Learn Chinese Astrology — Guides to Zodiac, BaZi and Zi Wei
Plain-English guides to the Chinese zodiac, BaZi and Zi Wei Dou Shu: how the systems work, how compatibility is scored, and the branch relationships.
Quick answer
What can I learn here?
These guides explain the mechanics behind the calculators: how the four pillars are built, what hidden stems and ten gods are, how the twelve branches clash and combine, and how Zi Wei Dou Shu places stars into palaces.
Start here6
The animal signs, and how the two systems you'll meet below actually differ.
The zodiac itself3
Why the Zodiac Animals Are In This Order
The race story, what each animal is said to represent, and why the order actually encodes the traditional Chinese double-hours.
Three Harmonies and Six Harmonies Explained
The two compatibility systems Chinese astrology actually uses — and why the clash is not always bad news.
What Your Ben Ming Year Actually Means
The year of your own animal, why tradition treats it as a difficult one, and what is actually recommended.
Between the systems3
BaZi or Zi Wei Dou Shu: Which Should You Use?
Two systems, two jobs. What each is better at, when to read them together, and whether you need both.
Chinese Zodiac and Western Sun Signs: How They Differ
Two systems, two calendars, two different things being measured. Where the comparison is useful and where it breaks down.
Born in the Same Year: What Same-Sign Partners Share
Whether two Rats make a good match, why the traditional answer is mixed, and what the system actually checks.
BaZi — the Four Pillars26
Your birth date and time as four pillars of stems and branches — the system most English-language sites cover.
Reading a BaZi chart6
How to Read a BaZi Chart, Step by Step
The actual order practitioners work in — day master first, then month branch, then relationships. Includes what to ignore on a first pass.
What Each of the Four Pillars Actually Represents
Year, month, day, hour — what each position governs, why they carry different weight, and how the traditional family meanings fit in.
The 60-Year Cycle: How Stems and Branches Combine
Ten stems and twelve branches pair into sixty combinations. What the cycle is used for, and why the same animal has five different elements.
Ten-Year Luck Pillars, Explained
How the luck pillars are derived, what they do and do not predict, and why the same year treats two charts differently.
Day Master vs Zodiac Sign: What's the Difference?
Your sign comes from the year; your day master comes from the day. They answer different questions — and only one of them is used in a real reading.
A Worked BaZi Reading: One Chart, Read in Order
A single anonymised chart taken from the pillars to a conclusion, showing which steps decided the outcome and which were set aside.
Getting the chart right: time & calendar6
Why Birth Time Changes Your Chart
Hour pillar, late-Zi births and daylight saving — the practical problems that decide whether a chart is right or wrong.
Why the BaZi Day Starts at 23:00
The Zi hour, the double-hour system, and the four-hour window where every manual chart calculation goes wrong.
The Zodiac Boundary Problem: When Your Sign Actually Starts
Chinese New Year, the Start of Spring, and why people born in January and February are the ones who get their sign wrong.
True Solar Time in BaZi: Correcting Your Hour Pillar
Your birth certificate records clock time, not sun time. The three corrections that convert one to the other, and when they change your hour pillar.
Don't Know Your Birth Hour? How to Narrow It Down
A birth hour is two hours of resolution and, in Zi Wei, it decides which palace is the Life Palace. How large that error is, and how to shrink it.
The 24 Solar Terms: Why Your BaZi Month Pillar Changes
A BaZi month does not begin on the 1st. It begins at one of twelve 节, and the other twelve terms are not boundaries at all. Here is how to check it.
Stems, elements and the Ten Gods8
The Ten Gods Are Not Ten Things: How to Read Them as a Set
Each of the ten gods means something on its own. What carries a reading is which one dominates, which is absent, and where they sit — not the labels.
Heavenly Stem Combinations (五合) and Clashes
Ten stems combine with the one five places away and clash with the one six away. That rule builds the whole stem layer — and why two have no partner.
Hidden Stems: What's Actually Inside a Branch
Every earthly branch contains one to three heavenly stems. Why that matters more than the branch's own element in detailed readings.
How to Read a Chart's Element Balance
Count, strength and support — three different things people confuse when they talk about a chart's elements.
What Your Strongest Element Actually Means
Dominant Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water — what each one looks like in a chart, and what it does not tell you.
Strong or Weak: Three Tests, Asked in Order
Most guides score day master strength by adding up help and pressure. The classical method asks three separate questions, and the order matters.
The Favourable Element: Four Methods, Four Different Answers
Ask two practitioners for your favourable element and you can get two defensible answers. They are not confused — they answer four different questions.
Rooting: Whether a Stem Is Standing on Anything at All
A stem on the surface of a chart is a claim. Whether it is backed by anything depends on what sits below it in the branches — and the table is small.
Branches and symbolic stars6
The Six Clashes and What They Actually Do
子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌, 巳亥 — the six opposition pairs, why they are not simply bad, and how to read them in a chart.
Self-Punishment Branches: Chen, Wu, You and Hai
辰午酉亥 自刑 — the four branches that punish themselves, and what that actually shows up as in a chart.
Empty Branches (空亡): How the Sixty Cycle Runs Out
Every stem-branch pair leaves two branches unpaired. What 空亡 means, and why practitioners disagree about how much it matters.
The Peach Blossom Star (桃花) in a BaZi Chart
The four peach blossom branches, how they are found, and what the star actually indicates — which is not what most online articles claim.
The Nobleman Star (天乙贵人) in Chinese Astrology
The most valued auxiliary star in BaZi: how it is found, why it is described as help that arrives, and what it is not.
Symbolic Stars (神煞): Nobleman, Peach Blossom, Yang Blade
The named stars that show up in almost every chart reading — how each one is actually found, what it does to a chart, and why the lists never quite agree.
Zi Wei — Purple Star Astrology11
A star-based chart laid out on twelve palaces. Different machinery from BaZi, aimed at the same question.
How a Zi Wei chart is built6
How a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart Is Calculated, Step by Step
The actual sequence from birth data to a twelve-palace chart — and the calendar conventions that make two calculators hand you two different charts.
The Twelve Palaces of Zi Wei Dou Shu
How the Zi Wei grid is laid out, what each palace governs, and why the system is read as a map rather than a list.
The Five Element Bureau: The Number That Sets Your Timing
Water Two, Wood Three, Metal Four, Earth Five, Fire Six. The bureau never appears in an interpretation, yet it fixes when your first decade opens.
The 三方四正: Why a Zi Wei Palace Is Never Read Alone
The four-square frame every Zi Wei reading rests on: how 三方四正 is built, what each of the three corners contributes, and what it leaves out.
The Four Transformations (四化) in Zi Wei
Lu, Quan, Ke and Ji — the mechanism that makes a Zi Wei chart move, and why the same star behaves differently in different years.
Star Brightness in Zi Wei Dou Shu: What 庙旺利陷 Actually Means
The same star in a different square does not read the same way. Brightness levels, how they are assigned, and how much weight to give them.
Reading placements3
Body Palace: The Square a Zi Wei Chart Refuses to Give
Twelve squares, twelve names — and one has to hold two. The Body Palace has no square of its own; which square it borrows is decided by birth hour alone.
The Empty Palace: What Zi Wei Does With a Starless Square
Fourteen main stars cannot fill twelve squares evenly. Run every possible chart and the number of empty squares is never odd — here is why.
The Six Malefics: Why 擎羊 and 陀罗 Are Never Found Apart
Six stars with a reputation for trouble, and a placement logic that explains most of what they are supposed to mean before you read a single interpretation.
Timing and data2
Timing in Zi Wei: Decades, Years and Transformations
A natal chart is a snapshot. The timing layer turns it into a calendar — how the ten-year periods are set, and how a year activates specific stars.
Purple Star Astrology Statistics: 20,000 Charts Analysed
Structural analysis of 20,000 Purple Star Astrology charts: how often a palace holds no star, why only nine patterns exist, and where the Body Palace falls.
Reference
Zodiac years 1900–2043
Every year with its animal, stem and element.
Years by decade
The same chart split into readable ten-year spans.
The twelve branches
Hidden stems, hours, seasons and every relationship.
Stems & branches
The ten stems, twelve branches and the 60-year cycle.
The ten day masters
The ten starting positions a chart can be built on.
FAQ
The questions people actually ask.
The twelve animals
鼠
Rat
Quick-witted · Resourceful · Alert
牛
Ox
Steady · Reliable · Patient
虎
Tiger
Bold · Independent · Generous
兔
Rabbit
Gentle · Refined · Perceptive
龙
Dragon
Ambitious · Confident · Magnetic
蛇
Snake
Insightful · Private · Composed
马
Horse
Energetic · Free-spirited · Direct
羊
Goat
Creative · Gentle · Empathic
猴
Monkey
Inventive · Witty · Versatile
鸡
Rooster
Precise · Observant · Confident
狗
Dog
Loyal · Honest · Protective
猪
Pig
Generous · Sincere · Easy-going
See your four pillars
The calculator is free and lives on the reports page: enter your birth date, time and time zone and it builds the full chart. The written readings below it are optional — one payment each, yours to keep.
See the reports