What is Chang Sheng?

Chang Sheng (Birth) is the first of the Twelve Life Stages (Chang Sheng), like a seed that has just sprouted. Whichever palace on your chart says Chang Sheng, that palace's affairs often carry new life, and fresh starts come from there. It doesn't grow fast, but with steady care it grows better and better. The Twelve Life Stages are very light: they add a sense of pace to a palace and never outweigh the main star. To see which palace your Chang Sheng is in, draw your chart.

How Chang Sheng is placed

Chang Sheng is the starting point of the whole set, and its position depends only on the Five Elements Bureau, not on counting forward or backward:

The verse in the An Shen Ming Li section of volume two of the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu (The Complete Book of Zi Wei Dou Shu) reads: "For the Fire Bureau, start Chang Sheng at Yin. For the Wood Bureau, start Chang Sheng at Hai. For the Water Bureau, start Chang Sheng at Shen. For the Metal Bureau, start Chang Sheng at Si. For the Earth Bureau, start Chang Sheng at Shen." Once Chang Sheng is placed, you count forward or backward by yin or yang and gender to lay out Mu Yu, Guan Dai and the rest through Yang. That is why Chang Sheng only ever lands in Yin, Shen, Si or Hai. The San Ming Tong Hui, a Ming-dynasty classic of Bazi (Four Pillars), calls these four branches the "four births."

What Chang Sheng means: a new start that grows slowly

Chang Sheng is about beginnings. In this palace you often start from zero and take shape as you go, and you have staying power. It is not like Di Wang (Peak), which comes out swinging. It is more like a seedling that needs time.

In a few key palaces

• Life Palace: a fresh liveliness in how you deal with people and work, and you adapt quickly to new surroundings. Give yourself time to grow, and you get steadier the further you go.
• Wealth Palace: money often grows out of new things you try. Starting small and building up suits you better than one big bet.
• Career Palace: your work often brings new starting points, and you learn fast when you change fields or start a new project. Build up the fundamentals and the road keeps widening.
• Spouse Palace: relationships often begin the slow way, from friends or colleagues getting to know each other. Feelings are grown over time, so there's no rush to define things.
• Health Palace: you have resilience. With a regular routine and enough rest, your energy comes back.

Chang Sheng in the classics

The Tai Wei Fu in volume one of the Quan Shu has this line:

Tan Lang seated in the place of birth lives long, like Peng Zu.

(Quan Shu, volume one, Tai Wei Fu)

"The place of birth" is the Chang Sheng position. In volume three, the Lun Zhu Xing Tong Yuan section (on stars sharing a palace) annotates the entry "Tan Lang with auspicious stars sitting at Chang Sheng" with the example of someone born in a Yin, Wu or Xu year with the Life Palace in Yin. That appears to find the Chang Sheng position from the element of the birth year, which is a different method from the chart's Chang Sheng placed by the Five Elements Bureau. The ancients used it to say Tan Lang is blessed in the place of birth. Read for today, it fits everyday life better as Tan Lang's enthusiasm finding an endless supply of fresh interest in this palace.

Natal only, unchanged in each year

On the Xingge chart the Twelve Life Stages are a single natal set that never moves. When you read an Annual Luck, the sets that switch to annual versions are the Twelve General Gods (Jiang Qian) and the Twelve Year Gods (Sui Qian). Chang Sheng stays where it is, as the background color of the palace. For the full placement method and a comparison of the four sets, see the Twelve Life Stages overview.