The Twelve Palaces of Zi Wei Dou Shu
The complete palace-setting rules, all twelve palaces explained one by one, and every major star read in every palace — a reference you can check against your own chart, palace by palace.
Example chart with the Life Palace at Yin — actual positions vary by birth data
👆 Hover a palace to see its trinity lines; click to open its full entry
🏛️ What Are the Twelve Palaces?
Zi Wei Dou Shu divides a life into twelve domains: character (Life), siblings, marriage, children, wealth, health, travel, friends, career, property, inner fortune, and parents — each occupying one earthly-branch position on the chart. Together they form the twelve palaces.
Stars are the actors; palaces are the stage. The same star means entirely different things in different palaces — Tan Lang in the Life Palace speaks of a versatile character, in the Wealth Palace of earning through connections, in the Marriage Palace of a colorful love history. Read the palace first, then the star.
📐 How We Set the Twelve Palaces: Rules in Full
Our Zi Wei chart engine follows the standard classical rules below. Every step can be checked against the classics or any professional charting tool:
- 1Locate the Life Palace
Start at the Yin branch as month one and count forward to the lunar birth month; from that palace, count backward through the twelve two-hour periods to the birth hour. Where the count lands is the Life Palace.
- 2Locate the Body Palace
From the same birth-month palace, count forward (instead of backward) to the birth hour. That palace is the Body Palace.
- 3Lay Out the Twelve Palaces
From the Life Palace, place Siblings, Marriage, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune, and Parents counterclockwise in order.
- 4Determine the Five-Element Bureau
The Life Palace stem-branch nayin determines the bureau: Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5, or Fire 6. The bureau number fixes where Zi Wei sits and when the first decade cycle begins.
- 5Start the Decade Cycles
The first decade cycle (da xian) begins at the Life Palace itself — the mainstream modern convention. It starts at the age equal to the bureau number, running forward for yang-year men and yin-year women, backward for yin-year men and yang-year women, one palace per decade.
🔺 The Trinity Structure: Never Read a Palace Alone
No palace stands alone. A palace, its opposite (six positions away), and its two trine palaces (four positions away on each side) form the "three directions and four corrections" — the trinity structure. Read all four together: the palace itself is the protagonist, the opposite palace is light shining straight in, and the trines are its two wings.
The most important set is the Life Palace trinity: Life, Wealth, and Career in trine, with Travel opposite — self, money, work, and environment as one structure. The caliber of a chart is decided here. In the chart above, same-colored palaces belong to the same trine; hover to see the lines.
⚓ The Body Palace: Your Second Center of Gravity
Beyond the twelve palaces, every chart has a Body Palace (身宫) that complements the Life Palace: the Life Palace governs innate nature, the Body Palace governs where your later life concentrates — from midlife onward, its domain pulls ever harder.
The Body Palace can only fall in six places, determined by the birth hour. Wherever yours falls, that palace entry deserves a second read.
🌫️ Empty Palaces and Borrowed Stars
Fourteen major stars cannot fill twelve palaces — some palaces always end up without a major star, called "empty palaces." Empty is neither ominous nor blank: the palace borrows the major stars of its opposite palace, at reduced strength and stability. If a palace in your chart is empty, see the "When This Palace Is Empty" section of its entry.
📚 All Twelve Palaces, Explained
Each palace has a full entry: what it governs, how to read it, all 14 major stars in that palace one by one, the Four Transformations, auspicious and malefic stars, and the empty-palace case — open one and follow along with your own chart.
The Life Palace is the hub of the entire chart. It governs character, natural talent, appearance and bearing, and the overall shape of a life — the other eleven palaces are all laid out from it.
The Siblings Palace governs the bond with brothers and sisters — its depth, its dynamics, and how much they help — and by extension the peers of one's own generation: partners and close friends.
The Marriage Palace governs the shape of love and marriage — the kind of partner you attract and how you get along — plus signals about romance luck and marrying early or late.
The Children Palace governs children — how many, their gifts, and the depth of the parent-child bond — plus fertility and romance; by extension, students, proteges, and the works you pour yourself into.
The Wealth Palace governs the shape of money in a life — how it arrives, how it leaves, how it is managed — forming the chart's iron triangle with the Life and Career Palaces.
The Health Palace governs constitution — inborn strengths, weak points, and accident tendencies. It is the chart's first stop for health, always read alongside the Life and Fortune Palaces.
The Travel Palace governs life away from home — fortunes abroad, moves and journeys, and how you fare and appear in the wider world. It is the mirror of the Life Palace.
The Friends Palace (classically the Servants Palace) governs the quality of friends and subordinates — who you attract, how much they help — and daily relations with colleagues and staff.
The Career Palace governs the shape of one's work — vocational leanings, working style, the rise and fall of professional fortunes — completing the chart's iron triangle with the Life and Wealth Palaces.
The Property Palace governs real estate and the home environment — and serves as the life's treasury: buying property, domestic peace, and family inheritance are all read here.
The Fortune Palace governs the inner life — depth of blessing, temperament, tastes, resilience, and ease in later years. It is the palace that answers whether a life is actually enjoyed.
The Parents Palace governs the bond with one's parents and the shelter received from them, extending to elders and superiors. The old texts also called it the Appearance Palace.
💬 FAQ
The Life Palace is the hub, but no single palace decides a chart: overall caliber depends on the Life Palace trinity as a structure. And for any specific question, that topic’s palace takes the lead — marriage questions center on the Marriage Palace, money questions on the Wealth Palace, with the Life Palace coordinating.
Yes. Guan Lu Gong (官禄宫) is the classical name and "Shiye Gong" (事业宫) the modern one; likewise the Friends Palace was classically called the Servants Palace. Our charts use the classical names, and entries treat both interchangeably.
No. A palace without major stars borrows its opposite palace’s stars at reduced strength — less fixed, more flexible. Plenty of notable charts have an empty Life Palace; reading emptiness as misfortune is a classic beginner’s error.
No. Star patterns describe how a relationship tends to wear, not how it ends. Malefics point to the friction spots, and tradition itself offers softeners — marrying later, spending time apart. Read it as a maintenance manual, not a verdict.
BaZi reads elemental dynamics to answer "when" — the rhythm of a life. Zi Wei Dou Shu splits life into twelve domains to answer "where and in what form." They complement each other; casting both from the same birth data and reading them side by side is the advanced move.
Now that you can read the palaces, chart your own