Systems Compared

BaZi vs. Zi Wei Dou Shu: Two Chinese Birth-Chart Traditions

A plain-language comparison of two major Chinese natal-chart traditions.

BaZi and Zi Wei Dou Shu are separate Chinese birth-chart traditions. Both use birth information and traditional calendrical ideas, but their chart structures and technical vocabularies are different.

BaZi is organized around four Stem-Branch pillars, the Day Master, Five Elements, Ten Gods, and timing cycles. Zi Wei Dou Shu typically organizes a chart into palaces and places named stars according to its own rules.

Terms that appear similar across the systems may not perform the same function. Combining labels casually can create an interpretation that belongs to neither method.

Neither system has one globally uniform school. Calculation boundaries and reading emphasis can vary among practitioners. If you study both, keep the methods separate until you understand how each one derives its chart.

This website calculates and explains BaZi. It does not generate a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, so the practical guides here should not be used as instructions for that system.