Zi Wei Dou Shu FAQ: Accuracy, Birth Time, BaZi vs Zi Wei, Schools and Free Charts

Zi Wei Dou Shu is a traditional Chinese chart system that uses your lunar birth year, month and day plus your birth double-hour to build a chart of twelve palaces. Stars are placed in each palace, and their brightness, transformations and relationships describe temperament, areas of life and the themes of different periods. It works best as a language for reflecting on yourself, not as a prediction.What a chart is ›　How Xingge casts a chart ›

Zi Wei Dou Shu cannot be proven right in an experiment, but the chart itself can be checked for being cast correctly. Xingge’s lunar calendar was compared with the Hong Kong Observatory day by day for 72,999 days (1901–2100) and differs only in one known 30-day stretch in late 2057, and its star placement matches an independent rule table built from the classic placement rules on all 23,017 charts. How well a reading fits you then depends on a correct chart and on using it to reflect, not as a verdict.How we validate the chart ›　Chart statistics ›

No. Charts are computed by code following the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu, and every star position is checked against an independently written placement table and the original text. AI only puts the reading into words; it never moves a star.How we validate the chart ›

Usually because they follow different schools or conventions, not because someone cast it wrongly. Some read star brightness and patterns, others follow where palace-stem transformations fly, and details like the Life Master, Ke on Geng and Wu years, and the late Zi hour are handled differently. Xingge states its conventions on its method page so you can compare.Schools of Zi Wei Dou Shu ›　How Xingge casts a chart ›

The twelve palaces are the Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune and Parents Palaces, and each one covers one area of life. The Life Palace shows who you are, the Spouse Palace love and partnership, the Wealth Palace earning and spending, the Career Palace work, and the Health Palace constitution and stress; the others cover siblings, children, life away from home, friends, home, inner life and elders. Each palace is also read together with its opposite and trine palaces.The twelve palaces ›　Three Harmonies and Four Directions ›

The fourteen main stars are Zi Wei, Tian Ji, Tai Yang, Wu Qu, Tian Tong, Lian Zhen, Tian Fu, Tai Yin, Tan Lang, Ju Men, Tian Xiang, Tian Liang, Qi Sha and Po Jun. A Life Palace holds one or two of them, or none at all (an Empty Palace). Xingge sorts the Life Palace main star plus the Empty Palace into fifteen star personas; to find yours, use the Life Palace finder.Life Palace finder ›　Empty Palace and borrowed stars ›

You can cast a chart without it, but the Life Palace is only reliable if the birth double-hour is right. One double-hour off moves the Life Palace by one palace and turns the whole chart. Xingge’s birth hour finder takes a rough time range and a few questions and lists the likeliest hours; if two candidates are close, cast both charts and compare.Birth hour finder ›　What a double-hour is ›

The late Zi hour is 23:00 to midnight, and Xingge counts it as the Zi hour of the next day, moving the date forward too. Schools disagree on this one hour, so the same person can get different charts on different sites. Check which convention a site uses before comparing.Double-hours and the late Zi hour ›　How Xingge casts a chart ›

Xingge splits a leap month at the 15th: births on or before the 15th count as that month, and births from the 16th count as the next month. The Quan Shu treats the whole leap month as the next month, and schools differ here. If you are unsure whether your birthday falls in a leap month, check it with the lunar date converter first.How Xingge casts a chart ›　Lunar date converter ›

The Life Palace is the first of the twelve palaces and shows your baseline: temperament, how you approach things and your first reaction to events. Start with the main star in it, then its brightness, the minor stars in the same palace, and the stars in the Three Harmonies and Four Directions (the opposite palace and the two trine palaces). A Life Palace with no main star is an Empty Palace, read by borrowing the stars from the opposite palace.Life Palace finder ›　Empty Palace and borrowed stars ›　Three Harmonies and Four Directions ›

It is common: in the 262,980 charts Xingge cast, 16.5% have an Empty Life Palace, about one in six, more than any single main star. That count covers every day and double-hour from 1950 to 2009 once each, so it is not a birth population. An Empty Palace is not blank; you read it by borrowing the stars from the opposite palace.Chart statistics ›　Empty Palace and borrowed stars ›

They are two independent systems that both use your birth year, month, day and hour, so asking which is more accurate is the wrong comparison. Zi Wei Dou Shu lays life out in twelve palaces and shows which area moves and when; BaZi uses the balance of the Five Elements to show what helps you and the theme of each ten-year luck cycle. When they say different things, treat one as the main reading and the other as a supplement.Zi Wei Dou Shu and BaZi ›　BaZi chart ›

Your sun sign only depends on which stretch of the solar calendar your birthday falls in, while Zi Wei Dou Shu uses the lunar year, month and day plus the birth double-hour, so a sun sign cannot tell you your Life Palace star. Xingge cast one chart for every day and every double-hour from 1950 to 2009 (262,980 charts, each day weighted equally, so this is not a birth population): within every sun sign, each of the fourteen main stars sits in the Life Palace 8.2% to 8.4% of the time, so one sign can have any star.Sun signs and Zi Wei Dou Shu ›　Chart statistics ›

Both are frameworks for reading yourself, but they start from different inputs: MBTI from a questionnaire you answer, Zi Wei Dou Shu from your birth time. MBTI sorts people into sixteen types, while a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart adds twelve areas of life and a time dimension of decades and years. They look at you from different angles, so they can be used side by side.What a chart is ›

The Four Transformations are Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke and Hua Ji: four changes that the heavenly stem of a year applies to four stars. Hua Lu points to flow and opportunity, Hua Quan to taking charge, Hua Ke to order and reputation, and Hua Ji to what you care about most and find hard to let go. Each of the ten stems has its own set, so people born in the same year share the same four stars, and what differs is the palace they fall in.The Four Transformations ›　Self-transformation ›

There are two broad schools: San He (Three Harmonies) reads stars, brightness, patterns and the Three Harmonies and Four Directions, while Flying Star (the Four Transformations school) reads where palace-stem transformations fly. The tables differ too; the most common difference is Ren-year Hua Ke, which is Tian Fu in the Quan Shu and Zuo Fu in another version. Xingge uses the Quan Shu and San He as its base, reads the birth-year transformations alongside, and uses flying transformations for questions about money and timing.Schools of Zi Wei Dou Shu ›　Flying stars ›

The Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) is the classic text from which most schools take their star natures, brightness tables and transformation verses. Xingge’s 232 brightness squares and the transformations of all ten stems were each checked against its second volume. Xingge’s Quan Shu pages set the original text, a plain translation and your own chart side by side, and translate the harsher lines literally with a note on how to read them.The Quan Shu, read with your chart ›　How we validate the chart ›

Decade Luck is a ten-year stretch and Annual Luck is a single year, and each one treats one palace as the theme of that period. If your Decade Luck is in the Career Palace, for example, those ten years lean toward work. To read timing, put the natal chart and the chart of that period together and read the two layers as one.Decade Luck ›　Annual Luck ›

2027 is a Ding Wei year, so start with the Ding transformations: Hua Lu on Tai Yin, Hua Quan on Tian Tong, Hua Ke on Tian Ji and Hua Ji on Ju Men. Then find which palaces those four stars sit in on your chart; those are the areas likely to feel most active this year. Also check where the year falls within your current Decade Luck.2027 in Zi Wei Dou Shu ›　Annual transformations tool ›

You can draw a full twelve-palace chart for free on Xingge by entering your birth date, birth time and gender. The chart is computed by code following the Quan Shu, and the website and app give the same chart for the same birth details.Draw your free chart ›　How Xingge casts a chart ›

The free chart includes the twelve palaces, the fourteen main stars and minor stars, the Four Transformations, and Decade and Annual Luck, plus a reading for every palace and main star. The 51 beginner lessons and three free Ask questions a week are free too; the books and extra Ask points are the paid part, with prices on the pricing page.Pricing ›　Free tools ›

Xingge has an Android app on Google Play, and the website works on phones and computers and can be installed as a PWA. It offers the full chart, the Life Book, yearly outlook, Ask (three free questions a week) and charts for friends and family; the Life Book is a paid purchase. The same birth details give the same chart on the website and in the app.Draw your free chart ›　Ask ›

Questions about pricing, payment, refunds and your account are answered in the FAQ on the support page, so they are not repeated here. If the support page does not cover your question, you can contact us from there.Support and FAQ ›　Pricing ›