Your Birth Time Places the Stars in Twelve Palaces
Ziwei Doushu converts your birth time to the lunar calendar and lays out twelve cells, each called a palace. Each of the twelve palaces covers one area of life. For example, the Life Palace is about you, and the Wealth Palace is about money.
The 14 major stars and many smaller ones are spread across these palaces. Reading a chart means seeing which stars land in which palace. Enter your birth date and hour in the free Ziwei Doushu calculator, then find the cell labelled 命宮, your Life Palace, where reading starts. The chart labels are in Chinese.
See your Ziwei Doushu chart
Generate your natal chart to discover which stars shape your destiny and how they interact across your twelve palaces.
How the Stars Get onto the Chart
Every star's position is worked out from your birth time, always in the same five steps:
- Your lunar birth month and hour set the Life Palace, and the Body Palace (Shen Gong) that is read alongside it.
- That palace's stem and branch set the Five Element Bureau (Wu Xing Ju), which is used only to place the Ziwei star.
- Your lunar birthday and the bureau decide which cell Ziwei lands in.
- Once Ziwei is placed, Tianfu follows, and the other major stars are counted out from these two at fixed steps.
- Last come the helper stars, the harmful stars and the birth-year transformations.
A charting program does all of this for you, so you never have to work it out by hand.
The 14 Major Stars
The 14 major stars split into two groups: six led by Ziwei and eight led by Tianfu. Stars of a similar nature are also grouped into star systems, which readers often mention together.
| Star | Group | Star system | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ziwei | Ziwei | Zi Fu Lian Wu Xiang | Self-directed, proud, wants to lead |
| Tianji | Ziwei | Ji Yue Tong Liang | Quick-witted, a planner, changeable |
| Taiyang | Ziwei | Ju Ri | Warm, outgoing, generous |
| Wuqu | Ziwei | Zi Fu Lian Wu Xiang | Practical, decisive, money-minded |
| Tiantong | Ziwei | Ji Yue Tong Liang | Easygoing, pleasure-loving, content |
| Lianzhen | Ziwei | Zi Fu Lian Wu Xiang | Principled, competitive, intense |
| Tianfu | Tianfu | Zi Fu Lian Wu Xiang | Steady, cautious, good at keeping |
| Taiyin | Tianfu | Ji Yue Tong Liang | Sensitive, reserved, a saver |
| Tanlang | Tianfu | Sha Po Lang | Talented, sociable, strong desires |
| Jumen | Tianfu | Ju Ri | Articulate, analytical, probing |
| Tianxiang | Tianfu | Zi Fu Lian Wu Xiang | Diplomatic, rule-abiding, reliable |
| Tianliang | Tianfu | Ji Yue Tong Liang | Protective, mature, likes to advise |
| Qisha | Tianfu | Sha Po Lang | Driven, independent, bold |
| Pojun | Tianfu | Sha Po Lang | Restless, pioneering, breaks with the old |
The same star shows up in a different area of life depending on its palace. The major star in the Life Palace is the one most often used to describe someone's personality.
What Temple, Prosperous and Fallen Mean
Temple, Prosperous and Fallen are levels of a star's brightness, which says how freely the star works in that cell. Taiyang, for example, is at Temple in Mao and Fallen in Zi and Hai. There are seven levels. Brightness depends only on the cell's Earthly Branch, so a star in a given branch always has the same level.
| Level | Chart mark | Traits come through |
|---|---|---|
| Temple (Miao) | 廟 | Most freely |
| Prosperous (Wang) | 旺 | Very freely |
| Gaining Ground (De) | 得 | Freely |
| Beneficial (Li) | 利 | Fairly well |
| Neutral (Ping) | 平 | Average |
| Not Gaining Ground (Bu) | 不 | With some effort |
| Fallen (Xian) | 陷 | With the most effort |
The brighter the star, the more easily its traits come through; the dimmer, the more effort they take. Brightness is not the same as good or bad luck. Not Gaining Ground sits one level above Fallen, and the two are different. Taiyang is Not Gaining Ground in Chou and Xu.
Palaces, Transformations, Decades: Three Layers
You can read a Ziwei chart in three layers: palaces, transformations and time.
- The twelve palaceseach palace covers one area of life, such as one palace for love and marriage.
- Four TransformationsHua Lu (wealth), Hua Quan (power), Hua Ke (fame) and Hua Ji (obstacle) attach to stars and mark where things flow or stick; see the Four Transformations table.
- Decades and yearsa Decade Cycle (Da Xian) changes every ten years, and the annual fortune covers a single year.
The layers stack from the bottom up: the birth chart first, then the decade, then the year.
Reading Your Own Chart: Where to Start
Start with the Life Palace and work outward in this order.
- Which major star sits in the Life Palace, and at what brightness. If it has none, borrow the major star from the palace directly opposite.
- The Life Palace's Three Directions and Four Squares (San Fang Si Zheng), meaning the Life Palace, the palace opposite it and the two that form a triangle with it.
- Which palaces hold the stars marked 祿, 權, 科 and 忌, the four transformations. The palace marked 忌 is often the thing you worry about most.
- Which decade you are in now. Each cell shows an age range; find the one that includes your current age, counted the Chinese way from one at birth.
Common Misreadings
- Reading one palaceread the Life Palace together with its linked palaces, since one cell alone is easy to misread.
- Hua Ji means troubleHua Ji marks what you care about and must work harder at, which is not the same as bad luck.
- Star systems as patternsSha Po Lang and the other star systems are just groupings of stars, not named chart patterns.
- Unsure birth houra different hour can move the Life Palace to another cell and change the whole chart, so confirm your hour before reading.
How It Differs from BaZi
Ziwei Doushu reads stars in twelve palaces and is better at describing each area of life. BaZi reads the balance of the five elements in your birth time and is better at timing. For how the two work together, see Ziwei Doushu vs BaZi.
