The branch ring and the moving palace names
The twelve earthly branches are fixed cells. The twelve palace names are labels that rotate once the Life Palace is known. Keep the fixed part and the moving part apart, or “Wu” and “Life” start to sound like two systems.
Editorial review: 2026-09-22 · Reviewed by fateshow · Editorial method
Branches are cells, palace names are labels
Zi through Hai stay in place on the wheel. What changes is the label: once Life lands on a branch, Siblings, Spouse, and Children follow in a fixed order. “Life is on Wu” and “the Wu cell is the Life Palace” are the two sides of one fact.
Counting from Life to the next name
On this site the order is Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune, Parents, and back to Life. The branches run in the chart’s direction and the names follow. San fang si zheng starts by counting cells between names, then checks the branches so a miscount shows up.
Rotating names are not the annual layer. A year brings one palace forward. It does not replace the twelve labels.
Counting from Wu to Wealth
Illustration: Life is on Wu. Then Wei is Siblings, Shen is Spouse, You is Children, and Xu is Wealth. If someone says “Wu Qu is in Xu, so Life-palace people earn well,” they have welded a branch to a palace name. Xu is Wealth only on the chart whose Life Palace is Wu. On a chart with Life on Zi, Xu is some other palace. A branch is also not a Western zodiac sign.
Common mistakes
- Treating the branches as Chinese names for the Western signs.
- Memorising “Xu is always Wealth” without looking at where Life sits on this chart.
- Hearing the rotating labels as the annual luck period itself.
Use it in fateshow
Zi Wei chart
Cast a Zi Wei chart and read the palaces, stars, and transformations it prints.
Open tool →Frequently asked questions
Why is someone else’s Life Palace not on Wu when mine is?
Wu is a cell. Which cell receives the Life label comes from the month and hour under the declared rules, so it differs by person.
Are Career and Guan Lu two palaces?
No. The chart often prints Guan Lu. A lesson can call it the Career palace. Both names point at the same cell.
Is a trine just an earthly-branch triad?
Count four cells by palace name first. On the branches that lands on a branch triad. Keep counting by palace name so a different triad does not sneak in.
Sources and editorial basis
- 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. 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. 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.