How Saju Trip works — glossary and method

Saju Trip turns a birthday into a Destiny Type and a Korea itinerary. Here is every term we use, what it means in Korean saju, and how we calculate it — no mysticism required.

Terms

Saju (사주 · four pillars)

The Korean system that reads your birth year, month, day and hour as four pairs of characters — eight in all. Koreans use it mostly as a way to describe temperament, which is why people call it the Korean MBTI.

Day Master (일간)

The heavenly stem of your birth day — the character that stands for 'you' in the chart. There are ten: 갑 을 병 정 무 기 경 신 임 계, each belonging to one of the Five Elements.

Destiny Type

Our name for the ten Day Masters: The Pine, The Vine, The Sun, The Candle, The Mountain, The Garden, The Blade, The Jewel, The Ocean and The Rain. One Day Master, one type.

Five Elements (오행)

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — the five qualities every character in the chart belongs to. Places on Saju Trip carry element tags too.

Element balance

How much of each element your eight characters hold, shown as the five-colour ring on your result. It describes a lean, not a score.

Boost Element (용신)

The element that balances your chart — in classical saju the 'useful god', chosen from strength and season. Your itinerary leans toward places that carry this tag.

Day Energy · Day Pillar (일진 · 일주)

Every calendar date has its own stem and branch. We read each of your travel dates against your Day Master, in Korea Standard Time, to name that day's energy.

Ten Gods (십성) and the five day themes

The relation between your Day Master and the day's stem falls into one of five groups. We map them to travel themes: same energy → Squad Day, energy you produce → Create Day, energy you control → Haul Day, energy that controls you → Culture Day, energy that feeds you → Recharge Day.

Energy calendar

Your travel dates laid out with their themes. Arrival and departure days count as half days; if the same theme repeats three days in a row, the middle day switches to your first travel style.

Destiny Stop

Two places that go into every trip of three days or more: The Healing Market Stop (the herbal market, medicine street and foot bath around Cheongnyangni) and Meet Your Destiny (an English saju reading at the Gangnam lounge). Both come with a QR coupon.

Birth time unknown — 6 of 8 characters

If you don't know your birth time we calculate six characters instead of eight. Your Destiny Type still comes from the day pillar, so it does not change; the element balance is a little less precise.

True solar time (진태양시) and time zones

Saju uses the sun's real position, not the clock. We convert your birth time using your birth city's time zone (including daylight saving at that date), then apply the solar-time correction — about 32 minutes for Korea.

Solar terms (절기)

Saju months start at the 24 solar terms, not on the first of the month. We use the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) solar-term times, so a birthday near a boundary lands in the right month.

Luck Cycle (대운)

Ten-year periods in a saju chart. Saju Trip does not use them in the free result — your type and your trip come from the birth chart and the travel dates only.

How we calculate

1. 1Your birthday, birth time and birth city are turned into the eight characters inside your browser, with the Jeomji calendar engine (version 1.0.0). The birthday never reaches our servers — only result codes do (your Day Master, element balance, Boost Element), and only if you save or share.
2. 2Month boundaries follow KASI solar-term times. Birth times are corrected for true solar time and for Korea's historical summer-time and standard-time changes. For overseas births we first convert with the birth city's time zone.
3. 3Travel dates are read in Korea Standard Time. Each date's stem is compared with your Day Master to pick that day's theme; places are then chosen from our verified Seoul list by theme match, Boost Element match, your travel styles and walking distance — never by who pays.
4. 4The sentences on your itinerary are template text today; if an AI writer is added later it will only phrase, never add a place, a price or an opening hour.

Sources

• Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) — solar-term and calendar data
• Jeomji (점지) — Korean saju service whose calendar engine powers Saju Trip
• Our own place list — every place tagged by our team and re-checked every 90 days

Saju Trip is for fun and self-discovery. Nothing here predicts the future, health, money or relationships.