Zi Wei Dou Shu calculator
Enter a birth moment and a gender, and get the twelve palaces, the stars that landed in them, the four transformations and the decade limits — with the conventions used printed underneath.
Free, no account. Birth data goes only to this site's own endpoint; the chart is not stored and never enters the URL.
The chart follows traditional placement rules; that does not make those rules verified descriptions of a life. This page makes no prediction and is not medical, legal or financial advice.
What to check first
Confirm the lunar date and hour
Every palace and star is placed from the lunar month, day and hour branch. A chart that disagrees with a book usually disagrees here first — a leap month or a 23:00 birth is enough.
Then the life and body palaces
The life palace orients the other eleven; the body palace marks a second line and may share the same box. If either sits somewhere unexpected, stop and check the birth data.
Then the frame and the decade limits
The frame number is also the age the first decade begins; the direction is decided by the year's polarity and the gender. Both are printed, so two charts can be compared instead of argued about.
Only then read the stars
The fourteen major stars and the auxiliaries are positions in a grid, not verdicts. This page lays them out and marks the four transformations; it does not interpret them for you.
Terms this page outputs
Each field maps back to a wiki definition — including what it cannot tell you.
Twelve palacesTwelve boxes, each naming a subject: self, siblings, spouse, wealth, health.
A palace is a position in the chart, not a verdict about that area of life. It means something next to the palace opposite it and the stars that landed in it — which is why a single box cannot be read on its own.
Twelve palaces →Life and body palacesThe life palace orients the chart; the body palace marks a second line.
The life palace position fixes the layout of the other eleven. The body palace follows the hour and may coincide with the life palace, which is why the chart marks both instead of assuming one.
Life and body palaces →Five-element frameWater 2, wood 3, metal 4, earth 5, fire 6 — the chart's clock.
Derived from the Na Yin element of the life palace's stem-branch. The number is the age the first decade begins and the step used to place Zi Wei, so a wrong frame moves every star.
Five-element frame →Fourteen major starsZi Wei, Tian Ji, Tai Yang and the rest, placed by fixed rules.
Zi Wei's position is computed from the lunar day and the frame; Tian Fu mirrors it across the Yin–Shen axis; the other twelve follow from those two. The chart prints where both anchors landed so the mirror rule is checkable.
Fourteen major stars →Auxiliary starsSix auspicious, six malefic, plus Lu Cun and Tian Ma.
These depend on the year stem, year branch, lunar month and hour — not on the frame. That is why two charts can share every palace and still differ here.
Auxiliary stars →Four transformationsLu, Quan, Ke and Ji, assigned by the year stem.
Each year stem transforms four fixed stars. This is the natal layer; the annual layer transforms stars by the year being viewed. Mixing the two is the most common way a reading becomes untraceable.
Four transformations →Decade limitsTen-year periods that walk the twelve palaces in order.
Each palace carries one decade range in this chart, and the direction is printed with the result. The range is counted in nominal years, not birthdays.
Decade limits →Yearly palacesThe twelve palace names for the year you asked about.
The year's branch marks the annual life palace, and the names run from there. They are a second labelling of the same twelve boxes, not a second chart.
Yearly palaces →
FAQ
Why is the lunar date required, not just the Gregorian one?
Because the lunar month and day decide the life palace and where Zi Wei lands. The conversion needs a lunar table, so it runs on the server; the result prints the lunar date it used so the step can be checked.
Why must I choose a gender?
The decade direction depends on the year's polarity and the gender: yang-year male and yin-year female run forward, the other two backward. Defaulting the field would silently reverse half the charts, so it starts empty.
Why do two Zi Wei calculators disagree?
Usually one of five things: the lunar year boundary, how a 23:00 birth is counted, the frame source, the decade direction, and which star set is drawn. This page prints all of them under the result so a difference can be located instead of guessed.
What is the five-element frame, in one line?
A number from 2 to 6 derived from the life palace's Na Yin element. It sets the age the first decade begins and the step used to place Zi Wei — which is why it is printed next to the chart rather than buried.
Where are the minor stars such as Hong Luan and Tian Xi?
Left out on purpose. Adding a partial minor-star set makes the star table impossible to check against a book; this page draws fourteen major stars and fourteen auxiliaries and says so. The desktop app offers the fuller set.
Does the chart say whether my fortune is good?
No. It is a placement chart: palaces, stars, transformations, limits. Judging needs a school, a question and a reading of strength — judgement, not arithmetic. This page stops where the computation stops.
Is the chart saved?
No. It lives only in this tab, disappears on refresh, and is never written into the URL. Screenshot it, or archive it in the desktop app.