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The BaZi Life Palace: One Formula, Two Ways to Cut the Month

The Life Palace is not one of the four pillars; it is a palace "derived" from the birth month and hour. The original idea was to find the zodiac house rising on the eastern horizon at birth, which depends on where the sun is. That is why there are two schools on how to cut the month.

The formula

  1. Turn the birth month and the birth hour into numbers, counting from Yin as 1: Yin 1, Mao 2, Chen 3 … Zi 11, Chou 12.
  2. Add the month number and the hour number. If the sum is under 14, take it from 14; if it is 14 or more, take it from 26.
  3. Turn the result back into a branch (Yin 1, Mao 2 …). That is the Life Palace branch.
  4. The stem comes from the year stem by the Five Tigers rule (五虎遁): Jia and Ji years start the Yin month at Bing-Yin, Yi and Geng years at Wu-Yin, Bing and Xin years at Geng-Yin, Ding and Ren years at Ren-Yin, Wu and Gui years at Jia-Yin.

Life Palace branch lookup table

Birth month \ hourZiChouYinMaoChenSiWuWeiShenYouXuHai
Yin month (1)MaoYinChouZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWuSiChen
Mao month (2)YinChouZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWuSiChenMao
Chen month (3)ChouZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYin
Si month (4)ZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYinChou
Wu month (5)HaiXuYouShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYinChouZi
Wei month (6)XuYouShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYinChouZiHai
Shen month (7)YouShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXu
You month (8)ShenWeiWuSiChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXuYou
Xu month (9)WeiWuSiChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXuYouShen
Hai month (10)WuSiChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXuYouShenWei
Zi month (11)SiChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWu
Chou month (12)ChenMaoYinChouZiHaiXuYouShenWeiWuSi

Generated by our engine and checked cell by cell against the Life Palace calculation in the open-source calendar library lunar-javascript. The birth month here is the solar-term month (see the solar-term school below).

The four auxiliary pillars of one chart

Born March 12, 1985, You hour (5–7 p.m.)

Year乙丑Yi-Chou
Month己卯Ji-Mao
Day · Day Master庚戌Geng-Xu
Hour乙酉Yi-You
  1. Conception Pillar: the month pillar is Ji-Mao. Move the stem Ji one step forward and the branch Mao three steps forward to get Geng-Wu (Roadside Earth). Counting back nine months lands on the month pillar of roughly June 1984, which is exactly this.
  2. Conception Breath: the day pillar is Geng-Xu. Geng combines with Yi and Xu combines with Mao, giving Yi-Mao (Great Stream Water).
  3. Life Palace: the Mao month is month 2, and the You hour, counting from Yin, is hour 8. They add up to 10; 14 minus that is 4, which is Si. The year stem Yi supplies the stem by the Five Tigers rule, so the Life Palace is Xin-Si. This date falls before the Spring Equinox, so the mid-month school counts it as the previous month and gets Ren-Wu instead.
  4. Body Palace: the Mao month is month 2, and the You hour, counting from Zi, is hour 10. They add up to 12, which is Ji-Chou.

The solar-term school and the mid-month school: where the month starts

Solar-term school (節)Mid-month school (中氣)
How the month is countedChanges at each "jie" solar term (the Yin month starts at the Start of Spring), the same as the month pillarChanges at each mid-month term ("zhong qi"): 1 after Rain Water, 2 after the Spring Equinox, and so on
ReasoningConsistent with the month pillar and easy to calculate; most chart software uses itThe Life Palace originally tracks the sun's zodiac house, and the sun changes house at the mid-month terms
Where they differFor anyone born between a month's "jie" and its mid-month term, the month numbers differ by one and so does the Life Palace; in our sample 50.1% of charts differ

Our tool follows the solar-term school, like most software, and shows the mid-month result beside it. If the Life Palace matters to you, both are worth a look.

The BaZi Life Palace is not the Zi Wei Life Palace

Zi Wei Dou Shu (Purple Star astrology) has a Life Palace too, but it is calculated differently: it uses the lunar month, counting forward from the Yin palace to the birth month and then backward by the birth hour. The BaZi Life Palace uses the solar-term month and a different formula. In our sample the two land on the same branch in only 3.9% of charts, so the two Life Palaces should not be read as one.

50.1%Life Palace differs between the solar-term and mid-month schools
3.9%BaZi Life Palace and Zi Wei Life Palace share a branch
16.5%Life Palace and Body Palace share a branch

How we counted: our engine cast one chart for every day from 1960 to 2005, with the birth hour drawn by a fixed-seed random sample, 16,802 charts in all. The Zi Wei Life Palace comes from this site's Zi Wei Dou Shu chart engine.

How the Life Palace is read

Schools that use the Life Palace usually look at three things: the Nayin element of its stem-branch pair, how its branch combines with or clashes against the four pillars, and whether it falls on a favorable element. All of this sits outside the four pillars. Mainstream Zi Ping still centers on the Day Master, the month command, and strength with its favorable and unfavorable elements, and our engine leaves the Life Palace out of strength and favorable elements.

Find your Conception Pillar, Conception Breath, Life Palace and Body Palace

Enter your date and hour of birth to get all four auxiliary pillars and their Nayin at once. The Life Palace is shown under both the solar-term and mid-month schools, with the Zi Wei Life Palace alongside for comparison. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Uses your Gregorian birth date, with the day changing at 11 p.m. The Conception Pillar and Conception Breath need no birth hour; the Life Palace and Body Palace do.

Conception Pillar and BreathAll four auxiliary pillars at once The BaZi Body PalaceThe formula and the lookup table The Sixty Jiazi and NayinLook up the Nayin of any auxiliary pillar

A straight word: auxiliary pillars are a supplement, not the main event

The Conception Pillar, the Life Palace and the rest are recorded in the classical texts and some schools rely on them, but mainstream Zi Ping reads a person from the four pillars themselves. We calculate the auxiliary pillars and explain the methods and where schools disagree, but we do not feed them into strength or favorable elements. If someone makes a big claim from the Life Palace or the Conception Pillar alone, it is fair to ask what the four pillars say. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.

Where is your Life Palace?

Enter your date and hour of birth and the tool works out your Life Palace under both schools, your Body Palace, and the Zi Wei Life Palace for comparison.

Calculate my Life Palace → Look up its Nayin

Related reading

Conception Pillar & Life PalaceAll four auxiliary pillars at once The BaZi Body PalaceRead it against the Life Palace Solar-Term BoundariesSolar terms and mid-month terms Nayin ElementsThe thirty Nayin and what they picture The Sixty JiaziStem-branch pairs and their Nayin Our MethodStrength is read from the four pillars only

BaZi Life Palace FAQ

How do you calculate the Life Palace in BaZi?

Number the birth month and birth hour from Yin as 1 and add them. If the sum is under 14, take it from 14; if it is 14 or more, take it from 26. The result is the Life Palace branch, and the year stem supplies the stem by the Five Tigers rule.

Does the Life Palace use solar-term months or mid-month terms?

Both schools exist. The solar-term school changes month at the Start of Spring, Awakening of Insects and the other "jie" terms, like the month pillar; the mid-month school changes at Rain Water, the Spring Equinox and the other mid-month terms. In our sample 50.1% of charts get a different result.

Is the BaZi Life Palace the same as the Zi Wei Life Palace?

No. Zi Wei Dou Shu uses lunar months and a different formula; in our sample the two share a branch in only 3.9% of charts.