How to Read a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart
Read Zi Wei from the Life Palace, then its opposite and three-harmony partners; locate Body, compare major stars and brightness, and add the chosen timing layer.
Start with the layout
In the worked chart for 16 August 2000 at 03:00, female calculation, the lunar date is seventh month, day seventeen. The Life Palace is at Wu Horse, Body at Xu Dog and the bureau is Wood 3.
Read the complete star pattern
The Life Palace contains Tan Lang 贪狼. Compare its branch status with the stars in the opposite, career and wealth positions before reading the pattern. The individual star gloss is a way to identify the star, not a substitute for the pattern.
BaZi and Zi Wei together
The same example has BaZi pairs 庚辰, 甲申, 丙午 and 庚寅 at the recorded hour. BaZi relates those eight characters to the Bing Day Master; Zi Wei relates palace areas to placed stars. The two charts give different structures from one birth record.