Purple Star Calculator

Enter your birth moment to place the stars across the twelve palaces of life.What it answersTwelve sides of life, from your self and career to money and marriage.What you needYour birth date and time, and your sex.What you getYour Purple Star chart, a plain reading of the life palace, and notes on any palace you click.

Time zone of birthplace

The chart uses the date and clock at your birthplace.

Corrects the clock for your city’s longitude. Pick a city from the list.

Sex at birth

This sets the direction of your ten-year cycles.

Saved only in this browser. Nothing is sent to us.

Sample chart: 15 June 1990, 08:30, Shanghai

Your Life Palace holds Qi Sha

Swipe sideways to see the whole chart.

Ages 105–114
Ages 115–124
Ages 5–14
Ages 15–24
Ages 25–34
Ages 35–44Now
Ages 45–54Year palace
Ages 55–64
Ages 65–74
Ages 75–84
Ages 85–94Body Palace
Ages 95–104
土五局Earth Five BureauLife Palace 寅 · Body Palace 戌Life Master 祿存 · Body Master 火星 / 鈴星Lunar date: month 5, day 23庚午 year

Highlighted palaces are the opposite palace and the two of the same triad. Select a palace to see its own.

Brightness from the Quan Shu廟 Exalted旺 Strong得 Favourable利 Beneficial平 Neutral不 Weak陷 Fallen

This lunar year: 丙午

Read against your chart. Age 37 by the Chinese count.

Year palace
Career 午
Minor limit
Fortune 辰
Yearly Lu Cun
Property 巳
Yearly Qing Yang
Career 午
Yearly Tuo Luo
Fortune 辰
First month
Career 午

Plain readingTrial

What this chart says in plain words. Each line shows its basis. For culture and reflection only.

In one line

Your Life palace holds Seven Killings. Decisive, independent and daring.

Basis: Life: Seven Killings (七殺)

Character

You are decisive and independent, and you dare to try. Life has clear ups and downs.

Basis: Life: Seven Killings (七殺)

Work

Suits changing, pioneering work. You will often start again from the ground.

Basis: Career: Army Breaker (破軍)

Money

You find many ways to earn, and money also goes quickly. Keep part of it untouched.

Basis: Wealth: Greedy Wolf (貪狼)

Love

Passionate and clear about what you love and dislike. You keep your promises and give way easily. Say what you need too.

Basis: Spouse: Pure Chastity and Heavenly Minister (廉貞、天相)

These ten years

Home and property take more attention.

Basis: Ages 35 to 44 fall in Property

This year

Work takes most attention, and it may bring changes.

Basis: This year’s Tai Sui falls in Career

Character notes follow the Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu, vol. 1, in our own plain words. Borrowing the opposite palace is common practice.

Understanding Purple Star

Purple Star Astrology, or Zi Wei Dou Shu, places stars across twelve palaces. Each palace stands for an area of life, such as career, wealth or marriage. Unlike Western astrology, its stars are calculated from the calendar and not observed in the sky.

How it is calculated

  1. Lunar dateYour birth date becomes a lunar date, and your birth time a double hour.
  2. Life PalaceCount the lunar month forward from the Tiger palace, then the hour backward. That sets the Life Palace.
  3. BureauThe stem and branch of the Life Palace set one of five element bureaus.
  4. StarsThe bureau and lunar day place Zi Wei. The other major stars follow in fixed steps.
  5. TransformationsYour year stem turns four stars into the Wealth, Power, Fame and Trouble markers.

How to read it

  1. Start at the Life PalaceIts stars set the main tone of the chart.
  2. Check the opposite palaceOpposite palaces influence each other, so read them together.
  3. Find the Four TransformationsThese markers show where energy gathers or gets stuck.
  4. Follow the ten-year cyclesEach palace governs ten years of life, shown as an age range.

Our method

Year boundary
The year turns at lunar New Year, not at Start of Spring.
Late Zi hour
A birth from 23:00 counts as the next day.
Leap months
A leap month counts as the month after it, as the Quan Shu says.
Birth place
The chart uses the birthplace's own date and clock.
Age
Ten-year cycles use nominal age, which counts birth as age one.
Star brightness
Grades come from the palace lists in volume 2 of the Quan Shu, for the fourteen major stars, Wen Chang and Wen Qu. Nine cells have no grade in the text, so we leave them blank.

Common questions

What if I do not know my birth time?

This system needs the hour, so we cannot draw a chart without it. Four Pillars can work with the date alone.

Why do charts differ between sites?

Schools place some stars and transformations differently. This page names the rules it follows.

Are these real stars?

No. They are calculated points in a calendar system, not objects in the sky.

Is my birth data stored?

Only if you press Save, and then only in this browser. It is never sent to us, and you can remove it at any time.

Sources

  • 紫微斗數全書 Zi Wei Dou Shu Quan Shu

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