the Ten Gods (Sip-sin) that frame relationships and resources, auxiliary Sinsal stars, and the Daeun luck pillars that shift every ten years. The askTIAN API computes the four pillars, the elemental tally, the Ten Gods, and the active Daeun period, returning each pillar’s stem and branch with a structured reading.

Good for

Use cases

Natal Reading

Cast the full four-pillar chart from a birth moment and read elemental balance, strengths, and blind spots.

Career & Wealth

Use the Ten Gods and element flow to surface vocational fit and money tendencies.

Luck-Cycle Forecast

Track the ten-year Daeun pillars to time turning points and favourable seasons.

Naming Guidance

Identify weak or excessive elements to inform a name that rebalances the chart.

Key terms

Saju Palja
The four pillars, eight characters — the eight stem-and-branch glyphs derived from year, month, day, and hour of birth.
Sip-sin (Ten Gods)
Ten relational roles, such as wealth, officer, and resource, that map how each element relates to the day master.
Daeun
The ten-year great-luck cycles through which elemental influence enters a life in successive decades.
Ohaeng
The Five Elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — whose balance and cycles drive the chart’s interpretation.

API

The askTIAN Saju API returns the four pillars, Five-Element tally, Ten Gods, and active Daeun cycle with a structured reading and a 0–100 score.

Endpoint: POST /trpc/korean.saju — 5 TIAN Points. See the API documentation and Playground.