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The Ten Gods (십신), Explained
What the Ten Gods are
The Ten Gods (십신 / 十神) are the ten possible relationships between your Day Master and any other character in your chart. They are not deities. Every element either matches you, is produced by you, is controlled by you, controls you, or produces you — five relationships — and each of those splits in two depending on whether the polarity (yin or yang) matches yours. Five times two is ten. This is the layer that turns “there is a lot of Metal in this chart” into “this person keeps meeting rivals,” or “this person answers to authority well.”
The one rule that makes it click
Every family splits in two, and the split is always polarity: one member shares your Day Master’s polarity, the other is its opposite. Three of the five families mark that in the name — 편 (indirect) for the same-polarity member, 정 (direct) for the opposite. The Companion and Output families carry older names instead (비견/겁재, 식신/상관), but they divide in exactly the same way. Same-polarity relations push — two yang forces meeting head-on. Opposite-polarity relations pull, and they read as the smoother, more socially legible version of the same force. That is the whole difference between a rival and a friend, a deadline and a job title.
Five families, ten members
Learn the five families first. The ten names are just each family seen twice — once rough, once smooth.
Same element as you. Peers, siblings, rivals — anyone standing where you stand.
Companion 比肩 · Rival 劫財
What you produce. Expression, creativity, work that leaves your hands.
Eating God 食神 · Hurting Officer 傷官
What you control. Money, resources, and what you can actually hold on to.
Indirect Wealth 偏財 · Direct Wealth 正財
What controls you. Authority, pressure, rules, deadlines, reputation.
Seven Killings 偏官 · Direct Officer 正官
What produces you. Learning, mentors, protection, the things that refill you.
Indirect Resource 偏印 · Direct Resource 正印
All ten
Hanja, Korean name and family come straight from our calculation engine.
Companion 比肩 비견 · Companion (비겁)
Your own element, your own polarity — someone standing exactly where you stand. Reads as independence, stamina and a flat refusal to be managed. Plenty of it makes a person self-sufficient and hard to steer; it also means shared resources get split.
Rival 劫財 겁재 · Companion (비겁)
Your element, opposite polarity — the same strength wearing a different face. Bolder and more sociable than Companion, and more expensive: the classical name is “robs wealth,” because the friction shows up around shared money, shared credit and the same person you both want.
Eating God 食神 식신 · Output (식상)
What you produce, in your own polarity. The gentlest of the ten: appetite, craft, steady output, enjoying the making. It softens pressure from the Power family and is the classic marker of people who work best when nobody is rushing them.
20 of 97 · e.g. Ahyeon, Bae, Chaeryeong
Hurting Officer 傷官 상관 · Output (식상)
What you produce, in the opposite polarity — sharper, louder, and pointed at authority; the name literally means it injures the Officer. Performers, critics and reformers live here. Brilliant output with an edge that does not defer well.
Indirect Wealth 偏財 편재 · Wealth (재성)
What you control, same polarity. Money in motion: opportunities, deals, generosity, a wide social surface. Talented at making it, loose about keeping it, and drawn to the upside rather than the ledger.
17 of 97 · e.g. Anton, Chaeryeong, Chungha
Direct Wealth 正財 정재 · Wealth (재성)
What you control, opposite polarity. Countable, earned, kept — salary, savings, the things you committed to and follow through on. Practical and loyal, and in classical readings of a man’s chart, the spouse.
Seven Killings 偏官 편관 · Power (관성)
What controls you, same polarity — pressure that does not ask permission. Also called Seven Killings (七殺): deadlines, risk, crisis, command. It forges people who perform under stress, and grinds down those who get too much of it with nothing to buffer it.
Direct Officer 正官 정관 · Power (관성)
What controls you, opposite polarity — authority that fits. Rules, position, reputation, the discipline you accept because it is legitimate. In classical readings of a woman’s chart, the husband. Reads as reliability and a working relationship with institutions.
Indirect Resource 偏印 편인 · Resource (인성)
What produces you, same polarity. Unconventional nourishment: intuition, niche expertise, the mentor who is slightly strange, knowledge acquired sideways. Support that arrives, sometimes with conditions attached.
How common is each one? We counted.
We publish Saju charts for 97 K-pop artists, computed from public birth dates. That is a real sample, so here is the actual distribution rather than an impression.
Method: for each artist we read the year stem and the month stem and classify each against that artist’s Day Master. We deliberately skip the other two. The day stem IS the Day Master (it would score as Companion for everybody), and idol birth times are not public — the hour pillar is computed at noon, so counting it would be counting a guess. An artist is counted once per relation even when both stems produce it.
Note what this is and is not: it describes which relations show up in the two most reliable stems of a public roster, not which relations make someone famous. Nothing in a Saju chart predicts a career.
Finding yours
You need your Day Master first — that is the stem of your day pillar, and it comes out of a birth date alone. Once you have it, every other stem in your chart resolves to one of the ten. Our free calculator gives you the chart and the day master; the app reads what the combination actually does over time.
This describes the pattern in general — every chart carries it differently. The app reads the whole chart — how it moves through the years, and what to do with it.
Unlock the full readingTen Gods — frequently asked questions
Are the Ten Gods actual gods?
No. “God” here is a translation of 신 / 神, which in this context means something closer to “agent” or “force.” They are relationship labels, not beings, and nobody worships them.
Are Korean 십신 and Chinese 十神 the same ten?
The same ten relationships, computed identically. What differs is naming habit and emphasis — Korean readings tend to group them by family (비겁·식상·재성·관성·인성) and read them against the day master’s strength and the useful element.
Which Ten God is the best one to have?
None of them, and that is the actual answer. Each one is favourable or difficult depending on whether your day master is strong or weak and what your chart is short of. Direct Resource is nourishing for a weak day master and clutter for a strong one.
Can I work out my Ten Gods without a birth time?
Yes, for most of them. The year, month and day stems are exact from a birth date alone, which covers the relations that matter most. Only the hour stem needs a birth time.
Keep reading
What Is Saju? Korean Four Pillars, ExplainedRead the five day masters →Saju vs. BaZi vs. Astrology — What Is Actually Different