The BaZi Body Palace: The Other Half of the Life Palace
Where there is a Life Palace, there is a Body Palace. Tradition says "the Life Palace shows what you are born with, the Body Palace what you make of it," or "the Life Palace rules the whole life, the Body Palace the years after midlife." In Zi Wei Dou Shu the Body Palace is a standard part of every reading; in BaZi it is rarely used, though the calculation is clear.
The formula
- Number the birth month from Yin as 1: Yin 1, Mao 2 … Chou 12.
- Number the birth hour from Zi as 1: Zi 1, Chou 2 … Hai 12 (note that this differs from the Life Palace).
- Add the month and hour numbers; if the sum is over 12, take away 12. Turn the result back into a branch, counting from Yin as 1.
- The stem comes from the year stem by the Five Tigers rule, as for the Life Palace.
Body Palace branch lookup table
| Birth month \ hour | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yin month (1) | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin |
| Mao month (2) | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao |
| Chen month (3) | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen |
| Si month (4) | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si |
| Wu month (5) | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu |
| Wei month (6) | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei |
| Shen month (7) | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen |
| You month (8) | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You |
| Xu month (9) | Hai | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu |
| Hai month (10) | Zi | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai |
| Zi month (11) | Chou | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi |
| Chou month (12) | Yin | Mao | Chen | Si | Wu | Wei | Shen | You | Xu | Hai | Zi | Chou |
Generated by our engine and checked cell by cell against the Body Palace calculation in lunar-javascript. The birth month is the solar-term month.
The Body Palace and the Life Palace
| Life Palace | Body Palace | |
|---|---|---|
| Hour count starts at | Yin as 1 | Zi as 1 |
| Calculation | Take the month-plus-hour sum from 14 or 26 | Add month and hour; take away 12 if over 12 |
| Direction | Later month or later hour moves it backward | Later month or later hour moves it forward |
| Traditional reading | What you are born with; the keynote of a life | What you make of it; where effort goes after midlife |
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.
When the Life Palace and the Body Palace fall on the same branch, tradition calls it "Life and Body in the same palace," with what you are born with and what you make of it pointing the same way. About 16.5% of charts in our sample are like this.
Why BaZi rarely uses the Body Palace
BaZi centers on the Day Master and the interplay of the four pillars, and the Body Palace plays no part in that calculation. Zi Wei Dou Shu is built around palaces, so the Body Palace matters far more there, and its Body Palace is calculated differently from the BaZi one. In BaZi we list the Body Palace for reference only and draw no conclusions from it.
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.
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 Body Palace?
Enter your date and hour of birth and the tool works out your Conception Pillar, Conception Breath, Life Palace and Body Palace in one go.
BaZi Body Palace FAQ
How do you calculate the Body Palace in BaZi?
Number the birth month from Yin as 1 and the birth hour from Zi as 1, add them, and take away 12 if the sum is over 12. Turn the result back into a branch counting from Yin as 1; the year stem supplies the stem by the Five Tigers rule.
How is the Body Palace different from the Life Palace?
The calculation differs (the Body Palace counts hours from Zi and moves forward; the Life Palace counts from Yin and moves backward), and traditionally the Life Palace shows what you are born with while the Body Palace shows what you make of it, or the years after midlife.
What does "Life and Body in the same palace" mean?
The Life Palace and Body Palace fall on the same branch, traditionally read as what you are born with and what you make of it pointing the same way. About 16.5% of charts in our sample are like this.