Manse Calendar Basics Guide

The basic ideas needed to read a Manse calendar, set out in order.

Basics Guide How to Read the Screen

From top to bottom, the Manse Calendar Clock screen goes current time → four Four Pillars cards → the twelve double-hours → calendar . All you need is to know how to read each part.

First, an example at a glance — 2 a.m. on September 24, 2026
Hour Pillar
己
丑
Gi-Chuk
Day Pillar
辛
丑
Sin-Chuk
Month Pillar
丁
酉
Jeong-Yu
Year Pillar
丙
午
Byeong-O
CardStem-BranchWhat it means
Year Pillar 丙午 the whole year 2026 — that is what it means. It is what people call "the year Byeong-O." Note that the year Byeong-O runs not from January 1 but from Start of Spring (February 4)to the day before the next Start of Spring.
Month Pillar 丁酉 the single month of September — that is what it means. Precisely, it is from White Dew (September 7) to just before Cold Dew (October 8), and this stretch is called the 酉 month. September 1 is not the boundary.
Day Pillar 辛丑 that one day, September 24 — that is what it means. It is "the day Sin-Chuk." A day begins not at midnight but at 23:30 the previous day.
Hour Pillar 己丑 the span of time you are currently in — that is what it means. The Chuk Hour (丑時) is 01:30~03:29, and because it is the Chuk Hour of the day Sin-Chuk it becomes the Gi-Chuk Hour. It changes every 2 hours.

In other words, as you go year → month → day → hour the span pointed to narrows: 1 year → about 1 month → one day → 2 hours. On screen the narrowest (the hour pillar) comes on the left.

① The four Four Pillars cards
Hour Pillar
戊
子
Mu-Ja
  1. Small text at the very top = which pillar it is (hour / day / month / year pillar)
  2. Large Chinese characters: the upper one is the stem, the lower one is the branch. Stacking them vertically is the traditional notation
  3. Small text at the very bottom = the Korean reading of those two characters (戊子 = Mu-Ja)
  4. A character's color is its element — Wood · Fire · Earth · Metal · Water

The cards start from the hour pillar on the leftbecause the star of this screen is "now." When a chart is written on paper it usually starts from the year pillar. What the four pillars mean is in the The Eight Characters.

② The twelve double-hours
Mu-Ja Hour
戊子
23:30~01:29
Now
  1. All twelve hour pillars of that day, from the Ja Hour to the Hae Hour , laid out in a row
  2. Top = the name of that double-hour (Korean reading + "Hour"), middle = the Stem-Branch pair, bottom = the time span that double-hour covers
  3. A yellow outlinemarks the double-hour the current time falls in
  4. A cell when tapped switches the screen to the start time of that double-hour. To come back to the present, tap the badge to the left of the clock
A double-hour changes not on the hour but on the half hour. The Ja Hour starts at 23:30 and ends at 01:29 the next day. So the first part of the Ja Hour falls on the previous night on the calendar.
③ The day-pillar calendar
24
壬寅
  1. The small number at the top left = the date, the two characters in the middle = that day's day pillar (日柱)
  2. A green outline = today, A yellow outline = the day you have tapped to view
  3. Tapping a date moves to that day, and the cards above and the twelve double-hours are all recalculated for that day
  4. Only the current month is shown
④ The badge beside the clock

Now — the actual current time is refreshing every second.
Viewing a date · tap for now — you are viewing another time, reached by tapping the calendar or a double-hour. Tapping this badge returns you to the present.

⚠️ The most common confusion — the boundary where the date changes is not midnight (00:00). In metaphysics a day begins at 23:30. 23:40 at night is today on the calendar, but the day pillar is already tomorrow's. For the same reason the month changes not on the 1st but at Solar Term, and the year not on January 1 but at Start of Spring.

Contents of the guide In reading order

The Eight Characters四柱八字
Why four pillars come to eight characters, what span each pillar points to, and which side a stem and a branch are read from.
Stem-Branch Pairs and the 60 Gapja干支 · 六十甲子
What a Stem-Branch pair is and why the cycle closes at 60. The full 60 Gapja table, and how to work out a Stem-Branch pair from a year.
Yin-Yang & Five Elements · Stems · Branches陰陽五行
Why the generating and controlling cycles run in that order. Tables of element, yin/yang, pronunciation, zodiac and hours for the 10 stems and 12 branches.
The 24 Solar Terms and Metaphysical Time二十四節氣
The Solar Terms at which the month and year pillars change, and this year's entry times. Why a day begins at 23:30, with a timetable of the twelve double-hours.

Destiny Theory Lectures 命理

In preparation.

How to read the eight characters, and the basics of day-stem-centered interpretation, will be added in order.

Destiny Theory Classics 古典

In preparation.

Original texts and commentary on the Di Tian Sui (滴天髓), Zi Ping Zhen Quan (子平眞詮), Qiong Tong Bao Jian (窮通寶鑑) and others will be added.

The Eight Characters →