Chinese traditions / Charts
Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart: Purple Star Astrology Calculator
Enter a solar or lunar birth date and birth hour to draw a traditional Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, with Chinese or Vietnamese names and a private share image.
Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart: Purple Star Astrology Calculator: This calculator arranges the twelve palaces, fourteen major stars and fourteen supporting stars of a Zi Wei Dou Shu natal chart. It shows the life and body palaces, the five-element bureau, star brightness, birth-year transformations, life and body masters, and traditional ten-year age ranges. A central panel shows the dates and eight characters; the downloadable PNG omits all dates, hours and age ranges. Short explanations describe cultural associations without making predictions. Runs 100% locally in your browser with zero server file uploads.
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- Astrology & fortune
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Explore a traditional cultural chart; its symbols do not make scientific claims or predict events.
Use the local civil birth clock without solar-time correction; the hour select uses the start of each interval, including 23:00 for Zi.
Solar: 1990-06-15
Lunar: 1990/5/23 · Regular month
Day used: 1990-06-15
Eight characters: 庚午 · 壬午 · 辛亥 · 壬辰
Life master: 禄存 · lù cún · Stored emolument
Body master: 火星 · huǒ xīng · Fire star
Female · 辰
Select a palace to read its full names and star labels below; the grid abbreviates English names to Chinese.
命宫 · mìng gōng · Life · 戊 · wù · Yang earth 寅 · yín · Tiger
The life palace frames the chart's traditional account of identity.
Traditional ten-year period: ages 5–14, counted by nominal age.
Highlighted: 命宫 · mìng gōng · Life
- 七杀 · qī shā · Seven killings · 庙 · miào · Temple
The share card contains palace and star labels with toea.com; all dates, hours and age ranges are omitted.
Traditional meanings of the twelve palaces and fourteen stars
These are cultural associations, not descriptions of an individual or forecasts.
- 命宫 · mìng gōng · Life
- The life palace frames the chart's traditional account of identity.
- 兄弟 · xiōng dì · Siblings
- The siblings palace concerns siblings and relationships among peers.
- 夫妻 · fū qī · Partnership
- The partnership palace concerns marriage and close partnerships.
- 子女 · zǐ nǚ · Children
- The children palace concerns children and relationships across generations.
- 财帛 · cái bó · Resources
- The resources palace concerns money, possessions and their management.
- 疾厄 · jí è · Health
- The health palace concerns the traditional theme of bodily wellbeing; it is not medical guidance.
- 迁移 · qiān yí · Travel
- The travel palace concerns movement and life beyond familiar surroundings.
- 交友 · jiāo yǒu · Friends
- The friends palace concerns friends, colleagues and wider social ties.
- 官禄 · guān lù · Career
- The career palace concerns work, responsibilities and public roles.
- 田宅 · tián zhái · Home
- The home palace concerns housing, land and domestic surroundings.
- 福德 · fú dé · Inner life
- The inner-life palace concerns leisure, reflection and contentment.
- 父母 · fù mǔ · Parents
- The parents palace concerns parents, elders and inherited support.
- 紫微 · zǐ wēi · Purple star
- Purple Star symbolises organisation and central authority.
- 天机 · tiān jī · Celestial mechanism
- Celestial Mechanism symbolises planning, thought and change.
- 太阳 · tài yáng · Sun
- The Sun symbolises openness, service and visibility.
- 武曲 · wǔ qǔ · Martial song
- Martial Song symbolises discipline and material stewardship.
- 天同 · tiān tóng · Celestial harmony
- Celestial Harmony symbolises ease, cooperation and enjoyment.
- 廉贞 · lián zhēn · Integrity
- Integrity symbolises boundaries, commitment and discernment.
- 天府 · tiān fǔ · Celestial treasury
- Celestial Treasury symbolises safekeeping and administration.
- 太阴 · tài yīn · Moon
- The Moon symbolises reflection, care and quiet cultivation.
- 贪狼 · tān láng · Greedy wolf
- Greedy Wolf symbolises curiosity, sociability and desire.
- 巨门 · jù mén · Great gate
- Great Gate symbolises speech, enquiry and debate.
- 天相 · tiān xiàng · Minister
- The Minister symbolises mediation, fairness and assistance.
- 天梁 · tiān liáng · Celestial beam
- Celestial Beam symbolises protection, guidance and responsibility.
- 七杀 · qī shā · Seven killings
- Seven Killings symbolises resolve, independence and decisive action.
- 破军 · pò jūn · Army breaker
- Army Breaker symbolises renovation, disruption and rebuilding.
Chart conventions
The year changes at lunar New Year; palace stems follow Five Tigers, and the life palace's resonant element sets the bureau.
Leap-month days 1–15 use the current month and days 16–30 use the next month, retaining the lunar day number for Purple Star placement.
The default splits early and late Zi at midnight; the alternative advances the day at 23:00.
Brightness follows a fixed seven-level table; Geng transformations are Sun, Martial Song, Moon, Celestial Harmony, and Ren transformations are Celestial Beam, Purple Star, Left Assistant, Martial Song.
The centre's eight characters use solar-term year and month boundaries at UTC+8; Zi Wei uses the lunar year and month.
Ten-year periods begin at the bureau number; yang male and yin female proceed in branch order, and the other two combinations reverse it.
The placement method
The traditional placement mnemonics, known as An Xing Jue, count lunar months forward from Tiger and birth hours backward for the life palace, or forward for the body palace. Five Tigers assigns palace stems. The life palace's Na Yin element selects Water 2, Wood 3, Metal 4, Earth 5 or Fire 6; the lunar day and bureau place Purple Star, and the remaining major stars follow two fixed sequences.
The traditional rules are public-domain methods independently expressed as rule tables here. The MIT-licensed iztro project (https://github.com/SylarLong/iztro) documents the widely used chart vocabulary and school options; consult its documentation when comparing chart conventions. The Chinese calendar follows the site's table for 1900–2100, whose calendar sources include the Hong Kong Observatory (https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/gts/time/conversion.htm) and its published conversion tables.
Conventions table
| Convention | Selected rule |
|---|---|
| Zi Wei year | Changes at Chinese lunar New Year. |
| Birth hour | Local civil clock without solar correction; twelve two-hour intervals. |
| Zi day boundary | Midnight by default; optional new day at 23:00. |
| Leap month | Days 1–15 use the current month; days 16–30 use the next, keeping the lunar day number. |
| Brightness | Fixed seven-level table for the fourteen major stars. |
| Geng transformations | Sun, Martial Song, Moon, Celestial Harmony. |
| Ren transformations | Celestial Beam, Purple Star, Left Assistant, Martial Song. |
| Life and body masters | Life-palace branch and birth-year branch respectively. |
| Heavenly Horse | Birth-year branch trine. |
| Ten-year periods | Bureau number sets starting nominal age; yang male and yin female advance, the other two reverse. |
| Centre eight characters | Solar-term year and month at UTC+8, with the selected day boundary. |
Calendar and hours: Chinese lunar New Year changes the Zi Wei year; local civil time chooses the two-hour branch. The centre's eight characters use solar terms at UTC+8. Midnight is the default day boundary; choosing 23:00 advances both the lunar chart day and the eight-character day. A selected Zi interval without an exact time represents 23:00.
Leap month: days 1–15 stay in the numbered month; days 16–30 use the next month for life/body palaces and monthly supporting stars, while keeping the original lunar day for Purple Star. The year remains the lunar year even when an adjusted twelfth month wraps to the first.
Birth-year transformations, in Lu, Quan, Ke, Ji order: Jia = Integrity, Army Breaker, Martial Song, Sun; Yi = Celestial Mechanism, Celestial Beam, Purple Star, Moon; Bing = Celestial Harmony, Celestial Mechanism, Literary Brilliance, Integrity; Ding = Moon, Celestial Harmony, Celestial Mechanism, Great Gate; Wu = Greedy Wolf, Moon, Right Assistant, Celestial Mechanism; Ji = Martial Song, Greedy Wolf, Celestial Beam, Literary Song; Geng = Sun, Martial Song, Moon, Celestial Harmony; Xin = Great Gate, Sun, Literary Song, Literary Brilliance; Ren = Celestial Beam, Purple Star, Left Assistant, Martial Song; Gui = Army Breaker, Great Gate, Moon, Greedy Wolf.
Brightness: seven conventional levels, temple, flourishing, obtaining, advantage, balanced, diminished and fallen, use a fixed table for the fourteen major stars. These are traditional labels, not measurements. Ten-year periods start at the bureau number in nominal age: yang male and yin female follow branch order; yin male and yang female reverse it. The life master follows the life-palace branch; the body master and Heavenly Horse follow the birth-year branch.
How to use it
- Choose a Gregorian or Chinese lunar birth date, including the leap-month flag when needed.
- Choose the local birth hour, gender for period direction and the Zi-hour day boundary.
- Draw the chart, select a palace for full details, or download a share card without dates or hours.
Privacy & limitations
Birth details stay in your browser; the share image contains no birth dates or hours.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Zi Wei Dou Shu?
Zi Wei Dou Shu is a Chinese astrological tradition also known as Purple Star astrology and Tử Vi Đẩu Số in Vietnamese. It places symbolic stars in twelve palaces using a lunar birth date and birth hour. This page presents the chart and its traditional vocabulary as cultural reference, without predictions.
Do I need the exact birth hour?
You need the correct two-hour birth interval for a complete chart. Minutes usually do not change it, but can matter at an interval boundary or around midnight. You can enter an exact local time; the calculator maps it to the relevant interval. An unknown birth hour cannot produce a reliable life or body palace.
How are lunar leap months handled?
Select Chinese lunar input and tick Leap month only when the birthday belongs to the repeated month. Days 1–15 use that month for palace placement; days 16–30 use the next month. The lunar day number stays unchanged for Purple Star placement. In a leap twelfth month, the next month wraps to the first while the lunar year stays unchanged.
Why do charts differ between sites?
Schools use different leap-month rules, Zi-hour day boundaries, brightness tables and birth-year transformations. This calculator uses the half-month leap rule, midnight as the default day boundary with a 23:00 alternative, a seven-level brightness table, and the common San He transformations: Geng uses Sun, Martial Song, Moon and Celestial Harmony; Ren uses Celestial Beam, Purple Star, Left Assistant and Martial Song. The chart year changes at lunar New Year. The birth clock is civil time with no solar-time correction.
How does Zi Wei Dou Shu differ from BaZi?
BaZi centres on four stem-branch pillars, with its year and month boundaries set by solar terms. Zi Wei Dou Shu arranges symbolic stars in twelve palaces using the lunar date and birth hour. The centre shows BaZi eight characters at UTC+8, so the solar-term year can differ from the lunar year used for the Zi Wei chart.
Is Zi Wei Dou Shu scientific?
No. Zi Wei Dou Shu is a cultural and astrological tradition, not a scientifically validated way to describe personality or predict events. The star names, brightness labels and palace meanings here are historical symbols, not factual judgements about a person.
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