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THE SHORT ANSWER
Zi Wei Dou Shu’s twelve palaces are traditional categories, not twelve scores for your life. Check the birth inputs and chart conventions, then identify the palace name, earthly branch, major stars and markers. The Body Palace overlays one of the twelve; it is not a thirteenth palace. An “empty” palace means no major star, not an absent part of life.
- Earthly branches and palace names are different labels. Two people’s Wealth Palaces can occupy different branches; do not identify a palace only by its screen position.
- The traditional san fang si zheng relationship groups a reference palace, its two trine partners and its opposite. For the Life Palace, the group includes Wealth, Career and Travel.
- Wenbu shows major stars, supporting-star names, selected transformation markers and decadal age ranges. Those fields are not a completed annual reading.
The teaching diagram highlights Life, Wealth, Career and Travel within the twelve-palace structure. It illustrates a traditional relationship, not a personal birth chart, and assigns no strength, fortune or prediction scores.
Read the structure before the star names
Zi Wei Dou Shu arranges stars within twelve palaces using birth information. Traditional names organize themes such as self, siblings, partnership, children, resources, health, movement, friendships, work, home, inner life and parents. A palace label is a symbolic category, not a factual statement about that part of your life.
The Life palace and Body palace are common reference points. Major stars, supporting stars and other markers form a network. Isolating one star and using it to define a person leaves out the rest of that network.
An empty palace is not an empty life
A palace without a major star is commonly called empty. Traditional readings consider relationships with other palaces; they do not simply conclude that a life area is absent or doomed.
Likewise, dramatic words in star names are technical labels, not forecasts of harm. Wenbu displays the structure first so you can identify which palace or star a reflection refers to.
Palace names and questions grounded in your own records
| Palace | Traditional subject | A starting question |
|---|---|---|
| 命宫 · Life | Self and approach | Which approach have I been using repeatedly? |
| 兄弟 · Siblings | Siblings and peers | What actual support or division of effort exists? |
| 夫妻 · Partnership | Close partnership | Which expectations need a conversation? |
| 子女 · Children | Children and related relationships | What care arrangements are actually in place? |
| 财帛 · Wealth | Resources and spending | Where do time and money currently go? |
| 疾厄 · Health | A traditional bodily category | What do existing health records establish? |
| 迁移 · Travel | External settings and movement | Which conditions change in a new setting? |
| 交友／仆役 · Friends | Friendships and cooperation | Are responsibilities and communication clear? |
| 官禄／事业 · Career | Work and undertaking tasks | Where are results or support needs visible? |
| 田宅 · Property | Home and household foundations | Do the practical arrangements work? |
| 福德 · Well-being | Inner life and enjoyment | Which activities restore or drain me? |
| 父母 · Parents | Parents and elders | What needs or boundaries are confirmed? |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways.
Time and school conventions matter
A known birth time is needed for this tool. Wenbu does not generate a guessed chart when the hour is unknown. It uses the entered local civil date and clock time, without an automatic solar-time correction.
The current engine uses iztro’s default configuration with fixLeap=true and distinguishes early from late Zi. Schools may differ on leap months, transformations and day boundaries. Compare settings before deciding that one chart is simply wrong.
Bring the symbolism back to observation
A friendship palace can prompt you to review which collaborations communicate well. A work palace can prompt a list of tasks you enjoy or resist. Those observations belong to you; the stars have not independently verified them.
Do not use a health palace to diagnose illness or a partnership palace to assert another person’s loyalty. Real questions still need real evidence, conversation and qualified support.
What to open on your first visit
Find 命宫, the Life Palace, then select one palace relevant to your question. Note its name, listed major stars and visible markers. Wenbu retains the Chinese palace and star names so you can match them directly with references.
For a question about work, ask the Agent to explain the traditional context of 官禄宫, the Career Palace, then identify the stars actually listed. Learn to read the chart’s labels before connecting them to your circumstances.
Read the labels before discussing a work question
Start with a reliable birth date, local clock time and the other inputs the tool requires. This exercise reads the result without assuming which stars your Life or Career Palace will contain.
Keep the inputs and method. Wenbu uses entered local civil time without automatic solar-time correction. Record the iztro version and its late-Zi and leap-month conventions before comparing tools.
Find 命宫, the Life Palace, and copy its earthly branch and major-star names. If a Body Palace marker appears, note its location rather than drawing an extra box.
Select 官禄, the Career Palace. Record major stars, brightness, visible transformations and supporting-star names separately. If it lacks a major star, write that—not “no ability to work.”
Add the Wealth and Travel Palace labels to your notes. Complete this description of what is present before asking how a particular tradition interprets the relationship.
Write actual work information on a separate line: responsibilities, recent tasks and feedback. Ask the Agent to distinguish chart fields, traditional interpretation and the facts you supplied before listing questions to investigate.
A useful reading makes its references traceable to a palace and star. A palace name alone cannot establish a profession, income or event in a particular year.
Key terms
- Reference palace / ben gong 本宫
- The palace currently being examined; the reference can change with the question.
- Opposite palace / dui gong 对宫
- The palace facing the reference across the twelve-palace structure. Travel is opposite Life.
- San fang si zheng 三方四正
- A traditional grouping of the reference palace, two trine partners and its opposite, not four independent scores.
Common questions
Are the Life and Body Palaces separate charts?
No. They are reference points within one chart. The Body Palace falls in one of the twelve, marked by isBody in Wenbu’s result. Also distinguish these locations from the 命主 and 身主 star labels shown in the chart summary.
Why does the same palace appear elsewhere on another site?
Compare the inputs, time handling, leap-month convention and layout. Some differences are visual; others reflect different calculation assumptions. Match the palace name, earthly branch and stars rather than the screen coordinates alone.
Should I copy the opposite stars into an empty palace?
Some traditions consult the opposite palace in interpretation. That does not change the original data. Keep “no major star” in the record and label any borrowed reference separately so another reader can reconstruct the method.
Sources and their scope
Supports palace terminology and relationships, treated as a traditional framework rather than verified personal facts.
Technical reference for palace objects, opposite palaces and related-palace operations.
Documents the actual time convention, engine version, Body Palace marker and returned fields.
Further reading; not validation of real-world predictions.
Traditional interpretations are not established predictions. See the source notes for context.
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