What is a Day Master?
Your Day Master is the top character of your day pillar: the heavenly stem of the day you were born. In saju it's the center of the chart, the "you" every other part is read against. There are ten: five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), each in a yang and a yin version.
Yang is the bigger, outward version of an element, like a tall tree or the sun. Yin is the finer, inward one, like a vine or a candle. Neither is better; they are two ways of being the same element. Each Day Master comes with a picture, which is why people remember theirs so easily.
Day Master vs Sun sign
Your Sun sign is 1 of 12 and comes from where the Sun was. Your Day Master is 1 of 10 and comes from the day you were born in the sixty-day cycle. Two traditions, same birth moment. In your report we show where they agree.
The sixty-day cycle pairs the ten stems with the twelve earthly branches and has been counted without a break for centuries, so every date on the calendar has its own pair of characters. Your Sun sign stays the same for about a month; your Day Master changes every day. Friends born a week apart can share a Sun sign and still have different Day Masters, and that's often a fun conversation.
Why your birth time matters (and when it doesn't)
Day Master needs only the date. The hour pillar, Zi Wei and your Rising sign need the time. No birth time? You still get your Day Master.
The one exception is a birth late at night. Saju starts the new day at 11pm local solar time, so someone born at 11:45pm can belong to the next saju day. The question on midnight below explains how the mini chart handles it.
Saju vs BaZi
Saju shares its roots with Chinese BaZi. This is how it's read and talked about in Korea. The four pillars are the same; "saju" (사주, four pillars) is the Korean name, and Koreans also say saju palja (사주팔자), four pillars and eight characters. BaZi means "eight characters." We show both names: 丙 = 병 (byeong) = bing.
Your Day Master is one character of eight
A full saju chart has four pillars, for the year, month, day and hour of your birth. Each pillar has two characters: a heavenly stem on top and an earthly branch underneath. That's the eight characters. Your Day Master is the stem of the day pillar, and the branch under it is your day animal, which is why a day pillar reads like 丙午, a Fire Horse day.
The other seven characters say how much support your Day Master has, which elements you lean on and which run short, and how your years unfold. That's one pillar of four. Your free preview reads all four, your Zi Wei life palace and your Big Three side by side.
See my free preview
Questions
Is the Day Master the same as my Chinese zodiac animal?
No. Your animal comes from your year pillar. Your Day Master comes from your day pillar, so two people born in the same year share an animal and usually have different Day Masters.
Can my Day Master change?
No, it's fixed by your birth date. What changes over time in saju are the 10-year chapters (daeun) and the yearly influences that pass through your chart.
I was born near midnight. Which day counts?
In saju the new day starts with the Rat hour (子時) at 11pm local solar time, not at midnight, and that's the rule our charts use. For a birth in Korea that point falls at 11:30pm on the Korean clock; elsewhere we work from local solar time for your birth city, so the exact clock minute depends on where the city sits in its time zone. Some families count the new day from midnight instead. If you were born between 11pm and midnight and the two rules disagree, the mini chart shows both day pillars, and if you don't know your time it tells you when a late-night birth would change your day.
Is this a prediction?
No. It describes patterns as the tradition reads them. For reflection and entertainment.