What Is My Day Master?
Your Day Master is the single character at the heart of a Saju or Bazi chart — the Heavenly Stem of the day you were born. Enter your birth date to find yours.
What is a Day Master in Saju and Bazi?
A Four Pillars chart has eight characters: a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch for the year, month, day and hour of birth. The stem of the day pillar — your Day Master (일간 ilgan in Korean, 日主 rizhu in Chinese) — stands for you. Every other character is read by how it relates to it, which is why most readings start here.
There are ten Day Masters: the five elements, each in a yang (outgoing) and a yin (inward) form. Korean and Chinese readers describe them with images from nature — a tall tree, a vine, the sun, a candle, a mountain, a field, raw ore, a jewel, a great river and the rain.
Which Day Master am I?
Pick yours below to read its full profile: temperament, strengths and blind spots, relationships, work style, how your birth season changes it, how it gets along with the other nine, and what 2026 and 2027 mean for it.
How do I find my Day Master?
The day pillar runs in an unbroken 60-day cycle, so it depends only on your birth date — with one catch. In the most common rule the day changes at the start of the Rat hour (23:00 local solar time), not at midnight; some readers keep the day until midnight (야자시, the “late Rat hour”), and our calculator offers both. If you were born late in the evening or just after midnight, your Day Master can depend on the exact time and place. For those births, use the full Saju calculator with your birth city; it corrects for daylight saving and longitude automatically.
Is my Day Master weak or strong?
“Strength” describes how much support your Day Master gets from the rest of the chart. It is judged mainly by the season you were born in (your month branch), then by how many characters share or produce your element. A Wood Day Master born in spring is in season; the same Day Master born in autumn, when Metal rules, usually needs more support. Neither is better — they simply call for different balancing elements, which is what a reader means by your “useful element”.
How do the ten Day Masters relate to each other?
Through the five-element cycle. In the producing cycle Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth yields Metal, Metal carries Water and Water feeds Wood. In the controlling cycle Wood breaks up Earth, Earth contains Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal and Metal cuts Wood. Each Day Master also has one “combination” partner five stems away — 甲 with 己, 乙 with 庚, 丙 with 辛, 丁 with 壬 and 戊 with 癸 — a pairing traditionally read as natural attraction. You can compare two birth dates on the compatibility page.
What is my Day Master?
Your Day Master is the Heavenly Stem of your day pillar — one of ten: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren or Gui (in Korean Gap, Eul, Byeong, Jeong, Mu, Gi, Gyeong, Sin, Im, Gye). Enter your birth date above to find it.
Is my Day Master the same as my Chinese zodiac sign?
No. Your zodiac animal comes from the branch of your year pillar and describes your generation and outer social side. Your Day Master comes from the stem of your day pillar and is read as your core self. Two people born in the same year share an animal but usually not a Day Master.
Do I need my birth time to find my Day Master?
Usually not — only the date. The exception is a birth between about 23:00 and 01:00 local solar time, when the day pillar can change depending on the exact minute, your longitude and which Rat-hour rule is used.
Is the Day Master the same in Korean Saju and Chinese Bazi?
Yes. Both traditions use the same 60-day cycle, so the same birth gives the same Day Master. Only the names differ: Korean readers say Gap or Gyeong, Chinese readers Jia or Geng. Births near midnight can differ if one calculator corrects for local solar time and another does not.
Which element is my Day Master?
Jia and Yi are Wood, Bing and Ding are Fire, Wu and Ji are Earth, Geng and Xin are Metal, Ren and Gui are Water. The first of each pair is yang, the second yin.
For entertainment and self-reflection only. Saju describes tendencies, not fixed outcomes. Day pillars from the SajuHub almanac engine; background: Heavenly Stems (Wikipedia). Updated October 7, 2026.