Ten Gods in Saju: How Each Stem Relates to Your Day Master
ten gods bazi · Education
The ten gods (십신 or 십성 in Korean, 十神 in Chinese) sound mysterious, but they are a naming system. Each one describes how another character on your chart relates to your Day Master, the stem in the day column. Once you know your Day Master's element and polarity, you can work out every label yourself with two questions. This guide gives you those questions, a lookup table and a worked chart, and it stays clear of the life verdicts that often get attached to these names.
Before you start (free, no account): run the Saju calculator and find the top character in the day column. If you are not sure which one that is, How to Find Your Day Master walks through it.
The two questions behind every label
For any other stem on your chart, ask:
- How does its element relate to my Day Master's element? There are five possibilities: the same element, the element my Day Master feeds, the element it restrains, the element that restrains it, or the element that feeds it. These come from the generating and controlling cycles described in Five Elements in Saju.
- Is its polarity the same as my Day Master's, or different? Every stem is yang or yin.
Five relationships times two polarities gives ten labels. That is all the "ten" means.
The ten gods at a glance
| Relationship to the Day Master | Same polarity | Different polarity |
|---|---|---|
| Same element | Companion (비견, 比肩) | Rob Wealth (겁재, 劫財) |
| Element the Day Master feeds | Eating God (식신, 食神) | Hurting Officer (상관, 傷官) |
| Element the Day Master restrains | Indirect Wealth (편재, 偏財) | Direct Wealth (정재, 正財) |
| Element that restrains the Day Master | Seven Killings (편관, 偏官) | Direct Officer (정관, 正官) |
| Element that feeds the Day Master | Indirect Resource (편인, 偏印) | Direct Resource (정인, 正印) |
English translations vary from book to book. You may also see "Friend" for Companion, "Output" for the two in the second row, "Power" or "Authority" for the fourth row, and "Seal" for the last row. The Chinese and Korean names are the stable reference.
A quick reference for the elements
To answer question one, you need each stem's element and polarity:
| Element | Yang stem | Yin stem |
|---|---|---|
| Wood | 甲 | 乙 |
| Fire | 丙 | 丁 |
| Earth | 戊 | 己 |
| Metal | 庚 | 辛 |
| Water | 壬 | 癸 |
And the cycles, in one line each:
- Feeds: wood to fire, fire to earth, earth to metal, metal to water, water to wood.
- Restrains: wood restrains earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, fire restrains metal, metal restrains wood.
For readings and animals of every character, see Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: A Saju Chart Reference.
A worked chart
Take a made-up birth at 12:00 on 10 February 2024. The calculator gives 甲辰 for the year, 丙寅 for the month, 甲辰 for the day and 庚午 for the hour. The Day Master is 甲, yang wood.
| Column | Stem | Element, polarity | Relationship to yang wood | Ten god |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 甲 | Wood, yang | Same element, same polarity | Companion |
| Month | 丙 | Fire, yang | Wood feeds fire, same polarity | Eating God |
| Day | 甲 | Wood, yang | This is the Day Master | none |
| Hour | 庚 | Metal, yang | Metal restrains wood, same polarity | Seven Killings |
That is the whole method. Change the Day Master and every label changes with it, which is why the same stem can be a Companion on one chart and Direct Wealth on another.
What about the branches?
Branches get ten-god labels too, but most schools label them through their hidden stems, the stems stored inside each branch, and the number and weight of hidden stems vary between schools. That is why two sites can show different ten-god counts for the same chart. A beginner can learn a lot from the four visible stems alone; add branches once the method feels familiar.
Reading the names without the drama
The names are old and vivid. "Rob Wealth", "Hurting Officer" and "Seven Killings" sound alarming, but they are labels for a relationship between two elements, not predictions.
- No label is good or bad on its own. Traditional readers weigh each one against the rest of the chart, the season of the month pillar and the strength of the Day Master.
- "Wealth" is not a bank balance. It names the element the Day Master restrains. Some books link it to resources or, in older texts, to relationships, but a label is not a forecast.
- A missing ten god is not a missing life area. A chart with no visible Direct Officer does not mean you will never have a job.
If a site shows you a list of ten gods with sweeping verdicts and no chart, it has skipped the method. For what an interpretation can fairly claim, see Saju Reading: What Your Four-Pillar Chart Can (and Can't) Tell You. For a shorter overview of all chart vocabulary, including where the ten gods sit, read Saju Meaning: How to Read the Labels on Your Chart.
Practice in five minutes
- Generate your chart in the Saju calculator.
- Write your Day Master's element and polarity.
- For each of the other stems, answer the two questions.
- Fill in a table like the one above.
- Check your answers by swapping roles: if 庚 is Seven Killings to 甲, then 甲 is Indirect Wealth to 庚, because metal restrains wood.
On PillarAtlas the four-pillar chart is free; see Free Saju Reading: What You Get Without Paying. The calculator shows the characters, not ten-god labels, so this guide is the worksheet. Two-person compatibility readings are not available yet, and purchases are not open, so nothing on the site charges a card.
CTA: Find your Day Master and label your stems with the Saju calculator
Entertainment-only disclaimer
PillarAtlas charts and guides are for learning and entertainment. They are not medical, psychological, financial or legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.