Overview of the twelve palaces
The twelve palaces are the domain map of a Zi Wei chart. Learn the order and the opposites before opening each palace page. Without a calculated chart, the map cannot be worn by a person.
Editorial review: 2026-09-22 · Reviewed by fateshow · Editorial method
What this palace is for
Every chart carries these twelve names on twelve earthly-branch cells. The names mark domains: how you start, peers, partnership, the next generation, resources, strain, going out, networks, public role, housing, inner ease, and elders.
The names are not Western houses and not twelve personalities. A palace answers where on the chart a matter sits.
How to find it on a chart
Once the Life Palace is set, this site lays the names around the branch ring in this order: Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune, Parents, and back to Life. The branch cells stay put. The names move.
The opposite palace is six cells away: Life faces Travel, Siblings faces Friends, Spouse faces Career, Children faces Property, Wealth faces Fortune, Health faces Parents. The two trine palaces sit four cells apart. If the Life Palace is unknown, the other names have nowhere to land.
How to read it
Read any palace in the same order: major and auxiliary stars in the cell; if it is empty, say that you are borrowing the opposite palace’s major star; then the trine; and only then the transformations.
Each palace has its own page. This overview is the map and does not judge any one palace.
Which palaces to read with it
Learn the four trines as sets: Life, Wealth, Career; Siblings, Health, Property; Spouse, Travel, Fortune; Children, Friends, Parents.
Add the opposite palace and you have san fang si zheng for that cell. A neighbor shows sequence, not a cause.
One sentence that stays on structure
A usable sentence names the palace, then the star, then which other palace is involved. For example: “Wealth on this chart holds this star; Fortune faces it; Life and Career are the trine.”
An unusable sentence skips the palace and says what a person will do. If the hour is missing, do not write even the first sentence.
Common mistakes
- Treating the twelve palaces as Chinese names for Western houses.
- Reading an empty palace as a missing life domain.
- Assigning a Life Palace from the birth month alone, without a chart.
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
Do the palace names change in a luck period?
Natal names stay. A decade or annual period brings one palace forward. It does not rename the grid.
Which palace matters most?
The Life Palace is the anchor for the names. A concrete question uses its topic palace. Not every matter is read from Life alone.
Should I study the inner six apart from the outer six?
Life through Health are often taught as the nearer set, Travel through Parents as the more public set. That is a teaching split. It is not a reason to drop the second six.
Sources and editorial basis
- 1. 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.
- 2. 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.
- 3. fateshow interpretation dictionary
Plain-language tendencies used in reports. They describe conditions and cautions, not fixed personality or inevitable outcomes.