Popular compatibility often stops at the birth-year animal. Traditional Gunghap can begin there, but it compares much more of both Four Pillars charts.
The key word is comparison. Gunghap does not create a new natal chart and it cannot measure affection, communication skill, consent, shared values, or safety. It places two independently calculated charts side by side and exposes selected traditional relationships between their stems, branches, elements, and timing layers.
Start with two valid charts
Each person needs a correctly converted date, time zone, calendar type, and—when known—birth time. If the hour is unknown, the comparison should mark the hour pillar as unavailable instead of silently inventing one. Gender matters for this calculator’s Daeun direction, but it does not change either person’s natal stems and branches.
Before reading any relationship marker, verify both chart headers. A calendar-conversion or solar-term boundary difference can otherwise look like a compatibility difference.
Outer and inner matches
The year branches form the familiar outer match. The day branches are the inner match and are often called the spouse palaces. A combination or clash in either place is a structural relationship, not a final grade.
The two positions answer different questions in the traditional framework:
| Comparison | Traditional lens | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Year branch ↔ year branch | outer, family, or zodiac-level context | family approval or social success |
| Day branch ↔ day branch | inner relationship or spouse-palace context | love, fidelity, or marriage outcome |
| Day stem ↔ day stem | how the two Day Masters relate by element and polarity | personality compatibility by itself |
A combination is not automatically “good,” and a clash is not automatically “bad.” Combination can describe binding or convergence; clash can describe movement, difference, or friction. Context comes from which pillars are involved, what else repeats, and how each marker sits inside the full chart.
Day Masters and mutual Ten Gods
The two Day Master stems can combine, clash, generate, control, or mirror one another. The same pair also places each person’s Day Master into a Ten God category from the other’s viewpoint. These are two different descriptions of the relationship and should be kept separate.
Mutual Ten Gods are directional. Person B can appear as one Ten God relative to Person A’s Day Master, while Person A appears as another category from Person B’s viewpoint. That asymmetry is expected because the reference Day Master changes. It is a symbolic role description, not a diagnosis of who has more power in the real relationship.
The Five Elements panel is also descriptive. It compares visible element counts already present in the two natal charts. If one person shows more of an element that is absent from the other’s visible pillars, the interface can flag that contrast; it does not mean one person “completes” or medically balances the other.
Cross-pillar evidence
This site’s disclosed comparison checks all sixteen branch pairs: each person’s year, month, day, and hour against the other’s four pillars. The 4×4 matrix keeps neutral cells visible as well as combinations, clashes, punishments, breaks, harms, grudge relations, and ghost-gate relations. Seeing the neutral cells prevents dramatic markers from looking more common than they are.
The matrix is an audit trail, not a universal Gunghap canon. Korean Myeongri schools differ in which secondary relations they emphasize and how much weight they give them. The useful part of the matrix is that it names the exact two pillars behind every label instead of presenting an unexplained score.
Read it in three passes:
- Start with the year-year and day-day cells shown in the summary.
- Look for a relation that repeats across more than one independent pillar pair.
- Return to neutral cells and the two original charts so one colorful marker does not dominate the whole reading.
Stem relations and branch relations are different
Heavenly Stem combinations and clashes operate in a different reference layer from Earthly Branch combination, clash, punishment, break, harm, grudge, and ghost-gate labels. Do not merge them into one count. A day-stem combination can coexist with a day-branch clash; the result should show both pieces of evidence rather than cancel one with the other.
Likewise, a relation label does not tell you its lived expression. “Clash” identifies a traditional structural opposition. Whether two people experience that as productive difference, recurring negotiation, distance, or nothing noticeable requires real history and conversation.
Timing is not a verdict
Current Daeun and Seun can be shown side by side to describe the timing context around both charts. They do not prove that a relationship will succeed or fail. A responsible Gunghap result is an evidence map for conversation, not a percentage score.
Timing should be compared after the natal evidence, not used to rewrite it. The two people may be in different Daeun phases and receive the same annual pillar differently because each Day Master and natal structure is different. A difficult-looking annual relation is not a breakup date; a combination is not a wedding promise.
Better questions to ask the result
Instead of “Are we compatible?”, try questions the displayed evidence can actually support:
- Which result comes from the year branches, and which comes from the spouse palaces?
- Do the Day Stems describe generation, control, combination, clash, or the same element?
- What Ten God does each Day Master become from the other person’s viewpoint?
- Which cross-pillar relations repeat, and which cells are neutral?
- Are we looking at natal structure or a temporary Daeun/Seun layer?
- What real conversation would help us test whether the symbolic contrast is meaningful?
Limits worth keeping visible
Gunghap cannot rank a relationship’s value, replace communication, screen for abuse, or decide whether someone should date, marry, separate, invest, or make a medical decision. Exact birth data may be unavailable, and school conventions vary. Use the comparison as cultural and reflective material, and make consequential choices from observed behavior, consent, professional advice, and your own values.
This calculator performs both charts locally in the browser and does not send either person’s birth inputs to a server. See the exact implemented layers in the calculation methodology, or open the two-chart comparison.