Read the palace network
The focal palace defines the subject, its opposite supplies tension, and the two trine palaces add resources and context. A single palace is never the whole conclusion.
Zi Wei Dou Shu · Purple Star Astrology
A Zi Wei Dou Shu chart you can actually read
Free Zi Wei Dou Shu calculator: the twelve palaces, fourteen major stars, Si Hua and luck cycles in one chart, with an AI reading and true solar time.
From Ming-era texts to a modern chart: a transparent Zi Wei method
The earliest reliable surviving sources date to the Ming period. Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu is traditionally attributed to Chen Tuan and was supplemented by Pan Xiyin; it preserves major essays, interpretive verses, and star-placement material. Guanyitang follows the mainstream San He full-chart convention represented by this textual lineage. Deterministic code places the twelve palaces, fourteen major stars, auxiliary and challenging stars, natal Four Transformations, and timing layers. Choices that vary by school, including leap months, early and late Zi hour, transformation tables, and star brightness, are made explicit. True solar time corrects the recorded birth moment; it does not rewrite the traditional placement rules.
Read stars in layers
The fourteen major stars form the skeleton. Auspicious, challenging, and auxiliary stars add conditions; transformations and brightness describe how that potential is expressed.
Overlay timing cycles
The natal chart sets the enduring pattern, decade cycles frame ten-year chapters, and annual or shorter layers show which parts of the chart are activated again.
Twelve palaces, twelve connected fields of life
Zi Wei Dou Shu organizes identity, relationships, work, resources, wellbeing, and family into twelve linked palaces. Each palace must be read with its opposite, trines, star brightness, and transformations. This reveals where an advantage is supported, where pressure enters, and why the same star can act differently in another chart.
Life and Body Palaces · Character and conduct
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Major stars, Life and Body rulers, Body Palace location, and the palace network
- READING DIRECTION
- The Life Palace describes baseline temperament, values, and response patterns. The Body Palace adds the field that receives sustained effort later in life. Together they reveal harmony or friction between inner preference and lived action.
Siblings Palace · Peers and cooperation
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Sibling bonds, peer dynamics, resource boundaries, and supporting stars
- READING DIRECTION
- This palace reaches beyond literal siblings to show how a person divides responsibility, seeks help, or competes with peers. Read it with Friends and Parents to understand support across family and peer networks.
Spouse Palace · Intimate relationships
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Partner qualities, attachment needs, interaction patterns, and transformations
- READING DIRECTION
- The Spouse Palace shows which qualities attract attention and how communication, commitment, and boundaries tend to work. It must be read with Fortune, Career, and Travel; one star alone cannot determine a relationship outcome.
Children Palace · Care and creation
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Parent-child interaction, caregiving, creative output, and younger people
- READING DIRECTION
- Beyond children, this palace can describe the care invested in projects, creations, or those one mentors. Stars and transformations describe interaction conditions, not a fixed prediction about the number or success of children.
Wealth Palace · Earning and allocation
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Income channels, resource management, spending style, and risk tolerance
- READING DIRECTION
- The Wealth Palace shows how resources enter, move, and are used. Career adds the route from ability to income, while Property and Fortune clarify accumulation and satisfaction. Wealth scale cannot be judged from one palace alone.
Health Palace · Body-mind rhythm
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Constitutional tendencies, stress responses, daily rhythm, and environmental sensitivity
- READING DIRECTION
- This is a traditional cultural lens on how pressure may be felt and which routines are easier to disrupt. It is not a medical diagnosis and does not replace advice from a qualified health professional.
Travel Palace · The outer world and change
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Relocation, travel, public presence, adaptation, and outside opportunities
- READING DIRECTION
- As the Life Palace's opposite, Travel describes how the wider world responds when someone leaves familiar ground. Career and Fortune help show the stage, pressure, and adjustment cost created by change.
Friends Palace · Networks and teams
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Friends, colleagues, partners, teams, delegation, and boundaries
- READING DIRECTION
- This palace shows which circles a person enters and how cooperation or resource exchange works. Partnerships require Wealth and Career to be considered too; trust and responsibility cannot be read here in isolation.
Career Palace · Work and public role
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Professional environment, working style, responsibility, and advancement
- READING DIRECTION
- Career describes how responsibility is carried and professional reputation is built. Read with Life, Wealth, and Travel to see how talent, compensation, and the external platform support or constrain one another.
Property Palace · Home and accumulation
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Living environment, property, family space, and long-term reserves
- READING DIRECTION
- Property is not only real estate; it also reflects the stability and capacity needed to hold long-term assets. Wealth and timing cycles help assess the conditions surrounding a move or property decision.
Fortune Palace · Inner life and restoration
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Mental needs, sources of contentment, solitude, and recovery from pressure
- READING DIRECTION
- Fortune comes close to the life a person genuinely wants to experience. Its links with Life, Spouse, and Wealth reveal the psychological motives behind visible choices and the way satisfaction is sought.
Parents Palace · Elders and authority
- WHAT TO EXAMINE
- Parents, mentors, institutional authority, support patterns, and early impressions
- READING DIRECTION
- This palace explores interaction with elders, teachers, and formal authority, as well as how early communication shapes later relationships. It should not be used to label a family bond as simply good or bad.
The Zi Wei Dou Shu star atlas and reference index
The fourteen major stars establish the chart, auxiliary and challenging stars add conditions, transformations and timing cycles show where emphasis moves, and named patterns test whether several relationships are present at once. These are the terms most often encountered in a chart. No term carries a fixed good or bad result outside the full configuration.
Fourteen major stars
The principal stars that form the chart's structure
- Zi WeiCoordination, dignity, responsibility, order, and the wish to lead.
- Tian JiThought, strategy, movement, observation, and flexible planning.
- Tai YangVisibility, generosity, responsibility, influence, and contribution.
- Wu QuExecution, finance, resolve, and a results-oriented measure of value.
- Tian TongEase, warmth, experience, comfort, and human connection.
- Lian ZhenBoundaries, desire, rules, and skill with complex social dynamics.
- Tian FuStorage, stability, stewardship, and the capacity to hold resources.
- Tai YinReserve, sensitivity, accumulation, emotion, and less visible resources.
- Tan LangDesire, talent, sociability, exploration, and multiple interests.
- Ju MenSpeech, questioning, analysis, disclosure, and possible disputes.
- Tian XiangSupport, fairness, coordination, institutions, image, and proportion.
- Tian LiangProtection, principles, resolution, experience, and a caring role.
- Qi ShaIndependence, decisiveness, pressure, challenge, and path-making.
- Po JunDisruption, reorganization, renewal, and rebuilding after change.
Auspicious, challenging, and auxiliary stars
Additional support, friction, and event detail
- Zuo Fu and You BiAssistance, cooperation, organization, and the way support arrives.
- Wen Chang and Wen QuLearning, expression, writing, aesthetics, and modes of presentation.
- Tian Kui and Tian YueIntroductions, recognition, and timely help, interpreted by palace.
- Lu Cun and Tian MaAccumulated resources and movement, often read for gain through change.
- Qing Yang and Tuo LuoDirect collision and prolonged resistance, showing sharpness and drag.
- Huo Xing and Ling XingSuddenness, urgency, volatility, and a rapidly accelerating tempo.
- Di Kong and Di JieGaps, depletion, and a redefinition of value, not simple total loss.
- Hong Luan and Tian XiAffinity, celebration, and relationship openings, read with timing.
- Tian Xing and Yin ShaRules, hidden concerns, and detail risks that call for verification.
- Gu Chen and Gua SuSolitude and psychological distance, not a verdict of lifelong loneliness.
- Hua Gai, Long Chi, and Feng GeAesthetics, craft, focus, spirituality, and expressive talent.
- San Tai and Ba ZuoRank, recognition, supporting roles, and steps toward achievement.
- Tai Fu and Feng GaoDocuments, credentials, formal recognition, and professional identity.
- Twelve Life StagesA cycle derived from the Five-Element bureau that supplements timing.
Transformations and timing
How emphasis moves through places and periods
- Hua LuResources, ease, receptivity, and areas that return positive feedback.
- Hua QuanDirection, responsibility, drive, and the urge to take command.
- Hua KeReputation, order, learning, presentation, and a buffering influence.
- Hua JiAttachment, friction, repetition, and a lesson, not an automatic disaster.
- Natal Four TransformationsSet by the birth-year stem and active as enduring chart emphases.
- Decade TransformationsFrame the issues amplified within a particular ten-year chapter.
- Annual TransformationsSet by the year's stem and used to examine yearly activation.
- Palace-stem flying transformationsTrace where a transformation travels within flying-star approaches.
- Self-transforming Lu and JiDescribe spontaneous flow, amplification, or dissipation within a palace.
- Three Directions and Four SidesThe focal, opposite, and two trine palaces read as one network.
- Decade cycleA ten-year palace layer that locates the main arena of a life chapter.
- Annual cycleA one-year layer that overlays palaces and transformations.
- Month, day, and hour cyclesNarrow the time frame without turning one short layer into a verdict.
- Star brightnessDescribes a star's operating conditions by palace; tables vary by school.
Common structures and patterns
Names apply only when their full conditions are met
- Sha Po LangQi Sha, Po Jun, and Tan Lang across the Life-Wealth-Career trines.
- Ji Yue Tong LiangTian Ji, Tai Yin, Tian Tong, and Tian Liang in mutual support.
- Zi Fu in one palaceZi Wei and Tian Fu together, read for coordination and stewardship.
- Fu Xiang supporting LifeTian Fu and Tian Xiang support Life through a stable network.
- Three Auspicious TransformationsLu, Quan, and Ke meet the Life network, checked against Ji and malefics.
- Double Lu supporting LifeHua Lu and Lu Cun gather around Life, testing the ability to hold resources.
- Sun and Moon both brightTai Yang and Tai Yin occupy supportive conditions and illuminate together.
- Sun at the Thunder GateA conditional Tai Yang pattern associated with visibility and reputation.
- Yang Liang Chang LuTai Yang, Tian Liang, Wen Chang, and Lu combine around professional standing.
- Jade hidden in stoneA conditional Ju Men structure emphasizing expression refined through effort.
- Pearl emerging from the seaAn empty Life Palace supported by Sun and Moon under specific conditions.
- Fire or Bell with Tan LangTan Lang meets Huo Xing or Ling Xing, amplifying sudden drive and change.
- Lu and Tian Ma in motionResource stars meet movement, activating opportunity through mobility.
- Yang and Tuo flanking JiQing Yang and Tuo Luo constrain a Hua Ji structure, emphasizing pressure.
Five questions to settle before reading a Zi Wei chart
Zi Wei Dou Shu offers a language for examining life domains and timing patterns. It does not let one star dictate reality. These five questions establish the foundation for a more careful reading.
How does Zi Wei Dou Shu differ from BaZi, and which should I choose?
They work at different levels rather than replacing one another. A useful shorthand is that BaZi reads qi while Zi Wei reads images and domains. BaZi uses Five-Element dynamics and luck cycles to outline the overall current. Zi Wei divides identity, relationships, career, and other concrete topics among stars and palaces. Choose BaZi for long-term elemental structure, Zi Wei for palace-based detail, or compare both.
What are the Three Directions and Four Sides, and why is one palace not enough?
This network contains the focal palace, its opposite, and two trine palaces. The focal palace is the subject, the opposite supplies external tension, and the trines connect resources, action, and outcomes. An auspicious star in one palace may still face external constraints; a challenging star may receive substantial support. Transformations, brightness, and timing cycles complete the judgment.
Does Hua Ji in the Spouse or Wealth Palace guarantee separation or financial loss?
No. Hua Ji is closer to attachment, friction, repetition, and a subject that demands attention. In Spouse it can show heightened concern about the relationship or communication knots. In Wealth it can show effortful earning or repeated financial adjustments. Severity depends on the transforming star, the palace network, supporting or challenging stars, and the active timing cycle.
What is the Body Palace, and should it replace the Life Palace after age thirty?
The Life Palace describes baseline temperament and orientation; the Body Palace adds the field where later action is repeatedly invested. The saying that only the Body Palace matters after thirty is a teaching shortcut, not a strict boundary. A complete reading keeps Life as the foundation and Body as its expression, then considers their stars, transformations, and timing layers together.
Can I cast a Zi Wei chart if I know only morning or afternoon, not the birth hour?
Zi Wei Dou Shu uses the two-hour period to place the Life and Body Palaces and arrange the stars. A different hour can shift the whole chart, so a broad morning or afternoon estimate cannot support one definitive chart. Check a birth certificate, hospital record, or family memory first. If only two adjacent periods remain possible, compare both cautiously against stable long-term traits and major events rather than forcing a result from one coincidence.