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The reference library
Every term these systems use, written out once and properly, with each character translated where it sits. Read it to follow your own chart, or to check what a reading is telling you.
The systems
5 systemsEach system has its own page and its own reference sets, listed under it below. Every set is free to read, with each character translated where it sits.
BaZi 八字
Eight characters, four pillars, one per unit of time you were born into. BaZi reads a life through the five elements in relation to one another. Open the system →Korean Saju 사주
Saju 사주 means four pillars. The chart is the same eight characters BaZi computes; the tradition reading them is Korean. Open the system →Zi Wei Dou Shu 紫微斗數
Twelve palaces, one per area of a life, each with its own stars sitting in it. Zi Wei Dou Shu sorts a life by area rather than by element. Open the system →Qi Men Dun Jia 奇門遁甲
Qi Men Dun Jia does not start from your birth. It casts a plate for the moment a question is asked, which makes it the one system here aimed at a decision rather than a person. Open the system →Eight Mansions 八宅
Eight Mansions is its own system, not a branch of the four pillars. It works from one number and answers a different question: which directions suit you. Open the system →Where systems differ
All 6 →What is a day master?
Of the eight characters in a BaZi or Saju chart, one is you. The rest describe what that one is standing in. Read →What is saju?
Saju 사주 means four pillars. It is the Korean practice of reading the eight characters of a birth moment, and in Korea it is checked before decisions rather than consulted for entertainment. Read →Saju and BaZi, where they differ
The most common question about these two systems has a short answer that surprises people: the chart is the same. Choosing between them is choosing a tradition to read in, not a more accurate calculation. Read →Zi Wei Dou Shu and BaZi, which answers what
These are not competing methods with the same output. They organise a life along different axes, which is why practitioners who use both do not treat one as a check on the other. Read →BaZi and Western astrology, where they differ
They share a premise, that the moment you were born is worth recording, and almost nothing else. The differences are structural rather than a matter of style. Read →Fire Goat 2027, read against your chart
Every year arrives as two characters. For 2027 they are 丁未 (dīng wèi): Yin Fire over the Goat. They mean something different for each chart, and the table below shows what they mean for yours. Read →Or have your own chart read
Work your chart out free →The library explains the terms in general. A reading applies them to one chart, which is the part a reference page cannot do.
BaZi Reading 八字 The four pillars read in full, with the ten gods translated into everyday roles and the luck pillars drawn as a timeline. Order on Etsy →
Korean Saju Reading 사주팔자 Your ilgan 일간, the element balance holding it up, your daeun 대운 cycles, and the sinsal worth knowing about. Every hanja translated where it sits. Order on Etsy →
Zi Wei Dou Shu Reading 紫微斗數 Twelve palaces, one per area of a life, walked one at a time and read for the stars actually sitting in them. Every star named in English beside its character. Order on Etsy →