From our Saju engine: your birth year, month, day and hour each become one pillar of one Heavenly Stem over one Earthly Branch — eight characters in all. Each stem and branch maps to one of the Five Elements, and the top character of your day pillar is your Day Master.
If you have seen the phrase saju palja and wondered what those eight characters actually are, this page walks through it step by step — no Korean required.
Saju (사주 / 四柱) is "four pillars." Palja (팔자 / 八字) is "eight characters." The two words describe the same chart from two angles: four columns of information, holding eight characters between them.
The four pillars come from four moments of your birth — the year, month, day, and hour. Each pillar is written as two stacked characters: one Heavenly Stem (천간, cheongan) on top and one Earthly Branch (지지, jiji) on the bottom. Four pillars × two characters = eight characters, the "pal-ja."
A reading turns your eight characters into meaning in three moves:
| Element | Korean | Themes |
|---|---|---|
| Wood 木 | 목 (mok) | Growth, leadership, plans, kindness |
| Fire 火 | 화 (hwa) | Expression, spotlight, passion, charisma |
| Earth 土 | 토 (to) | Stability, trust, mediation, grounding |
| Metal 金 | 금 (geum) | Discipline, justice, finance, precision |
| Water 水 | 수 (su) | Wisdom, intuition, communication, flow |
These are three names for the same eight-character method, all sharing a common Tang-dynasty root:
The calculation is essentially identical across all three. Korean Saju is distinctive for how much weight it puts on the Sip-sin (Ten Gods) relational reading style. For the full pillar-by-pillar breakdown, see the Four Pillars of Destiny guide.
You do not need to memorise stems and branches to get started. Enter your birth date and hour, and the calculator produces your eight characters, your Day Master, and your element balance for you.
Saju palja (사주팔자) means "four pillars, eight characters." Your birth year, month, day, and hour each become one pillar of a Heavenly Stem over an Earthly Branch — eight characters in total that together describe your personality, relationships, and life timing.
Saju (사주 / 四柱) means "four pillars" and palja (팔자 / 八字) means "eight characters" — the same chart from two angles. The four columns are your year, month, day, and hour, and each column holds two stacked characters, so four pillars times two equals the eight characters.
The Day Master (일간, ilgan) is the top character of your day pillar and represents you. It is the single most-read character in the whole chart, and every other element is interpreted in relation to it.
Every Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch belongs to one of the Five Elements (오행, ohaeng) — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The mix and balance of these elements across your eight characters is what shapes your temperament and how the chart is read.
No. You enter your birth date and hour, and the calculator produces your eight characters, your Day Master, and your element balance for you — no Korean and no memorising stems and branches required to get started.
Yes. Saju palja (사주팔자) is the Korean name, BaZi (八字) is the Chinese name, and Four Pillars of Destiny is the common English translation — three names for the same eight-character method sharing a common Tang-dynasty root. The calculation is essentially identical; Korean Saju is distinctive for the weight it puts on the Sip-sin (Ten Gods) reading style.