Get your Saju chart before you start reading

Learn which birth details a Saju calculator needs, why time and place matter, and what to do when your birth time is unknown.

Short answer: A reliable Saju chart starts with the birth date exactly as recorded, the right calendar type, and, when known, the birth time and place. If a detail is uncertain, mark it unknown. A question mark is more useful than a placeholder wearing a nice outfit.

The first rule of reading Saju is almost suspiciously ordinary:

Make sure it is your chart.

Eight beautifully explained wrong characters are still the wrong eight characters.

What information does a Saju calculator need?

Qiora asks for a few profile details. Some affect the calculation. Others simply help you identify the saved chart.

Input	What it does
Name	Labels the saved profile; it does not change the eight characters
Date of birth	Provides the date used to calculate the pillars
Calendar type	Tells the calculator whether the recorded date is solar, lunar, or a leap lunar month
Gender	Supplies a traditional Luck Pillar calculation parameter
Time of birth	Calculates the Hour Pillar when known
Place of birth	Supplies location and historical time information for time correction when a birth time is used

On Qiora, name and a binary gender selection are required profile fields. If you choose Not sure for the birth time, you can continue without entering a birthplace. The Saju card is designed to mark the Hour Pillar with a question mark, while a reading uses noon only as an internal placeholder. If a current build shows characters in that column instead, they are still unverified and do not become your birth time.

Gender does not change your natal eight characters. In Qiora, the selection works with the Yin or Yang quality of the Year Stem to determine whether the Luck Pillars (대운, 大運) run forward or backward. That direction also decides which solar-term boundary is measured when calculating their starting age. If the choice feels awkward, read Which Gender Should I Pick for My Saju Reading?.

Solar or lunar? Enter the date you actually have

If your birthday was recorded on the Gregorian calendar, enter that date as solar.

If it was recorded on the Korean lunar calendar, choose lunar. If it fell in a leap lunar month, choose that option too. Do not convert the date yourself and then label the converted date as lunar. That sends one birthday through the converter twice, which is one trip too many.

Qiora's English chart form currently accepts Gregorian solar dates. The Korean form offers solar, lunar, and leap-lunar options. If you only know a Korean lunar birthday, you can use the Korean form or convert it with a reliable Korean calendar and keep the original lunar date in your notes. A date from another lunar-calendar tradition needs the converter made for that tradition.

Even when the input is lunar, the calculator first resolves it to a civil solar date. Saju then uses solar terms to place the pillars:

the Year Pillar changes at Ipchun (입춘, 立春)
the Month Pillar changes at the 12 month-opening solar terms, called jie or jeolip (절입)
the Day Pillar follows the sexagenary day cycle

So "lunar birthday" describes the date you supplied. It does not mean the Saju months begin on lunar day one.

Why birth time and birthplace matter

Birth time has one obvious job: calculating the Hour Pillar. Traditional hour blocks span roughly two clock hours, so a few minutes often change nothing. Near the edge of a block, they can change the whole pillar.

The clock reading also needs a place. Time zone and daylight-saving rules establish the historical civil time. Solar-time correction is a separate step that adjusts for the Sun's position at the birthplace. Different calculators may use local mean solar time, apparent solar time, or no solar correction at all.

You do not have to do that arithmetic yourself. Qiora uses the birthplace to handle the correction when a birth time is provided.

Extra care is useful near:

the boundary between two traditional hour blocks
a calculator's Day Pillar boundary
an exact month-opening solar term
Ipchun, the Saju year boundary

That is why two people born at the same clock time in different cities do not always receive the same Hour Pillar.

If your birth time is unknown, do not make one up

Check a birth certificate, hospital record, baby book, or family record. You can also ask a relative who might remember. When someone says "around dinner," ask whether that means six, eight, or simply after work. Family clocks can be charmingly flexible.

Still no answer? Choose Not sure.

Qiora shows a question mark on the Hour card when birth time is unknown. For the reading itself, the system temporarily uses noon because the interpretation pipeline requires Hour Pillar data. Noon still does not become your birth time. Treat any conclusion involving the Hour Pillar as approximate.

In ordinary cases, you can still work with the Year, Month, and Day Pillars, including the Day Master (일간, 日干) and the visible relationships among those three pillars. An internal noon placeholder does not secretly give you a confirmed four-pillar chart.

Without the time, treat these as incomplete:

the Hour Pillar and its interactions
the overall element balance
conclusions that depend on the birth hour
timing calculations that use the exact birth moment

There is one more caveat. Near Ipchun or a month-opening Solar Term, an unknown clock time can leave the Year or Month Pillar uncertain until the missing detail is checked. Qiora calculates the Day Pillar separately from local standard time using its 23:00 Early Rat rule; True Solar Time never changes the Day Pillar.

Some practitioners estimate a missing time by comparing candidate hours with documented life events. This is birth-time rectification, an interpretive hypothesis for advanced work. Qiora's noon placeholder is not rectification and should never be treated as a recovered birth time.

Why two Saju calculators may disagree

A mismatch does not automatically mean one calculator is broken. Compare the inputs and conventions first.

Was the same date entered as solar or lunar?
Did both tools use the same birthplace, time zone, and daylight-saving history?
Did both change the Year Pillar at Ipchun?
Did both change the Month Pillar at the month-opening solar terms?
Did both use the same Day Pillar boundary?
Did both apply the same kind of solar-time correction?

When the birth data are not near any boundary, reputable calculators should usually agree on the pillars. Near a boundary, save the tool name, calculation date, input settings, and raw result. A screenshot without its assumptions is evidence with the label peeled off.

Keep the raw chart, not only the personality summary

A useful result shows the Year, Month, and Day Pillars, plus either a confirmed Hour Pillar or an unknown marker. If you selected Not sure and see two Hour characters instead of a question mark, save the unknown-time setting with the screenshot and label that column unverified.

A paragraph saying you are independent, sensitive, and secretly ambitious may be entertaining, but it cannot be audited without the chart behind it.

For your first pass, find only:

Year Pillar
Month Pillar
Day Pillar
Hour Pillar, or its unknown status if your birth time is not documented

Then stop. You do not need to diagnose your element balance before you can locate four columns.

Make your chart, then save the evidence

Open the free Qiora Saju calculator and enter the most accurate information you have.

Save:

the date you entered
the calendar type, if the form offered a choice
the birth time or Not sure
the birthplace, when used
a screenshot of the raw pillars
the unknown-time setting, even if the current build displays placeholder Hour characters

If another calculator later gives different characters, note that a boundary or calculation convention needs checking. You do not have to solve it on the spot.

Keep the chart open. Next, Four Pillars, Eight Characters will show how those columns become the basic grammar of Saju.

Sources and editorial notes

Qiora's live English and Korean chart forms were checked on 2026-07-31.
The English form currently accepts Gregorian solar dates. The Korean form offers solar, lunar, and leap-lunar input.
When birth time is marked unknown, Qiora does not request a birthplace. The intended card display is a question mark, while readings use noon only as an internal placeholder. A live Korean unknown-time test on 2026-07-31 exposed the placeholder as a regular Hour Pillar, so this page tells readers to preserve the unknown-time setting even when that display mismatch appears.
Gender does not alter the natal eight characters in Qiora. It affects the traditional Luck Pillar direction and starting calculation.
Day-boundary and solar-time conventions vary by school and software. This page tells readers to preserve inputs and results instead of declaring one convention universal.

Saju readings are for self-reflection and personal growth. They are not a substitute for professional medical, legal, or financial advice. Your choices shape your life more than any chart can.