Hour branch and true solar time

Zi Wei’s hour is a two-hour branch, not a personality pinned to one minute. True solar time is a longitude correction. Sometimes it pushes the birth into the next branch.

Editorial review: 2026-09-22 · Reviewed by fateshow · Editorial method

A branch is a two-hour cell

Zi, Chou, Yin, and the rest each cover about two hours. The Life Palace uses the month for direction and this branch for the cell. Minutes matter only while the clock is being corrected. After that, the birth still sits in one of twelve cells.

The Zi Wei engine on this site records 23:00 as late Zi, still the Zi branch of that calendar day. BaZi may split the day on a different rule. Do not borrow one system’s midnight from the other.

What true solar time corrects

A clock follows a time zone. The sun crosses the local meridian a little earlier or later. True solar time shifts the clock by longitude, then asks whether the birth is still inside the same branch. Near a boundary, switching it on or off can move the Life Palace one cell. It does not add an extra lucky star.

An illustration on the boundary

Illustration: the clock says 23:10 and the birthplace is west of the zone meridian. With true solar time off, the engine casts late Zi. Turned on, the correction falls back into Hai. The two Life Palaces can differ. Say whether the switch is on before you name the branch. If the hour was never known, stop. Do not fill in the branch that flatters the story. The correction is also not medical or legal evidence about a clock.

Common mistakes

  • Treating Zi Wei’s late Zi at 23:00 as the BaZi day change.
  • Choosing a flattering branch because the real hour was never recorded.
  • Hearing true solar time as a switch that makes the chart more magical.

Use it in fateshow

Zi Wei chart

Cast a Zi Wei chart and read the palaces, stars, and transformations it prints.

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Frequently asked questions

I only know it was evening. Can the chart still be cast?

Not down to a Life Palace. Evening covers several branches, and one branch is enough to move the palace.

Is true solar time on by default?

Read the switch on that report. Near a boundary, flipping it can move the birth into the next branch.

Do the minutes matter?

They tell you how close the birth sits to a branch edge. After that, you still read one branch, not a minute-sized personality.

Sources and editorial basis

  1. 1. iztro Zi Wei Dou Shu engine

    Supports only what the current fateshow configuration actually calculates: palace placement, major-star arrangements, and the recorded year-boundary, leap-month, and transformation settings. It does not prove that any traditional school is uniquely correct.

  2. 2. Ziwei Doushu Quanshu (received editions)

    Used to cross-check palace names, star lists, and traditional wording. A received text can record a tradition; it cannot prove scientific validity or guarantee an event.

  3. 3. fateshow chart rule snapshot

    Each generated report stores the engine settings that produced it. Compare those settings before treating two charts as the same calculation.