Glossary
The terms this site uses, in plain English
Twenty terms, each with the Chinese word, one paragraph on what it means, and — where this site has a longer entry — a link to it. The readings are written in these words, so this is the vocabulary behind them.
Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数)
The Chinese method this site casts and writes. The name reads as three parts: 紫微 the star the chart is built around, 斗 the Dipper, 数 counting — counting the stars out from the pole star and the dipper.
Purple Star Astrology (紫微斗数的英文名)
The English name most often used for 紫微斗数. It translates the first star and leaves 斗 and 数 out; Purple Emperor Astrology and the transliteration Zi Wei Dou Shu name the same method.
The chart (命盘)
The square of twelve palaces produced from the date, hour and place of birth, with the stars placed in it. It is free to cast on this site, and the same birth data always produces the same chart.
The reading (判词)
The written work on top of the chart: what each palace shows, why it reads that way, and which part is still open. Three tiers here, signed on the last page.
The twelve palaces (十二宫)
The twelve fixed cells of the chart: Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune, Parents. Each is one domain of life; the stars in it decide how that domain reads.
The fourteen main stars (十四主星)
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. The chart places them in the twelve palaces; what a palace reads as comes mostly from which of the fourteen landed there.
The Purple Star (紫微星)
The first of the fourteen main stars and the one the method is named after. Its palace is read as the seat of authority — where the person expects to be in charge, and what that costs.
Heavenly stems (天干)
The ten: 甲 乙 丙 丁 戊 己 庚 辛 壬 癸. Every year, month, day and hour carries one, cycling every ten and each belonging to one of the five elements — 甲乙 wood, 丙丁 fire, 戊己 earth, 庚辛 metal, 壬癸 water.
Earthly branches (地支)
The twelve: 子 丑 寅 卯 辰 巳 午 未 申 酉 戌 亥. Each covers two hours of the day, and each is the formal name of one zodiac animal — 子 the rat, 丑 the ox, and so down the cycle.
The sixty-year cycle (六十甲子)
A stem and a branch advance together; ten and twelve only meet again after sixty steps, so the pair you were born under repeats once in a lifetime. 1984 was 甲子, 2020 was 庚子.
The five elements (五行)
木 wood, 火 fire, 土 earth, 金 metal, 水 water — two stems each, and paired with the seasons and directions. In a reading they say what a stretch of time adds and what it drains.
The four transformations (四化)
化禄, 化权, 化科 and 化忌 — prosperity, power, fame and obstruction. The birth year stem turns four of the main stars into one of these each, so the same star reads differently in different charts.
The decade (大限)
The chart is divided into ten-year spans, each governed by one palace, with the starting age coming out of the chart itself. The decade you are in is the time axis of the reading.
The year (流年)
One turn of the twelve-year cycle inside the decade: the palace the current year lands in, read together with the decade carrying it. Ground, not a calendar of dates.
True solar time (真太阳时)
Clock time corrected for the longitude of the birth place and for the difference between clock and sun. Two cities in one time zone can differ by an hour of sun, so the city of birth is part of the input.
The solar terms (节气)
The twenty-four markers of the solar year — 立春, 雨水, 惊蛰 and the rest — set by the sun rather than by the moon. 立春, in early February, is the boundary this site uses for the year and month of a chart.
The Life palace (命宫)
The cell that reads the person: how they come at things and what they are made of. It is placed from the birth month and hour, and read together with the Body palace beside it.
The Body palace (身宫)
A second cell that reads how the person acts rather than what they are. It always falls in the same cell as one of the other eleven palaces, which colours that palace.
The opposite palace (对宫)
The cell directly across the chart. Palaces are read in pairs — Life against Travel, Spouse against Career — because the cell opposite supplies the other half of the sentence.
The birth-year animal (生肖)
One of twelve animals assigned to the birth year, with the element of that year. It is one layer of the method rather than the whole of it; this site has a free lookup for it.
Questions
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.
Cast your chart first — free See a completed reading first All readings What is Zi Wei