What is Origin Palace (Lai Yin)?

The Origin Palace (Lai Yin) in Zi Wei Dou Shu is the palace on your birth chart whose stem matches the Heavenly Stem of your birth year. Schools that emphasize palace-stem transformations read it as "where your motives start in this life": the matters of that palace are ones you especially care about and are especially willing to put effort into. The Origin Palace isn't from the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu); later schools developed it, so treat it as a question to ask rather than a conclusion.

The short version:

• Formula: Origin Palace = the palace whose stem equals your birth-year stem.
• Birth year only: your birth day and hour don't matter. Everyone born in a year with the same stem has the Origin Palace on the same branch.
• Never Zi or Chou: Xin and Ren years have two matching palaces, and this school skips Zi and Chou, so every chart has exactly one.
• Weight: lighter than the Life Palace's main stars and the birth-year transformations. Read it as a question: does this area matter especially to me?

First, palace stems

Besides its fixed Earthly Branch, every palace on the chart carries a Heavenly Stem, called the palace stem. Palace stems are derived from the stem of your birth year and run in order starting from the Yin palace. Volume two of the Quan Shu uses them when setting the Five Elements Bureau:

In Jia and Ji years, Bing comes first.

For people born in Jia or Ji years, the Yin palace is Bing Yin and the Mao palace is Ding Mao, continuing in order from there. The full rule: Jia and Ji years start at Bing Yin, Yi and Geng at Wu Yin, Bing and Xin at Geng Yin, Ding and Ren at Ren Yin, and Wu and Gui at Jia Yin. Ba Zi uses the same method, known as the Five Tigers rule. As a table:

There are ten stems and twelve palaces, so at the end the stems of the Zi and Chou palaces repeat those of Yin and Mao. Palace stems have nothing to do with your birth day or hour, only your birth-year stem; people born in Jia and Ji years have exactly the same palace stems, and what differs is where the Life Palace falls. The stem and branch of the Life Palace are what you use to look up the Five Elements Bureau, and palace stems also drive flying stars.

How to find the Origin Palace

The palace whose stem matches your birth-year stem is your Origin Palace. In most years only one palace matches. Xin and Ren years have two: in Xin years both Mao and Chou carry Xin, and in Ren years both Yin and Zi carry Ren. This school's rule is to skip Zi and Chou, so every chart has exactly one Origin Palace, and it never falls in Zi or Chou.

Since only the year stem matters, you can look it up directly. The last digit of the Western year maps neatly onto the stem, which makes this the fastest route:

The year follows the lunar calendar: if you were born in January or February before Chinese New Year, use the previous year's stem. Someone born on January 20, 1990, for example, was still born in the Ji Si year, so the Origin Palace is in Si, not Chen.

Finding it in practice

Example one: born on January 28, 1990 (the second day of the first lunar month, a Geng Wu year) in the early Zi hour (midnight to 1 a.m.), with the Life Palace in Yin. The table puts a Geng year's Origin Palace in Chen. Counting the palaces counterclockwise from Yin: Chou is Siblings, Zi is Spouse, Hai is Children, Xu is Wealth, You is Health, Shen is Travel, Wei is Friends, Wu is Career, Si is Property and Chen is Fortune. So this person's Origin Palace is the Fortune Palace, which this school reads as always looking for inner peace, with an inner life that matters a lot.

Example two: born in 1983 (a Gui Hai year) with the Life Palace in Mao. A Gui year's Origin Palace is in Hai, the fourth palace counterclockwise from Mao: the Wealth Palace. Read: especially attuned to money and resources, and likes building them up on your own.

Everyone born in the same year has the Origin Palace on the same branch; which palace that is depends on where each person's Life Palace sits. So two people born in the same year, one with the Origin Palace in Fortune and the other in Career, is completely normal.

Why it's called the "origin"

The Origin Palace's stem is your birth-year stem, and the birth-year transformations are looked up with exactly that stem. So in flying-stars terms, the birth-year transformations are the transformations that fly out of the Origin Palace. That's why this school sees it as the chart's "cause": the four things you care about by nature (where Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji land) all start from this palace.

Take the chart in example one. A Geng year gives Tai Yang Hua Lu, Wu Qu Hua Quan, Tai Yin Hua Ke and Tian Tong Hua Ji:

The usual reading says "this person's Lu is in Travel and Ji is in Career." This school adds one more line: all of it starts from the Fortune Palace, from the wish for peace of mind, and only then heads out into the world and into work. The two readings don't conflict; this one just adds a starting point.

How to read it in each palace

Practitioners of this school read it as follows; treat these as tendencies:

After reading the palace, look at which stars sit in it. In example one the Fortune Palace in Chen has no main star, so it's an Empty Palace and borrows the main stars of the opposite palace (Xu, the Wealth Palace). The Origin Palace tells you what you care about; the stars tell you how you go about caring.

The Origin Palace is often taught alongside the Empty Palace, since both need the ideas of palace stems and opposite palaces first; see Empty Palaces and the Origin Palace.

Origin Palace vs. Life Palace vs. Body Palace

All three are a palace on the chart and the names blur easily, but they're set and read differently:

The Origin Palace can be the Life Palace itself, which reads as "what you care about most is being yourself." The Body Palace can only fall in one of six palaces (Life, Spouse, Wealth, Travel, Career, Fortune); the Origin Palace has no such limit and can be any of the twelve, it just never sits on Zi or Chou.

Keeping it in proportion

The Origin Palace weighs less than your natal main stars and birth-year transformations, so as a beginner, treat it as a supplement. A practical use is to ask yourself: does this area really matter especially to me? If the answer is yes, the stars in that palace are worth reading a few more times. If it doesn't sound like you at all, don't force it; go back to the Life Palace and the San Fang Si Zheng.

To find yours, draw your chart; the palace marked "Origin" is your Origin Palace.