You typed in a birthday and got a card full of Chinese characters. Here is what to look at first, in the order that makes the rest easier.
Read the pillars from right to left
The chart has four columns: hour, day, month, year. They are laid out the traditional way, so the year is on the far right and the hour on the far left. Each column is one pillar: a heavenly stem on top and an earthly branch below.
If you left the birth time empty, the hour column shows Unknown. That is fine. Six of the eight characters are still there, and most of what a first read needs sits in the day and month pillars.
Start with the day pillar
The top character of the day column is your day master. It stands for you, and the rest of the chart is read in relation to it. There are ten day masters, one per heavenly stem, each a yin or yang version of one of the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water).
The card names your day master and gives a short description, with a note on strengths and things to watch. Treat it as a starting sketch of temperament, not a verdict. The day masters guide has all ten side by side.
Counts and percentages are two different things
The five-element bars show two numbers for each element.
- ×n is a plain count: how many of the visible characters in your pillars belong to that element.
- The percentage is a weighted share. It also counts the stems hidden inside each branch, and it gives the month branch extra weight because the season you were born in sets the tone of the chart.
So an element can say Missing (count 0) and still show a small percentage. That means it does not appear on the surface but is present inside a branch. “Missing” is a description of the layout, not a flaw to fix.
Balance compares the elements that support your day master with the ones that pull on it. Elements that help you are the ones that would even that balance out. Readings use them for small suggestions, such as lucky colours. They are a way to think about your chart, nothing more.
Check the small notes under the chart
- Local solar time. Saju uses the sun’s position where you were born, so the card shifts the clock by a number of minutes based on your longitude (about 32 minutes earlier in Seoul). Near a two-hour boundary this can move the hour pillar.
- Seasonal boundary. Months in saju start at the solar terms, not on the 1st. If a term falls on your birthday and the time is missing, the card warns that the month pillar could be off. Adding the time fixes it.
- Zodiac animal and Ipchun. Your animal comes from the year pillar, and the saju year starts at Ipchun, around February 4. Born in January or early February? Your animal may be the previous year’s, and the card says so.
Once these four things make sense, the glossary covers the remaining terms, including the ten gods and the 10-year luck cycles further down the card.