Destiny

The 命 (ming, “destiny”) art reads a person’s life pattern from the stem-branch markers at the moment of their birth. Its two main systems are Bazi (八字, the Four Pillars of Destiny) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗数, the Purple Star Astrology) — both reduce a birth time to a chart of symbols, but Bazi works from the eight stem-branch characters while Zi Wei Dou Shu lays out stars across twelve palaces. This section covers how those charts are built and read, separately from the Foundations scaffolding both stand on.