Korean Saju vs Chinese BaZi
Same eight characters, different house style — and one convention that can genuinely change your chart.
BaZi (八字) means eight characters, and Saju Palja (사주팔자) means four pillars, eight characters. They are describing the same structure, which is why a competent Korean and a competent Chinese reader will usually agree on what your eight characters are.
Terminology
- Day Master: 일간 (Ilgan) in Korean, 日主 in Chinese practice.
- Five Elements: 오행 (Ohaeng) / 五行.
- Ten-year luck: 대운 (Daewoon) / 大運.
- Compatibility: 궁합 (Gunghap), a distinctly Korean word with strong everyday currency.
The convention that actually matters
The 子 hour spans 11 PM to 1 AM, which straddles midnight, and schools disagree about which day it belongs to. Korean practice today commonly uses the Yajasi convention, in which a birth at or after 11 PM takes the following day's pillar. Other schools change the day at midnight, so an 11:30 PM birth keeps the earlier day.
This is not a detail. It changes the Day Master, and the Day Master is the character the entire reading hangs on. If you have ever had two services give you charts that disagreed, this is the most likely reason — followed closely by whether they corrected for your longitude.
Interpretive emphasis
Chinese-language BaZi practice tends to formalise structure types and useful-god selection heavily. Korean practice tends to foreground the practical reading — temperament, relationships, timing, compatibility — with Gunghap occupying a far larger everyday role than any single equivalent in Chinese practice. Neither is more correct; they are different centres of gravity.
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