Also known as: 相貌宮
Parents Palace shows the quality of the bond with mother and father, what was inherited (genetically, financially, culturally), and how the native relates to authority figures throughout life — bosses, mentors, government bodies.
Also called the "Appearance Palace" (相貌宮) in some traditions, as ancestral lineage shapes inherited features.
The palace carries a second name, xiàngmào gōng (相貌宮), the Appearance Palace, and the two share a root. The Classic of Filial Piety opens with the idea that one's body, hair and skin are received from one's parents; from there, looking at the parents meant also looking at what had been inherited in the face and bearing, and the two names have coexisted since. Most modern practice gives the appearance layer little weight, keeping it only in some lineages, and concentrates the palace on family bonds and relations with authority.
Opposite lies the Health Palace (疾厄宮), with the Children and Friends palaces completing the triad. The parents-health axis is often used to talk about constitution and inheritance: one end is what was handed down, the other is the body as it now stands. Drawing the Children Palace into the same group places the generation above and the generation below in one field, which is the structure classical readers reach for when the subject is a family line and not an individual.
The limit that matters most here is that malefic stars or ji do not mean something is wrong with one's parents, and they are certainly not a statement about their health or lifespan. What the tradition describes is the shape of the connection: early separation, views that do not meet, care that falls to the native to provide. The subject throughout is the native's own situation. Reading a palace as a verdict on living relatives departs from the texts and can do real harm to a family. Whether to read the two parents separately has never settled either. Traditional star attributes make Taiyang (太陽) yang and paternal, Taiyin (太陰) yin and maternal, and many readers separate the two bonds on that basis, while others hold that the palace should be read whole and that splitting it properly would require additional structure.
Extending the older concern with authority figures, modern reading pushes the palace further out to the paperwork that carries an official seal: certificates, permits, contracts, approvals. The reasoning is that parents are the first authority anyone meets, and that later encounters with authority follow the pattern of that first one. This is an extension and not the classical sense, and it is worth saying so plainly when using it. In practice, instead of asking whether this palace is favourable, ask what shape the bond takes: close or distant, living together or mostly apart, more sheltered or more relied upon. The main star sets the tone and the transformations set direction, with lu described as care received and ji as obligation and worry carried. All of it describes a manner of relating over time, and none of it points to specific events on specific dates.
No. What the tradition reads here is the shape of a bond — closeness or distance, time together or apart, where the work of caring falls — and the subject throughout is the native's own situation rather than a verdict on the parents themselves. Taking a palace description as a statement about a living relative's health or lifespan has no textual basis and causes unnecessary distress.
Both positions exist. Those who read superiors here argue that this palace already governs authority and patronage of every kind, parents being the first authority anyone meets. Those who read them in the Career Palace argue that a boss is part of the working environment. A middle course puts the immediate manager here and the organisation and career trajectory under Career. Neither position has displaced the other, so it is fairer to present both.
It is a widely transmitted traditional correspondence, derived from Taiyang being yang and Taiyin yin, and many readers use it to distinguish the bond with each parent. Other lineages maintain that this palace should be read as a whole, and that separating the parents properly needs more structure than a star attribution provides. It is a reading with real lineage behind it, not the single standard.