Day Pillar(日柱)
Your day pillar (ilju, 日柱) consists of the heavenly stem and earthly branch of your birth day. Among your eight birth characters, its stem—the Day Master—represents you, while its branch is the ground beneath your feet.
These are the first two characters examined in a saju reading. The Ten God roles of the other six characters are all determined by their relationship to your Day Master. The day branch is read as the position closest to you and as your partner seat.
How it is set
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Structure | Day Master (you) + day branch (your foundation, partner seat) |
| Count | 60. The same day pillar repeats every 60 days |
| Boundary | Saju calendar. Birth time is adjusted for your birthplace's longitude |
| Ten Gods | All based on the Day Master |
| Table for each day pillar | Day branch Ten God · hidden stems · twelve life stages · elemental designation · Void |
The table of all 60 day pillars is in the day pillar dictionary (/ilju). This table explains how the two characters are determined.
Traits
Your day pillar is one of the sixty stem-branch combinations, and the same pair returns every 60 days. For births around 11 p.m., the day pillar can vary depending on the day boundary and apparent solar time adjustment. Seowoon uses its calendar library’s calculations with a birth-location longitude adjustment (−32 minutes for Seoul) to determine the day and hour pillars. Entering both your birth time and birthplace gives a more accurate result.
Your Day Master represents you, so its element and yin or yang quality describe your basic nature. Each of the ten heavenly stems has its own character: Gap (甲) is yang Wood, and Eul (乙) is yin Wood. The Ten Gods, Day Master strength, favorable element, and chart pattern are all calculated from this character. Changing the Day Master changes every Ten God relationship, even for the same set of eight characters.
The day branch is the ground your Day Master sits on. The Ten God relationship between its main hidden stem and your Day Master answers “what kind of ground am I standing on?” The Day Master’s twelve life stage in that branch describes its strength on that ground. This position is also read as the partner seat, but Seowoon does not use it to judge a partner’s character or predict when you will meet.
People search by day pillar names such as Eul-yu or Gap-ja because those who share these two characters are thought to have similar underlying traits. Seowoon’s 60 day pillar guide lists each pillar’s Day Master · day branch · day branch Ten God · hidden stems · twelve life stage · naeum · Void, followed by general observations about personality · work · romance. The day pillar also represents life around age forty.
Seowoon’s free “Day Pillar” reading shows your two characters, the hidden stems within your day branch, and the life stage associated with them. It also suggests ways to check the reading against your experience by asking someone close to you.
A common misconception
The claim “your day pillar tells your whole saju” is only half true. It is the starting point, so it is read first, but two people with an Eul-yu day pillar can express it very differently depending on their other six characters and ten-year periods. The 60 day pillar readings offer general patterns across 60 categories, not a verdict on an individual.Conversely, counting elements without considering the day pillar leaves out the very character that represents you.
Check it in your chart
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Related entries
- Hidden stemsHidden stems (jijanggan, 支藏干) are heavenly stems concealed within each of the twelve earthly branches. Each branch contains one to three stems.
- VoidVoid (Gongmang, 空亡) refers to the two earthly branches left without a partner in each ten-pair group (Sun, 旬) when the ten heavenly stems are paired with the twelve earthly branches.
- Nayin ElementsThe traditional elemental images (Nabeum, 納音) are thirty old names that group the sixty stem-branch combinations into consecutive pairs, using images such as Metal in the Sea · Fire in the Furnace · Wood of the Great Forest.
- Ten GodsThe Ten Gods (sipsin, 十神) name the relationship between your Day Master, which represents you, and each other character in your chart: Companion·Rob Wealth·Eating God·Hurting Officer·Indirect Wealth·Direct Wealth·Seven Killings·Direct Officer·Indirect Resource·Direct Resource.
- Combinations and ClashesCombinations and clashes (hapchung, 合沖) describe characters that attract and bind together (combinations) or face each other from opposite positions and collide (clashes).
- All of Saju Dictionary
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my day pillar?
Build your birth chart using your birth date and time. The two characters in the day column are your day pillar. For births around 11 p.m., the result can vary with the day boundary and longitude adjustment, so entering both your birth time and birthplace is more accurate. The free reading calculates it from your birth date.
What is the difference between the day pillar and Day Master?
The day pillar contains two characters (heavenly stem + earthly branch). The Day Master is just its heavenly stem. The Day Master represents you; the day pillar includes the ground you sit on—the day branch—as well.
How is day pillar compatibility read?
A common approach looks at each person’s Day Master as a Ten God relative to the other, then checks for combinations · clashes between their day branches. The traditional rule that reads Wealth as a partner in a man’s chart and Officer as a partner in a woman’s chart also uses the Day Master as its reference. A compatibility table based only on day pillar names is not enough for a conclusion.
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