What Is Zi Wei Dou Shu
What Is Zi Wei Dou Shu
Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数) is one of the two main branches of Chinese traditional fate calculation (the other being BaZi (八字)). It uses the birth year, month, day, and hour to cast a twelve-palace natal chart, breaking life down into twelve thematic palaces, and then describes innate patterns and later-life fortunes through the distribution of over a hundred stars.
What You Need to Cast a Chart
| Input | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Birth date | Determines the Four Pillars and the lunar calendar date | Must distinguish solar/lunar calendar; leap months are a point of disagreement between schools |
| Birth time | Determines the birth hour, which sets the Life Palace (命宫) and Body Palace (身宫) | An error that crosses an hour boundary will change the entire chart; this site defaults to true solar time correction based on the birthplace longitude |
| Birthplace | Longitude for true solar time correction | Greatest impact for births in Xinjiang / overseas |
| Gender | Determines the forward/reverse direction of the Decade Limit (大限) | Yang males and Yin females run forward; Yin males and Yang females run backward |
What a Chart Looks Like
- Twelve Palaces: Life Palace (命宫), Siblings Palace (兄弟宫), Spouse Palace (夫妻宫), Children Palace (子女宫), Wealth Palace (财帛宫), Health Palace (疾厄宫), Travel Palace (迁移宫), Friends Palace (交友宫), Career Palace (官禄宫), Property Palace (田宅宫), Fortune Palace (福德宫), Parents Palace (父母宫) — arranged counterclockwise across the twelve Earthly Branch palaces.
- Life Palace and Body Palace: The Life Palace is the innate master outline; the Body Palace resides in one of six palaces and governs the focus of life after middle age.
- Stars: The fourteen major stars form the core skeleton, auxiliary stars (six auspicious and six inauspicious) adjust the intensity, and miscellaneous stars fill in the details; each star carries a brightness level of Miao/Wang/De/Li/Ping/Bu/Xian (temple, prosperous, favorable, beneficial, neutral, unfavorable, fallen), and the difference in fortune and misfortune across brightness levels is enormous.
- Si Hua (四化): The four energies of Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke, and Hua Ji are emitted by the Heavenly Stems; the palace where Hua Ji lands is where life's obsessions and pain points lie.
How to Read It Correctly
- First determine the main star skeleton of the Life Palace's Trinity (三方四正) (Life + Wealth + Career + Travel), to judge the broad pattern type.
- Then examine the palaces where Si Hua land and the ratio of auspicious to inauspicious stars, to determine the quality of the pattern.
- Finally overlay the Decade Limit (大限) and Annual Year (流年), to see which palace each ten-year period walks through and what this year activates.
The charts on this site are computed by a deterministic engine, and these concepts can be verified item by item on the "Zi Wei Chart Casting" results page.