Korean New Year Fortunes: Tojeong Bigyeol and Yearly Saju
Maker's note: 기준일 2026-10-09. The AZET team (AZET 운영팀) wrote this from the operator's chair. Seowoon's Korean-language site seowoongwan.com is operated by 에이치컴퍼니(사업자등록번호 316-47-00948, 통신판매업 신고 2023-부산강서구-1073), and the menu name cited below matches the site as of October 9, 2026. Fortune content is for fun and reference only. It forecasts nothing and is not advice.
In the weeks around the turn of the year, Korean search traffic for one phrase climbs steeply: sinnyeon unse (신년운세), "new year fortune." Offices pass around links, families compare results over holiday food, and newspapers print zodiac columns. It is less a matter of belief than of season, the way some cultures write resolutions. Two different traditions sit under that one phrase, and they are easy to confuse.
The custom
Checking a fortune at the new year is an old habit on the peninsula. It was once done in the first half of the first lunar month, between the lunar new year and the first full moon. Today people do it any time from December through February, since Korea marks both the solar new year on January 1 and Seollal, the lunar new year.
The mood is light. People read the result aloud, groan at the bad months, and tease whoever drew the best one. Nobody reorganises their life. The closest Western parallel might be reading a fortune cookie at the table, with a longer text and more discussion.
Tojeong Bigyeol: the classic new-year book
The traditional text for this custom is the Tojeong Bigyeol (토정비결), "the secrets of Tojeong." Tojeong was the pen name of Yi Ji-ham, a scholar of the sixteenth-century Joseon period, and the book is attributed to him by tradition. Historians have questioned that attribution, and the version in circulation appears to have taken shape considerably later. Either way, by the modern era it was the standard new-year fortune of ordinary households.
Its method is different from saju in a few ways that matter:
- It uses the birth year, month, and day, but not the hour.
- It works from the lunar calendar.
- It reduces those inputs to three numbers, which select one of 144 fixed verses.
- Each result gives an overall verse for the year and a short line for each month.
The language is poetic and agricultural: a dragon finding water, a boat meeting wind, a traveller crossing a pass at dusk. Because there are only 144 outcomes, a great many people share each one. That alone tells you how to hold it.
Yearly saju: the other approach
A yearly saju reading starts from the full birth chart, four pillars and eight characters including the hour, and then lays the coming year's own pair of characters over it. That yearly pair is called seun (세운), and everyone shares it; what differs is how it relates to each chart.
| Tojeong Bigyeol | Yearly saju reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Inputs | Lunar birth year, month, day | Birth year, month, day, hour |
| Method | Three numbers select a verse | Year's characters compared with the chart |
| Possible results | 144 | Depends on the individual chart |
| Output style | Poetic verse, month-by-month lines | Themed analysis: work, money, relationships |
| Feel | Traditional, folk | Analytical |
Many Korean services now offer both under the same "new year fortune" heading, which is why they blur together.
When does the year begin?
One detail trips up newcomers. In saju, the year pillar does not change on January 1, and most practitioners do not change it at the lunar new year either. The usual convention is ipchun (입춘), the "start of spring" solar term that falls around February 4. So a yearly saju reading for a given year is really describing the period from one early February to the next. People born in January or early February often find their year pillar belongs to the previous zodiac animal for the same reason.
Reading a monthly breakdown without getting spooked
Both formats tend to list the months, and at least one month will come with a warning: be careful with travel, with documents, with words. This is where a light custom can turn into low-level worry.
A few ways to keep it in proportion:
- Remember the denominator. With 144 verses, or with one yearly pair shared by everyone, a "bad month" applies to an enormous number of people who will all have ordinary months.
- Translate warnings into habits. "Watch your words in the fifth month" is advice that would improve any month. Take the habit and drop the date.
- Do not reschedule real life around it. If a month is flagged and you have a wedding, a move, or an operation planned, the plan stands.
- Read it once. Checking five sites until one gives a better year defeats the purpose.
A better use of the ritual
The new-year fortune persists because it gives people a set moment to look ahead. You can borrow that structure without leaning on the content.
After reading the result, try answering three questions in writing. What did I hope it would say? That is a wish you now know you have. What line did I react against? That is a fear worth naming. And what, if anything, will I do differently in the first month? The fortune is the excuse. The notes are the part you will be glad to find next December.
On Seowoon
Seowoon (서운관) is the Korean saju service in the AZET family, at seowoongwan.com. Its catalog changes with the seasons, so we will not list which new-year items are up on a given day. The reading we can point to steadily is 도사님 정통사주, the general traditional reading, which includes the time cycles that a yearly outlook draws on. The site is in Korean; browser translation is good enough for navigation.
FAQ
What is Tojeong Bigyeol? A traditional Korean new-year fortune book attributed to the sixteenth-century scholar Yi Ji-ham. It uses lunar birth year, month, and day to select one of 144 verses.
Is Tojeong Bigyeol the same as saju? No. It does not use the birth hour or the eight-character chart, and its method and output are different.
When does the saju year start? By the most common convention, at ipchun, around February 4, not on January 1 or the lunar new year.
Should I worry about a bad month in my fortune? No. These are shared, generic results. Treat any warning as a general reminder at most.
Where can I try a reading? Seowoon at seowoongwan.com offers Korean-language readings for fun and reference, with 도사님 정통사주 as the general starting point.
Learn more
Seowoon is listed with the other AZET services at https://azet.io. The free early-access waitlist for azet, the AI assistant we are building, is on the same page. When the next new year comes round, read your fortune with friends, laugh at the grim months, and write your own plan.