The Ten Gods of Saju (Sipsin), Explained in Plain English
2026-06-22
If the day master is the protagonist of your chart, the ten gods are the cast. Every other character in your saju is in a relationship with you, and Korean Four Pillars names ten of those relationships. In Korean they are the sipsin — literally "ten gods," though they are less deities than roles. Learn these ten and a chart stops being a wall of symbols and starts reading like a story about how a person moves through the world.
The whole system comes from one question asked five ways, then split by polarity.
Where the ten come from
Take your day master. Every other character is one of five things relative to it: the same element as you, an element you generate, an element that generates you, an element you control, or an element that controls you. That is five relationships. Now split each one by whether the other character shares your yin-yang polarity or opposes it. Five times two is ten. That is the entire scaffold.
The five base relationships map onto five areas of life, and the polarity split gives each a steadier version and a more volatile version.
The self group: who you are without help
Companion (비견, bigyeon) is a character the same element and same polarity as you. It reads as your own willpower, your independence, your sense of self standing on its own feet. Strong companion energy makes a person self-reliant and hard to push around; too much can make them stubborn and bad at sharing.
Rival (겁재, geopjae) is the same element but opposite polarity. It is the competitive twin — drive, but with friction. It pushes you to act, take risks, and contend, and in excess it can mean money slipping through the fingers and relationships built on rivalry rather than ease.
The expression group: what you put out
Output (식신, siksin) is what you generate, same polarity. This is the gentle, productive side of self-expression: craft, appetite, the steady making of things, the enjoyment of life. It tends to read as talent that flows without strain, and as a warm, generous disposition.
Performance (상관, sanggwan) is what you generate, opposite polarity. Same creative source, sharper edge. This is brilliance, wit, the urge to outshine and to break rules that bore you. It can be the chart of the artist and the critic both — dazzling, and sometimes too much for the room it is in.
The wealth group: what you control
Steady Wealth (정재, jeongjae) is what you control, opposite polarity. It reads as money earned through patience and structure — salary, savings, a managed household, a partner you build with over years. It is the disposition of the careful provider.
Volatile Wealth (편재, pyeonjae) is what you control, same polarity. This is money that comes in waves: deals, ventures, windfalls, the entrepreneur's feast and famine. Generous, opportunistic, and comfortable with risk. In a man's chart the wealth gods also classically touch on relationships with women, the way the next group touches on relationships with men.
The authority group: what controls you
Proper Authority (정관, jeonggwan) is what controls you, opposite polarity. It is structure that fits — rank, reputation, the rules you are willing to live inside, the kind of disciplined responsibility that earns trust. It reads as the respectable official, the person who rises through legitimate channels.
Volatile Authority (편관, pyeongwan), also called the seven killings, is what controls you, same polarity. This is pressure with teeth: pure power, the soldier and the executive in a crisis, the ability to act decisively under threat. Channeled, it is formidable. Unchanneled, it is the chart of someone always under attack.
The resource group: what generates you
Proper Resource (정인, jeongin) is what generates you, opposite polarity. It is nourishment and protection — a mother's care, education, the long quiet accumulation of knowledge, the support system that lets you grow. It reads as the scholar, the person sustained by learning and by people who look after them.
Volatile Resource (편인, pyeonin) is what generates you, same polarity. The same nourishment, but unconventional: intuition, the occult, niche expertise, the offbeat path to mastery. It can be the chart of the specialist who knows one strange thing better than anyone, and sometimes of the person who overthinks instead of acting.
How to actually use the ten gods
Do not read them as a horoscope of fixed traits. Read them as a balance. A chart heavy in output and performance is expressive and creative but may struggle to hold onto money or accept authority. A chart heavy in authority but light on resource is under pressure with nothing replenishing it — capable but worn down. A chart with strong resource and weak output takes in endlessly but rarely ships. The art of the reading is seeing which gods are loud, which are missing, and what that combination does to a person over a life.
The single most useful move is to find the loudest god in your chart and the one that is absent, and sit with that pairing. That gap is usually where the real story is — the strength you lean on too hard and the thing you keep reaching for.
To see your own ten gods in context, cast your chart on the home page. Then read the day master article for the protagonist, and the balancing element article for what the whole chart is asking for. A chart is a mirror, not a verdict — the ten gods just tell you who is standing in the mirror with you.