FAQ
Every question, and where it was answered
The FAQ blocks from across the site, gathered into one page. Each group links back to the page it came from.
This page gathers every question Rimo Astrology answers: the two calculation systems, the Chinese zodiac and its compatibility table, the readings and their prices, and the terms of the method. Each answer links to the page it appears on.
85 questions in 10 groups.
Chinese astrology calculators
Is Chinese astrology the same as BaZi?
No. BaZi is one of two calculable systems here; Zi Wei Dou Shu is the other. They share a calendar and the five elements but compute different things from it.
Can I cast a chart without a birth time?
Yes, but it is provisional: without the hour the hour pillar is missing in BaZi and the Life palace is not placed in the twelve-palace chart. Add the hour when you can.
Are the calculators free?
Free, and they run in the browser — nothing is uploaded. Written readings, if you want one, are priced on the readings page.
Is a Chinese birth chart the same as the Chinese zodiac sign?
No. The zodiac animal is one of the four pillars — the year — and the smaller half of the reading. A birth chart uses the full birth moment.
Does a Chinese birth chart predict the sex of a baby?
Not here. That is a separate folk practice rather than a reading of the chart, and this site does not offer it.
What if I do not know my birth hour?
Cast it anyway and treat the result as provisional. Both systems use the hour, so add it when you can find it — a birth certificate, a family record, or a hospital note.
Zi Wei Dou Shu — the twelve-palace chart
What is Zi Wei Dou Shu in English?
Purple Star Astrology. It is a Chinese system that casts a twelve-palace chart from a birth date, a birth hour and a birthplace.
How do I read a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart?
Start at the Life palace — the palace your birth hour fixes — then read money, work and partnership against it.
Zi Wei Dou Shu or BaZi — which one?
BaZi reads the balance of the five elements across four pillars; Zi Wei Dou Shu reads twelve domains of a life one by one. This site casts and reads the Zi Wei chart.
What do I need to cast a chart?
Birth date, birth hour, gender, and the city of birth. The chart is computed in the browser and the free result is immediate.
Why do two calculators give different charts?
They usually differ on the birth hour: which of the twelve two-hour branches applies, true solar time at the birthplace, and the boundary at midnight. This site casts on apparent local time.
BaZi / four pillars
Is BaZi the same as the Chinese zodiac?
No. The zodiac takes one character out of the year pillar - the animal of the birth year. BaZi reads all eight characters across the four pillars, and the day pillar carries as much weight as the year.
What is the Day Master?
The stem of the day pillar, and the one character the whole chart is read against - the other seven are named by their relation to it. It is usually described by its element and by whether it is a yang or yin stem.
Why does my month pillar differ from other calculators?
Three usual causes: the solar-term boundary (this page uses the exact term time), whether the birth is read on clock time or corrected true solar time (this page uses clock time), and how a birth between 23:00 and 01:00 is handled (this page keeps the day pillar on the birth date). All three are printed with the chart so the difference is visible.
Do I need my exact birth time?
For the hour pillar, yes. The three pillars of year, month and day can be cast without it, but the hour pillar and the luck pillars both move with it, so a chart cast without a time is incomplete.
From BaZi / four pillars
Which Day Master do I have?
Look at the day pillar: the stem above the branch is the Day Master. The chart here prints it as a row of its own, under the four pillars.
Does the Day Master change over a life?
No. The four pillars are fixed at birth. What changes are the luck pillars and the annual pillars laid over them, and a reading asks how those stand to the Day Master.
Is the Day Master the same as the 生肖?
No. The zodiac animal comes from the year pillar; the Day Master is the day pillar's stem. They run on different cycles, and a four-pillars chart uses both.
From BaZi / four pillars
How many luck pillars are there?
The chart prints ten, covering a century. The ones that matter in a reading are the span you are in and the two either side of it.
Do men and women run in opposite directions?
The direction follows the classical convention — forward or backward from the month pillar, set by the polarity of the birth year and the gender — and the chart prints the direction it used.
Is a luck pillar a prediction?
It is a period marker. A reading says what a span brings forward and where the chart is pressed by it; it does not name events.
From BaZi / four pillars
Chinese zodiac
How is the zodiac animal calculated?
The twelve animals repeat in a fixed order, one a year: after the Rat comes the Ox, then the Tiger, and so on back to the Rat twelve years later. The element runs on a separate ten-year cycle, which is why the full combination repeats every sixty years.
Is the zodiac the same as Chinese astrology?
The animal is the entry point: it comes from the birth year alone. Chinese astrology — Zi Wei Dou Shu on this site — casts the whole chart from the date, the hour and the place, and the readings are written from that chart.
Do the animals decide compatibility?
The classical table names the relation between two animals — Six Harmony, Three Harmony, opposition and the rest. A relation is a relation, not a verdict; a compatibility reading works from two full charts.
From Chinese zodiac
Zodiac compatibility
Does a relation decide whether two people work?
It names the relation the classical table gives the two animals. Whether a pair works is read from the two charts; that is what the compatibility reading takes.
Where do these relations come from?
They come from the twelve earthly branches. Six Harmony pairs combining branches (子丑, 寅亥, 卯戌, 辰酉, 巳申, 午未); opposition is the animal six years away; Three Harmony groups every third animal into a set of three; harm, break and punishment follow their own series. The table here is the standard one.
Is this the zodiac pairing or the full chart?
This page works from the two birth years alone. The compatibility reading casts both charts and reads the palaces of each.
From Zodiac compatibility
Comparisons
Why compare at all?
Because the words are close and the methods are not. Someone searching for a birth chart, a horoscope or a tarot reading lands here by accident; one page that says what each method actually reads from saves both sides the time.
Which of these does this site do?
The Chinese side: the twelve-palace chart cast from your birth data, and readings written and signed from it. Everything on the other side of each comparison — planets, horoscopes by date, the four pillars, the tarot deck — belongs to its own practitioners.
Do the comparisons cost anything?
No — the pages are reference. The paid work is the reading: three tiers, listed with prices and delivery times.
From Comparisons
Chinese astrology vs Western astrology
Is Chinese astrology the same as the zodiac animal?
The birth-year animal is one layer of it. The chart behind it has twelve palaces and the stars that fall in them, and that is what a reading is written from.
Which of the two is more accurate?
They are read from different things, so there is no single answer. What can be checked is whether a reading describes you: a full reading is on the sample page to judge from, and the paid tiers include a free re-check.
Can both be done for the same person?
Yes — different crafts, different practitioners, two charts. The chart cast on this site is the Chinese one.
Chinese zodiac vs Western zodiac
Which animal am I if I was born in January?
The zodiac year begins at Chinese New Year, which falls in late January or February; a birth date before it belongs to the previous year's animal. The zodiac page states that boundary.
Is my Chinese animal the same as my Western sign?
They run on different cycles — one from the year, one from the month and the Sun's position — so a person has one of each.
Do the animals say who I am compatible with?
They give the classical relation between two animals. A compatibility reading takes the two full charts instead.
Zi Wei Dou Shu vs BaZi
Do the same birth details give both charts?
Both are computed from the same date, hour and place, and they are different computations: the readings come out in different vocabularies about different things.
Why does this site use Zi Wei Dou Shu?
It is the method the readings here are written in, and the method read by the person who signs them.
Is one of them more accurate?
They answer different questions. What a reading can be judged on is whether it describes you; a full one is on the sample page.
Chinese astrology vs tarot
Can both be consulted about the same thing?
Yes, and people do. They are different methods, and neither one checks the other.
Are tarot readings sold here?
The readings on this site are written from the chart alone; the deck is not part of the method here.
Can a chart reading be taken twice?
Yes. The same birth data gives the same chart, so it can be re-read years later. If a birth time or a city was entered wrongly, the reading is recast and reissued at no charge.
Birth chart vs Chinese birth chart
Is a Chinese chart cast from the same details as a natal chart?
Yes — date, exact time and place are what both need. On this site the city matters as much as the clock, because the place fixes the true solar time.
Is the exact birth time required?
The hour is what the palaces and stars are placed by. If it is unknown, the chart can be cast without it, and the parts that depend on the hour are marked rather than guessed.
Does the Chinese chart include the planets?
Its astronomy stops at the calendar — years, months, days, hours, stems, branches and solar terms. The reading is written from the palaces and the stars in them.
Readings and delivery
Which tier should I take?
One question — a decision, a person, a year — take the one-question answer. Want the whole chart written out, with three of your own questions: the full reading. Want the long version and five questions of your own: the deep dive.
What do you need from me?
Your birth date, the exact time as written on the record, and the city. The place of birth fixes the true solar time, so the city matters as much as the clock.
Do you need my real name?
No. The reading is written from the birth data; the name on it is whatever name the order carries.
Can a reading be recast?
Yes. If a birth time or a city was entered wrongly, the reading is recast and reissued at no charge, at any point.
Chinese Astrology Reading — Zi Wei Dou Shu, read from your chart
How is this different from Western astrology?
Western astrology reads where the planets stood at the birth moment and speaks mainly about character. Zi Wei Dou Shu divides a life into twelve domains and writes, for each one, where it comes from, how heavy it is now, and what changes next. The method page sets the two side by side.
Does it use the birth-year animal?
The sign is marked on the chart and read as one layer of it. The bones of a reading are the twelve palaces.
Which tier for a first reading?
The one-question answer when you have one thing to ask; the full reading when you want the whole chart written out.
From Chinese Astrology Reading — Zi Wei Dou Shu, read from your chart
Love and Marriage Reading — the Spouse palace, read in full
Can the other person be read too?
This reading is cast from your birth data. Two records read against each other is the compatibility reading, which takes both charts.
I am not married.
The palace covers partnership in general: the person the chart shows, the pattern, and when the question is live.
Which tier for this one?
The full reading covers the twelve palaces with the Spouse palace written out at length; the deep dive goes through it palace by palace.
From Love and Marriage Reading — the Spouse palace, read in full
Career and Money Reading — the Career and Wealth palaces
Does it tell me whether to change jobs?
It shows what the chart gives the work to work with — where the pull is, and what is heavy. The decision is made by the person holding the chart.
Is this financial advice?
No. A reading is a method and a person's judgement; money decisions stay with you and with whoever advises you on the facts.
Which tier?
The full reading writes out all twelve palaces, Career and Wealth at length; the deep dive writes each palace further and adds five questions.
From Career and Money Reading — the Career and Wealth palaces
Yearly Forecast Reading — the decade you are in, and where it turns
Does it give dates?
It gives the stretch, the palaces it presses on, and where it turns. A chart is read as ground, so the reading describes conditions rather than dated events.
Is this the Chinese horoscope you see each year?
A yearly Chinese horoscope works from the birth-year animal alone. This reading works from your full chart: the decade you are in, the palaces it touches, and the stars that carry it.
Which tier for a forecast?
The full reading covers the current decade and the two after it; the deep dive takes each palace further and adds five questions.
From Yearly Forecast Reading — the decade you are in, and where it turns
Compatibility Reading — two charts, read against each other
Can I order this for someone else?
The second person needs to know the chart is being read. Send both records with their agreement.
Is this the same as a zodiac compatibility chart?
A zodiac pairing works from the two birth years alone. This reading takes both full charts: the palaces, the stars in them, and the transformations.
Which tier for two charts?
The full reading takes both charts through the twelve palaces; the deep dive writes each one longer and adds five questions.
From Compatibility Reading — two charts, read against each other
Prices and ordering
How much does a reading cost?
The one-question answer $19.33, the full reading $50.98, the deep dive $103.73. Each figure is what you pay on Fiverr with the service fee already included.
Where do I pay?
On Fiverr, where the order is placed and completed. Card details are given to Fiverr only.
How long does it take?
The one-question answer within 24 hours, the full reading within 2 days, the deep dive within 3 days.
Can I see the writing before paying?
The sample page carries one real chart read from the first line to the last, free.
From Prices and ordering
Glossary
Is there a standard English translation for these terms?
No. Writers translate them differently — 紫微斗數 becomes Zi Wei Dou Shu, Purple Star Astrology or Purple Emperor Astrology depending on the book. This site keeps the Chinese word in the text and gives the translation once, here.
Which of these terms actually appear in a reading?
All of them. A reading names the palace, the star and the transformation for every line it writes; the free chart names the palaces and stars too. The glossary is where the vocabulary behind those names is spelled out.
Can I check a term against a real chart?
Yes — the chart on the front page is free and shows the twelve palaces with the stars in them; each palace also has a page here reading one palace of a real chart, and the sample page carries a whole reading.
From Glossary
Background articles
Zi Wei Dou Shu Meaning — what the name says
Is Zi Wei Dou Shu the same as Chinese astrology?
It is one school inside it, and the one this site uses. Chinese astrology also covers the birth-year animal, the five elements and other methods; the comparisons page sets out where they differ.
How old is the method?
The tradition is usually traced to the Song dynasty, about a thousand years back, with the books that survive being later. This site says a thousand years and stops there rather than naming a founder.
Purple Star Astrology — the English name for Zi Wei Dou Shu
Should I search the English name or the Chinese one?
Both. The English name reaches practitioners who write in English; the Chinese 紫微斗数 reaches the tradition itself. Same subject, two doors.
Is there an official translation?
No body fixes one. This site writes Zi Wei Dou Shu for the method and uses Purple Star Astrology only where the English name is the thing being discussed — as on this page.
From Purple Star Astrology — the English name for Zi Wei Dou Shu
Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (天干地支) — the calendar behind the chart
Are the branches the same as the zodiac animals?
Yes — the twelve animals are the everyday names of the twelve branches: 子 the rat, 丑 the ox, and so on round the cycle.
Why sixty years and not 120?
Ten and twelve advance together, so a stem and a branch meet again only after sixty steps. The same pair cannot come back inside sixty years — that is the 六十甲子 cycle.
From Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (天干地支) — the calendar behind the chart
Wu Xing — the five elements in Chinese astrology
Is my element the same as my birth year element?
Yes — the element of your birth year comes from its stem, and the zodiac lookup shows it with the animal: Metal Rat, Water Horse and so on.
Do the elements decide anything?
They describe supply: what a chart has plenty of and what it has to borrow. The reading states that; the decisions stay with the person.
Si Hua — the four transformations in a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart
Do the four change from year to year?
In the chart they are fixed by the birth year stem. The yearly layer reads a further set for the current year, which the continuous readings cover.
Is 化忌 bad luck?
It marks where something sticks and keeps costing, which is often where the work is. The reading says what it costs; it does not call it a curse.
From Si Hua — the four transformations in a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart
The Twelve Palaces of a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart (十二宫)
Is there a best palace and a worst one?
No. Each cell is a domain, and a difficult star in one domain is often what pays for another. The reading states the condition rather than scoring it.
Where can I see one palace read?
The twelve palace pages each carry a reading of one palace of a real chart, and the sample page carries a whole reading from the verdict down.
Da Xian and Liu Nian — the decade and the year in a chart
Can I see my decade without paying?
Yes — the free chart shows the age range of each decade and the palace it falls in. What is paid for is the writing that interprets it.
Why is the year read with the decade?
The same year reads differently depending on which decade it falls inside. The decade gives the year its context; the yearly layer on its own is thin.
From Da Xian and Liu Nian — the decade and the year in a chart