Glossary entry
Purple Star Astrology: the English name for 紫微斗数
"Purple Star Astrology" is the name English-language practitioners most often use for 紫微斗数. It translates the first star of the chart and leaves 斗 and 数 out. A reader who meets it should know it names the same method, not a second one.
One method, three names in English
Purple Star Astrology, Purple Emperor Astrology and the transliteration Zi Wei Dou Shu all point at the same chart. Which one a writer uses says which books they read, not which method they practise.
What to look for under any of the names
The chart has twelve palaces; the stars are placed by date, hour and place; a reading is written palace by palace. A page that does those three things is the same method whatever its heading says.
Questions
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.
Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, free See a completed reading first The full glossary