Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数, Purple Star Astrology) reads a birth chart built from 14 main stars placed into 12 life palaces, with four transformations marking what is active right now. The system has its own vocabulary, and most beginner confusion is not conceptual — it is a missing glossary. This page fixes that: the 30 terms you actually meet in a reading, each explained in plain English.
Read it once end to end for orientation, or jump to the term you hit while looking at a chart. Every entry links to the deeper guide where one exists.
The name of the system. It maps a birth moment onto a fixed grid of 12 palaces and places 14 main stars onto that grid according to published rule tables. Given the same birth data, the same chart results — the placement step is arithmetic, not interpretation.
The full output: a square wheel of 12 boxes with stars, brightness grades and transformations inside each box. Everything in a reading is derived from this one artifact. If the chart is wrong, everything downstream is wrong — which is why the chart, not the prose, is the first thing to check.
The input: birth year, month, day and hour, converted to the lunar calendar and the stem-and-branch cycle. Hour matters enormously — see 时辰 below.
Traditional timekeeping divides the day into 12 two-hour blocks, each mapped to an earthly branch (子, 丑, 寅 …). The hour of birth determines where the Life Palace sits, and therefore where every star lands. Without a birth hour, a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart cannot be placed at all — a date alone is not enough.
The chart is placed on the lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one. Leap months and month boundaries are handled by fixed conversion rules — another reason placement must be computed rather than improvised.
The palaces are fixed in number and arranged as six opposing pairs. Each governs one domain of life. The pair structure matters: opposite palaces are read against each other.
The grid itself. The wheel is anchored by the Life Palace, and the remaining eleven are assigned in a fixed mirrored order around it. Because the wheel rotates with your birth month, day and hour, all twelve land differently for every person.
The anchor of the whole chart: core temperament, vitality, the face you show the world. Its main star is your core archetype in its strongest expression. Read it first, and read everything else in relation to it.
The second focus of the chart, governing where your energy concentrates in the later part of life. Where the Life Palace describes the starting hand, the Body Palace describes where the weight ends up.
Direction, professional standing, and how effort converts into income. It sits opposite the Spouse Palace, which is why work-versus-love tension is read across that axis rather than in either box alone.
How money moves through your life — earning, spending, saving, risk — not how much you will have. It is one of three money palaces and is never read alone. Full guide: Your Wealth Palace.
Assets and grounding: property, holdings, the physical sense of home. The third money palace — the one that shows whether cash flow ever becomes things you own.
The pattern of partnership rather than a prediction of a specific person: passionate, stable, distant, dramatic. One of the most-read palaces and one of the most misread.
Inner life: contentment, taste, what you do for its own sake. It sits opposite the Wealth Palace, so money and enjoyment are in permanent negotiation across that pairing. A strong Wealth Palace facing a troubled Happiness Palace describes someone who earns well and enjoys little.
Physical constitution, tendencies and recovery — read as tendencies, never as verdicts. Also read for how stress lands on the body.
The world outside you: relocation, travel, opportunities away from home, and how you come across to strangers. It faces the Life Palace — who you are at home versus who you are out in the world.
Upbringing, elders, mentors and inherited support. It also covers formal authority — teachers, institutions, paperwork.
Siblings and the peer layer: close friends who function as family, plus early competition-and-cooperation patterns.
Children and fertility in the traditional reading; creative output, play and the inner child in modern practice.
The core cast: 紫微, 天机, 太阳, 武曲, 天同, 廉贞, 天府, 太阴, 贪狼, 巨门, 天相, 天梁, 七杀, 破军. Every chart places all fourteen; the reading depends on which palaces they occupy and how bright they are. Full guide: The 14 Main Stars.
Supporting stars that modify the main cast rather than carry a reading on their own. Grouped by function — help, learning, romance, friction, movement, solitude.
The friction group: 擎羊, 陀罗, 火星, 铃星, 地空, 地劫. They mark resistance, impatience and loss — not doom. A chart with no friction at all usually reads as inert.
Learning, expression and written talent. Where they fall tells you which domain benefits from study and articulation.
Help and teamwork: the people who show up and make things easier. Their presence is one of the clearest signals that a palace has practical support behind it.
"Having enough" — salary, provision, sufficiency. Technically not one of the fourteen main stars, but pure wealth energy, and a keeper rather than a multiplier.
Movement, travel, and gain through activity. Paired with a wealth star, it reads as earning while on the move.
The attraction group: 红鸾, 天喜, 咸池, 天姚. Associated with relationship events and charisma — read as influence on a palace, not as a standalone forecast.
The strength scale a star is rated on in a given position: 庙 (strongest) → 旺 → 得地 → 利益 → 平和 → 不得地 → 陷 (weakest). The same star means different things at different brightness. A bright 武曲 builds; a dim 武曲 works hard and struggles to convert the effort into cash.
Four star changes that mark which palaces are activated:
Transformations are what turn a fixed chart into something you can read against a calendar. Full guide: The Four Transformations.
The reading framework: a palace, the two palaces forming a triangle with it, and the palace directly opposite. A conclusion drawn from one palace alone is unreliable; the same star gains or loses force depending on what its triangle brings. It is the default unit of reading for this system.
Decade cycle → annual → monthly → daily. The chart is fixed at birth; its expression is not. Each layer activates different palaces in turn, which is what makes timing questions answerable. Most consumer tools stop at the annual layer — but a year is not a decision. Full guide: Great Limits.
Every term above is defined by the same fixed rule tables the chart itself is placed with, so the same chart always yields the same conclusions.
What is the most important term in Zi Wei Dou Shu? 命宫 (the Life Palace). It anchors the wheel and sets the tone for all eleven other palaces.
Do I need my exact birth hour? Yes. The hour determines where the Life Palace sits; without it the chart cannot be placed. A date alone supports other systems, not this one.
What is the difference between 四化 and brightness? Brightness describes how strong a star is in its position — a static quality. The Four Transformations describe what is active in a given period — a moving quality.
Is the Wealth Palace about how rich I will be? No. It describes how money moves through your life: earning style, spending habits, risk appetite and timing.
What does 三方四正 mean in practice? Never judge a palace in isolation: read it with the two palaces forming its triangle and the palace opposite.
Can two people have the same chart? Two people born in the same hour, place and gender produce the same chart — which is why placement is a calculation, not a creative act.
What is 化忌, and is it bad? It marks an obstacle: the domain where friction and repeated lessons concentrate. Demanding, not doomed.
How far down does timing go? Decade, year, month and day. Tools that stop at the year answer a coarser question than most decisions need.
Enter your birth details at askziwei.com and the chart is placed by rule: every star position follows the traditional rule tables, and the timing layers run down to the day. Then keep this glossary open beside it.
New to the system? Start with the 12 palaces or meet the 14 main stars.
Tags： Zi Wei Dou Shu, Purple Star Astrology, Chinese Astrology, Glossary, Metaphysics
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