Free BaZi Calculator · Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart
BaZi (the Four Pillars of Destiny) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (Purple Star Astrology) are the two major birth-chart systems of Chinese astrology. Both are cast from your exact date and hour of birth: BaZi reads the Five-Element dynamics of that moment and how they evolve through ten-year luck cycles, while Zi Wei Dou Shu maps the same moment onto twelve life palaces. Open the workbench to cast both charts free, with a plain-language interpretation.
✦What is a BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) chart?
BaZi — the Four Pillars of Destiny — is the classical system of Chinese astrology. Your birth year, month, day and hour are each converted into a Heavenly Stem and an Earthly Branch, producing eight characters in four pillars. The reading centers on the Day Master (the stem of your day pillar), which represents you; the other seven characters relate to it through the Five Elements, forming the "Ten Gods" that map to career, wealth, talent, learning and relationships.
A reading typically moves from the Day Master's strength in its birth month, to the structure of the Ten Gods, to the "useful god" — the element your chart needs most — and finally overlays the ten-year luck cycles and annual pillars. The free chart in our workbench plots all of this at once, with a plain-language explanation alongside.
The method is known as the "Ziping school", after the Song-dynasty master Xu Ziping who codified reading from the day stem. Its canon includes the Yuan Hai Zi Ping, San Ming Tong Hui, Di Tian Sui and Zi Ping Zhen Quan — the classical texts our readings follow.
✦What is Zi Wei Dou Shu (Purple Star Astrology)?
Zi Wei Dou Shu maps your birth data onto twelve life palaces — self, siblings, marriage, children, wealth, health, travel, friends, career, property, fortune and parents — and places the fourteen major stars (Zi Wei, Tian Ji, Tai Yang, Wu Qu and others) into them. Where the stars fall, and how the Four Transformations charge them, shapes each area of life.
Start with three things: the major star in your Life Palace (your temperament), the Career and Wealth palaces (how you build a livelihood), and the Four Transformations of your birth year. The workbench draws the full twelve-palace chart; tap any palace for its reading.
✦No birth hour? You can still get a chart.
Many people cannot find their exact birth hour. Our calculator supports an "unknown hour" mode: the BaZi reading proceeds from the year, month and day pillars, and for Zi Wei Dou Shu you can compare hour-by-hour charts against your known temperament to identify the most likely one. If you later learn your hour, simply recast the chart.
✦BaZi & Zi Wei Dou Shu — FAQ
Is this BaZi calculator free?
Yes. Enter your birth date in the workbench to get a complete free BaZi (Four Pillars) chart and a Zi Wei Dou Shu twelve-palace chart — Day Master strength, Five Elements balance, Ten Gods, luck cycles and palace stars — with no signup. Free AI quick readings have a daily allowance: 5 per day as a guest, 10 per day when signed in.
What information do I need to provide?
Your birth date, birth hour and gender. Both the Gregorian and the Chinese lunar calendar are accepted, and leap months are supported. If you do not know your birth hour, choose the "unknown hour" mode.
What is the difference between BaZi and Zi Wei Dou Shu?
BaZi reads destiny through the Five Elements and Ten Gods — strong at judging the overall structure of a chart and the timing of luck cycles. Zi Wei Dou Shu reads it through twelve palaces and the star placements — strong at examining each life area (marriage, career, wealth, relationships) in detail. They are two lenses on the same birth moment, and reading them together is more complete than either alone.
What are luck cycles and annual pillars?
In BaZi, life unfolds in ten-year luck cycles, each shifting the balance of your chart, while each year adds its own stem-and-branch interaction. The same chart fares very differently in different cycles — which is why a serious reading always overlays the cycles and the current year on the natal chart.
Is BaZi the same as the Chinese zodiac?
No — your zodiac animal is only one-eighth of a BaZi chart. The animal signs are the twelve Earthly Branches, and your zodiac animal is simply the branch of your birth year. A full BaZi chart uses all four pillars — year, month, day and hour — and centers its reading on the day, not the year. Two people with the same zodiac animal can have completely different charts.
How is BaZi different from Western astrology?
Both begin from your exact birth moment, but they read different things. Western astrology reads the positions of planets against the zodiac at that moment; BaZi converts the time itself into the Five-Element cycle of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and adds an explicit timing system — the ten-year luck cycles — that Western natal charts do not have. Many readers use them side by side: one for psychological portrait, the other for element balance and timing.
Is a BaZi reading fortune telling?
It is closer to interpretation than prediction. The chart itself is computed deterministically from your birth data by fixed calendrical rules; a reading then interprets that chart — much as a tarot reader interprets a spread, or an astrologer interprets a natal chart. It describes tendencies, element balance and the rhythm of favourable and difficult periods, as material for reflection and planning — not a fixed script of your future.
Is an AI BaZi reading accurate?
The two stages have different answers. Casting the chart is pure calculation — software does it exactly. Interpretation is where skill lives: our AI reading follows the classical Ziping canon and explains your fixed chart in plain language. Treat it as a well-grounded starting point for reflection; for major decisions, weigh it alongside your real-world circumstances.