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Saju guide

The Ten Gods (Sipseong): How the Other Seven Characters Relate to You

The ten gods, or sipseong, name the relationship between your day master and every other character in a saju chart. Learn the one rule behind all ten names.

Readings often contain phrases like "a strong output star" or "an official in the month pillar," and newcomers can be forgiven for thinking a whole pantheon is involved. Nothing of the sort is meant. "Ten gods" is a literal English rendering of sipsin (十神). Koreans more often say sipseong (十星, "ten stars"), and either way the term refers to ten kinds of relationship. Each name describes how one character in your chart stands toward you. Once the single rule behind them is clear, the vocabulary stops feeling mysterious.

You are the reference point

A saju chart has eight characters, and one of them stands for you: the stem at the top of the day pillar, known as the day master or ilgan. The remaining seven are labeled according to how they relate to that stem.

This is why the same character can carry different names in different charts. Take Im, the yang Water stem. For a Wood day master it is a source of nourishment, since Water feeds Wood. For a Fire day master it is a pressure, since Water puts out Fire. The character has not changed. The relationship has, and the ten gods are names for relationships rather than for characters.

Five relationships from the element cycles

Everything here rests on the two element loops. Going round the circle Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, each element feeds the one after it. Skipping one step gives the controlling pairs, so Wood presses on Earth, Fire on Metal, Earth on Water, Metal on Wood and Water on Fire.

Measured against your day master, any other character falls into exactly one of five groups:

Splitting each group by yin and yang

Every stem leans yin or yang. Comparing that polarity with your own splits each group in two, which gives the full set of ten.

A useful pattern sits inside this list. In three of the five groups, the matching-polarity name begins with pyeon, meaning "one-sided" or "off-center," and the opposite-polarity name begins with jeong, meaning "proper" or "regular." The first two groups, bigyeon and geopjae and then siksin and sanggwan, have their own names, but the same split applies.

A worked example: Jeong Fire

Suppose the day master is Jeong, yin Fire, pictured as a candle. Here is how the ten stems line up for that person.

Jeong meeting Jeong is bigyeon, while Byeong, the yang Fire stem, is geopjae. Fire feeds Earth, so Gi, yin Earth, is siksin and Mu, yang Earth, is sanggwan. Fire controls Metal, which makes Sin, yin Metal, pyeonjae and Gyeong, yang Metal, jeongjae. Water controls Fire, so Gye, yin Water, is pyeongwan and Im, yang Water, is jeonggwan. Wood feeds Fire, so Eul, yin Wood, is pyeonin and Gap, yang Wood, is jeongin.

Change the day master and the whole map shifts. For a Gap Wood person, the same Gap stem would be bigyeon instead of jeongin. To try it on your own chart, you need only the eight characters; Hongsil lays them out as four pillars, and from there you can label each stem with the rule above, one at a time.

Branches are labeled the same way, with one extra step. Each branch holds hidden stems, called jijanggan, and readers usually take the main hidden stem to decide its element and polarity. Schools differ on how to treat the polarity of a few branches, which is one reason two tools can show slightly different labels for the same chart.

Pyeon is not "bad"

Older texts tended to treat pyeongwan, sanggwan, geopjae and pyeonin as rough or risky influences. Many current readers no longer frame them that way. Sanggwan is often linked with writing, teaching and any work built on words. Pyeonjae is associated with an eye for trade, and pyeonin with research, planning and fields that reward an unusual angle. Whether any of the ten helps or strains is judged against the balance of the whole chart, not from its name.

What readers use them for

The ten gods show up in three main ways in a reading. First, temperament: a chart crowded with siksang may be described as expressive, and one heavy in gwanseong as dutiful or self-demanding. Second, people: each group has traditional family and social links, such as inseong for a mother figure and bigeop for siblings and friends. Third, timing: when a ten-year cycle or a new year brings in a particular god, readers use it to name the theme of that period.

A chart missing one group entirely is common. Readers usually treat the absent group as an area a person approaches in their own way, or one that may be learned over time, rather than something that is simply lacking.

FAQ

Are the ten gods actual deities?

No. The English phrase is a conventional, word-for-word translation of sipsin. In practice the term names ten relationship types, and nothing in the system involves worship or spirits.

My chart has no jaeseong. Does that mean I will lack money?

No. A chart does not decide anyone's finances, and readers do not take the absence that way. Hidden stems inside the branches can carry the missing element, and ten-year cycles and yearly pillars bring in characters the birth chart lacks. An absent group is more often read as a different approach to that area of life.

Do men and women read the ten gods differently?

Traditional texts linked jaeseong with a wife in a man's chart and gwanseong with a husband in a woman's chart. Many modern readers set that aside and look at what each person seeks in relationships, whatever their sex.

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Part of the dotorium saju guide. Saju readings are for fun and reflection, not for making decisions.