How to Read Compatibility — From Saju to Zodiac Signs and MBTI

Let us compare, with this site's engine, a person born at 8 a.m. on August 4, 1992 (壬申·丁未·壬子·甲辰) and a person born at 7 p.m. on August 19, 1994 (甲戌·壬申·丁丑·庚戌). The two Day Masters 壬 and 丁 are bound by the 丁壬 combination and take the full 30 points, and the two day branches 子 and 丑 form a six harmony and take the full 25. The year branches 申 and 戌 have no special relation and score 10 of 15, and since the first person is strong and the second very weak, their strength makes a complementary pair worth 13. Yongsin support, worked out separately below, comes to 13, so adding the five items gives 30 + 25 + 10 + 13 + 13 = 91 points, which falls in the top grade. Still, compatibility becomes useful less through the number 91 than through reading where points were lost, such as the empty year-branch item and the support in one direction being richer than in the other.

Yongsin support measures, separately for each direction, how much of the energy I need the other person holds: in the other person's chart, it takes the strength of my yongsin, adds half of my heesin and subtracts half of my gisin. A value of 25 or more counts as rich, 15 or more as some, and anything lower as little, and the thresholds were set from the fact that a partner whose five elements are an even 20% each gives 20 + 10 − 10 = 20. The first person (壬, strong) has the yongsin Earth (土), the heesin Fire (火) and the gisin Wood (木), and the second person holds 土 25.4%, 火 15% and 木 12.5%, so 25.4 + 7.5 − 6.25 = 26.65, which is rich. The second person (丁, very weak) has the yongsin Wood (木), the heesin Fire (火) and the gisin Metal (金), and the first person holds 木 17.5%, 火 16.3% and 金 6.7%, so 17.5 + 8.15 − 3.35 = 22.3, which stops at some, though without subtracting the gisin it would have counted as rich. Because only one of the two directions is rich, this pair's yongsin support comes to 13 of 15, and the yongsin and heesin used are exactly the values the Saju screen shows, so both screens point to the same energy for the same person.

For lighter enjoyment there are Chinese-zodiac and star-sign compatibility. Zodiac compatibility looks at whether two people's animal signs connect well, as in the three-union and six-union, or clash, as in the clash and harm relations. Star-sign compatibility weighs the distance between two signs (the aspect) and the affinity of the fire, earth, air, and water elements. Both require only a birth date, making them a low-pressure way to gauge a bond.

The year-branch item of Saju compatibility uses the character of the year pillar built from the date and hour of birth, so its year changes at Ipchun, while the sign compatibility page uses the sign you pick as it is. So for someone born on February 10, 2007, after Ipchun, the Saju year pillar is 丁亥 and 亥 goes into the year-branch item of Saju compatibility, but because the birth falls before the lunar New Year, the person's sign is the Dog. For two people, Saju compatibility and sign compatibility alike treat any pair from the same harmony group as a three harmony, so this kind of gap comes only from which character fills the item. Sign compatibility has only eight possible scores, 95 for a three harmony, 90 for a six harmony, 76 for the same sign, 68 for no relation, 54 for harm, 52 for resentment, 48 for punishment and 45 for a clash, so everyone with the same relation gets the same score. So take sign compatibility lightly, like a first impression, and if you want to read the same two people in several layers, the next step is Saju compatibility, which uses the full date and hour of birth.

Compatibility that lightly weaves together personality and taste is popular too. Name compatibility is a traditional game that interleaves and adds the stroke counts of two names to produce a score; blood-type compatibility looks at how the communication and romantic tendencies of types A, B, O, and AB mesh. MBTI compatibility examines how the sameness and difference of the four indicators shape whether two people's conversation and lifestyle suit each other. These are light, for-fun readings, but they work well enough as clues for understanding one another.

Even for the same two people, each compatibility method gives a different score because the materials it uses and the range of its scores differ. Saju compatibility weighs five items from the date and hour of birth, sign compatibility gives a score between 45 and 95 from the single relation between two signs, and MBTI compatibility gives one between 20 and 100 from whether the four axes are the same or different. So 68 points in sign compatibility and 65 points in MBTI compatibility do not carry the same weight, and it is more accurate to compare scores only within the same method. This site uses the same grade thresholds for every compatibility reading in the one-line summary at the top, but readings with a narrow score range, like names and blood types, pick their summary from their own bands so that the summary line never contradicts the reading. If the results disagree, rather than choosing which one is right, the proper order is to recall what each method measures and read which side of the two people each result reflects.

Read compatibility by several methods and the results may differ a little. This is because each method looks at different material — not a contradiction. Take it that a good match reveals ease and comfort, while a challenging match reveals things you can learn from each other. Compatibility only lights up the starting line of a relationship; what completes a bond is always the mindset of the two people.