I only know roughly that it was 'morning'. Can I still enter that?

If it definitely falls within one two-hour block, you can enter the midpoint of that block. If there is a chance it falls on a boundary (an odd hour on the dot ± 30 minutes), it is safer to leave it as unknown.

Basics

If I don't know my birth time, can I still get a Saju reading?

As of 2026-10-24 · Edited by Sajunyang · about 1700 characters

One-line answer

Yes. Even with just the three pillars of year, month and day (six characters), without the Hour Pillar, the Day Master (personality), Day Pillar (spouse palace), Month Pillar (work environment), Five Elements balance, Ten Gods structure, and the flow of the Luck Pillars and yearly luck are all calculated. All that is left out is the detailed reading the Hour Pillar represents, children, later life and the time of day, and the element count that might change if the Hour Pillar's characters were added.

What can and cannot be read without the time?

What can be read: the Day Master and Day Pillar (you and the spouse palace), the Month Pillar (parents and work environment, the core of the strong/weak judgment), the Year Pillar (zodiac animal and childhood), the element distribution and Ten Gods of the six characters, most Shinsal, the Luck Pillars (they start from the Month Pillar, so they do not depend on the time), and yearly, monthly and daily luck. Seventeen of the 18 chapters in the Sajunyang report fall into this group.

What cannot be read: the Ten God of the Hour Pillar (children, later life, what you produce for the world), combinations and clashes between the Hour Branch and the other branches, the subtle shifts in Five Elements balance that adding the Hour Pillar might cause, and details like which time of day your energy is highest.

Is there a way to find my birth time?

Check in this order: birth certificate, maternity record book, hospital records, parents' memory. For hospital births from the 1990s on, the birth certificate often records the time to the minute, and a copy of the birth registration from the local registry office sometimes preserves the time. There are traditional methods of estimating the Hour Pillar from appearance and personality, but their reliability is low and Sajunyang does not recommend them. If you do not know, the honest method is to select 'I don't know the time' and read with six characters.

FAQ

I only know roughly that it was 'morning'. Can I still enter that?: If it definitely falls within one two-hour block, you can enter the midpoint of that block. If there is a chance it falls on a boundary (an odd hour on the dot ± 30 minutes), it is safer to leave it as unknown.

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This article is reference material summarizing traditional Saju theory and does not replace medical, legal or investment judgment. Our calculation standards are published at About Sajunyang.