Zi Wei Dou Shu: reading four palaces together with San Fang Si Zheng

Zi Wei Dou Shu divides life into twelve palaces. To read one palace, also examine the two forming a triangle with it and the palace directly opposite. These four are collectively called San Fang Si Zheng (三方四正).

What does a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart look like?

Zi Wei Dou Shu is another traditional charting system alongside BaZi. It places twelve palaces in a ring: Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Well-being and Parents. More than a hundred stars are then assigned to them according to the birth year, month, day and hour.

Each palace concerns one area of life: Wealth for money, Career for work, and Spouse for marriage, for example. The stars within it provide the traditional outline for interpreting that area.

What are the Three Directions and Four Alignments?

Among the twelve palaces, each has three closely related palaces: two that form a triangle with it, and one directly opposite. The focus palace, its triangular partners and its opposite make four, collectively called San Fang Si Zheng (三方四正).

Focus palaceTriangular partners (三方)Opposite palace
Life palace (命宫)Wealth and CareerTravel (迁移)
Wealth palace (财帛宫)Career and LifeWell-being (福德)
Career palace (官禄宫)Life and WealthSpouse (夫妻)
PalaceTravel and Well-beingCareer (官禄)

For an overall reading centered on the Life palace, examine the stars in Life, Wealth, Career and Travel together rather than only the Life palace itself.

Why read them together?

A single star establishes only a basic theme. Zi Wei in the Life palace is traditionally interpreted more expansively when favorable stars such as Zuo Fu and You Bi meet it across the four palaces; a concentration of challenging stars produces a different interpretation.

Also consider the Four Transformations (四化), assigned to certain stars according to the birth year’s stem: Hua Lu symbolizes ease and gains; Hua Quan, authority and force; Hua Ke, reputation and helpful people; and Hua Ji, obstacles and fixation. Their placement among the four related palaces often shapes the reading.

How does this differ from BaZi?

BaZi uses the eight characters of four pillars, elemental generation and control, and Day Master strength. Zi Wei Dou Shu uses twelve palaces and combinations of stars. Their terminology is not interchangeable: inserting Zi Wei stars into a BaZi reading, or interpreting Zi Wei palaces through BaZi’s Ten Gods, mixes the systems.

Zi Wei Dou Shu requires a birth hour because the Life palace’s position depends on the birth month and hour. Without a known birth hour, the alternative discussed here is a three-pillar BaZi chart.

This page introduces traditional culture knowledge for reference only; it makes no predictions or guarantees about fate, health, relationships or wealth.

All 27 entries
Introduction and Chart SetupBaZi basics: Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches and the Four Pillars

BaZi records a birth time using Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches: two characters each for the year, month, day and hour. This introduction explains these eight characters, the sixty-pair cycle and the Four Pillars.

Symbolic starsIntroduction to symbolic stars: Peach Blossom, Travel Star, and Canopy

Symbolic stars (神煞) are derived from particular Earthly Branch combinations in a BaZi chart. Peach Blossom symbolizes sociability and charm, Traveling Horse movement and change, and Canopy solitude and artistic interests. They supplement a reading and cannot support conclusions on their own.

Introduction and Chart SetupCan you calculate BaZi without knowing your birth hour?

Without the hour, the year, month and day still provide three pillars and six characters. They offer a Day Master and a partial elemental picture. Leave Hour Pillar matters uncertain rather than inventing a time.

Zi Wei Dou Shu: reading four palaces together with San Fang Si Zheng · bazitao