Zi Wei Charting Method
Purpose
Convert lunar birth month, day, and hour into: Life and Body palace positions, the twelve palace name sequence, fourteen major-star placements, and common auxiliary stars. For Si Hua see Si Hua method.
Inputs
| Input | Notes |
|---|---|
| Lunar month and day | Main parameters for Life and star placement; solar dates need conversion first |
| Hour (Earthly Branch) | One of twelve double-hours; without hour, Life cannot be uniquely fixed |
| Sex and yin/yang year | Needed for later Decade Luck forward/reverse steps |
| Calendar declaration | Lunar / leap-month handling must be verifiable |
Calendar background: Solar vs lunar time.
Step 1: Fix Life Palace
Common algorithm (state the version in results):
- From Yin as the first month, count forward to the lunar birth month to get a month-branch reference.
- Combine with birth hour using rules such as “Yin starts at Zi hour,” counting reverse/forward to the hour, to get the Life Palace Earthly Branch.
- Once Life’s branch is fixed, lay out the other eleven palace names in fixed order: Twelve Palaces.
Schools may differ on leap months and late Zi hour; critical charts should present alternatives side by side.
Step 2: Fix Body Palace
Body Palace is placed from month and hour by another mnemonic set; it may coincide with or differ from Life. Body supplements “where effort lands later in life” and does not replace Life.
Step 3: Place fourteen major stars
- First place Zi Wei by lunar day count using the Zi Wei mnemonic into a palace.
- From Zi Wei’s position, place Tian Ji, Tai Yang, Wu Qu, Tian Tong, Lian Zhen, and other Northern Dipper stars by fixed relative offsets.
- Then place the Tian Fu series: Tian Fu has a fixed opposite/flanking relation to Zi Wei; continue with Tai Yin, Tan Lang, Ju Men, Tian Xiang, Tian Liang, Qi Sha, and Po Jun.
Exact placement tables follow the chosen school’s star calendar; output should allow tracing “day count → Zi Wei palace → remaining stars.”
Star meanings: Term index.
Step 4: Place auxiliary stars (common)
Zuo Fu / You Bi, Wen Chang / Wen Qu, Tian Kui / Tian Yue, Lu Cun / Qing Yang, and others are placed from month, hour, year stem, and related conditions. Auxiliary tables are large; see Auxiliary Stars Index. Deep single-star pages will arrive in batches, but charting steps must declare which auxiliary tables were applied.
Step 5: Brightness and empty palaces
- Mark brightness by temple, prosperous, obtained, beneficial, average, not obtained, fallen, etc. (school tables) for each star’s Earthly Branch.
- Empty palaces may use opposite-palace borrowing if that convention is adopted.
Step 6: Output checklist
- Lunar month/day/hour, leap month or not
- Life and Body Earthly Branches
- Fourteen major-star palace table
- Applied auxiliary list and rule version
- Si Hua (see next method page)