Ziwei Doushu Chart Calculator
Ziwei Doushu projects a moment of birth onto a chart of twelve palaces. The Life Palace is fixed first; the other eleven follow in order — Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends and Subordinates, Career, Property, Spiritual Wellbeing and Parents. The fourteen major stars, along with the auxiliary and malefic stars, distribute themselves among those palaces, and the heavenly stem of the birth year then draws out the Four Transformations: Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji. Reading a chart is not a matter of looking values up in a table; it is a matter of how these elements stand in relation to one another.
Cast a ChartWhat it takes to cast a chart
The year, month, day and hour of birth, plus sex. The hour matters most: the Life Palace is located by birth month and birth hour together, so being one hour out shifts every palace in the chart and you end up reading a different person. When the birth time is uncertain, the traditional approach is to reason backwards from known events in the person's life to narrow down the likely hour, rather than picking one at random. It makes no difference whether you enter a lunar or a solar date — the system converts between them — but schools handle the placement of a leap month differently, so it is worth knowing which version you are working with.
How to read the twelve palaces
The Life Palace is where the native's temperament and the overall shape of the chart come to rest; each of the other eleven governs one area of life. No palace is ever read on its own. The traditional unit is the Four Vantage Points (三方四正 sān fāng sì zhèng): the palace itself, the palace opposite it, and the two palaces that form a trine with it — four positions read together. To look at money, for instance, it is not enough to stare at the Wealth Palace. You also read its opposite, the Spiritual Wellbeing Palace, and the two palaces in trine with it, the Life Palace and the Career Palace. How money comes in, how it is spent and whether it stays is something those four positions settle between them.
Major stars, auxiliaries and malefics
The fourteen major stars belong to the Northern and Southern Dipper groups, each with its own transformed qi and temperamental leaning. Left Assistant and Right Support (左輔右弼), Wenchang and Literary Excellence (文昌文曲), and Tiankui and Tianyue (天魁天鉞) are together the six auspicious stars, the supporting class; Yang Blade and Tuoluo (擎羊陀羅), Fire Star and Bell Star (火星鈴星) and others are classed as malefics. It is worth noting that “auspicious” and “malefic” name a mode of action in the tradition, not a verdict — a malefic in a pattern that suits it is read as drive, and an auspicious star in an unsuitable position is not necessarily strong. An empty palace, one with no major star of its own, is read by borrowing the stars of the palace opposite; this is the situation in Ziwei Doushu most often misunderstood.
The Four Transformations and the cycles
The heavenly stem of the birth year decides which four stars transform into Lu (祿, flow), Quan (權, authority), Ke (科, recognition) and Ji (忌, obstruction); these four lines turn a static chart into a structure with direction. The decade cycles (大限) move through the twelve palaces ten years at a time, while the annual cycle (流年) falls on the palace matching that year's earthly branch. The same chart reads differently under different cycles, which is why the tradition holds that the natal chart sets the pattern and the cycles set the timing. ⚠️ The four-transformation tables for the ten heavenly stems differ from school to school, and the Geng (庚) stem is the most contested of the set, so establish which version a reading follows before relying on it.
FAQ
Can I make sense of the chart if I don't know Ziwei Doushu?
The chart labels each palace by name, shows the stars that fall in it and the transformations attached to them, and gives a plain-language note on the main positions. You can read it without first learning to cast a chart by hand, though understanding why it says what it says still calls for a few basic concepts — the glossary's 98 entries are there to look up as you go.
What if I am not sure of my birth hour?
The hour decides where the Life Palace sits, so an uncertain hour can put the whole chart out of place. The traditional method is to reason backwards from events that have already happened — which palace a clear turning point in a given period falls into, for example — and compare the candidate hours one by one, rather than picking a value at random. If there is nothing at all to go on, cast the charts for the neighbouring hours and read them side by side.
How are Ziwei Doushu and Bazi related?
Both begin from the moment of birth, but they build their imagery differently. Bazi reasons through the five-element generating and controlling relations of the heavenly stems and earthly branches; Ziwei Doushu reasons through which stars fall in which palaces and how the Four Transformations move. The tradition treats them as two methods that cross-check each other, not as two ways of saying the same thing, so when their conclusions differ you look separately at what each one is basing itself on.
Does a malefic star in the chart mean something bad?
No. In the tradition a malefic describes a mode of action: urgent, changeable, forceful. In a pattern that calls for initiative and decisiveness it is read as a source of drive; it counts as interference only where the position needs steadiness. Judging a chart auspicious or inauspicious purely by whether malefics are present is one of the commonest reading errors.
Do people born in the same year, month, day and hour have the same chart?
The charts are indeed identical. The traditional explanation is that a chart describes a structure and a set of tendencies, not a fixed set of experiences; the same chart set down in a different family, place and era unfolds into a very different life. That is also why a reading has to take the person's actual circumstances into account rather than pronouncing straight from the chart.
Related terms
- Purple Star (紫微 Zǐ Wēi)The "Emperor Star" of Ziwei Doushu, governing leadership, dignity, and the chart's overall fate.
- Heavenly Treasury Star (天府 Tiān Fǔ)Leader of the South Dipper — governs accumulation, stability, conservative wealth, and quiet authority.
- Life Palace (命宮 Mìng Gōng)The most important of the 12 palaces — defines core personality, identity, and overall life direction.
- Wealth Palace (財帛宮 Cái Bó Gōng)Governs cash flow, earned income style, and one's relationship with money.
- Career Palace (官祿宮 Guān Lù Gōng)Governs vocation, professional achievement, status, and authority.
- Spouse Palace (夫妻宮 Fū Qī Gōng)Governs marriage, romantic partnership quality, and the type of partner one attracts.