Free Tử Vi birth chart Purple Star astrology, in English
Tử Vi Đẩu Số (Zi Wei Dou Shu) maps more than a hundred stars into twelve life palaces from your lunar birth date and two-hour birth period. Enter your details to draw the chart the Vietnamese way, with English labels and a short reading of your Life palace.
What a Tử Vi chart shows
Tử Vi, literally “Purple Star”, is the most detailed of the Vietnamese birth-chart systems. Instead of planets in the sky, it uses a fixed set of symbolic stars that are placed by rule from four inputs: the lunar year, month, day and the two-hour period of birth. The result is a square of twelve palaces, each describing one area of life, with the fourteen major stars carrying most of the meaning and the minor stars adding colour.
The chart above is calculated in your browser with the same engine as our Vietnamese tool, following the Vietnamese school of placement. Major stars are shown with their English names and their Vietnamese names; minor stars keep their Vietnamese names, and you can tap any palace to see an English description of every star in it.
How to read your chart
Start with the Life palace (marked in red). Its major stars describe temperament and natural talents. If it has no major star, read the stars of the opposite palace, Travel, which “shine across” into it. Then look at the Life palace together with the Wealth and Career palaces and the Travel palace opposite: this four-palace group is read as one unit.
Brightness tells you how comfortable a star is in its position: Exalted, Prosperous, Favorable, Neutral or Weak. A weak star is not bad luck; it simply expresses its theme with more effort. The Four Transformations, set by the stem of your birth year, mark the stars that bring Wealth, Power, Fame or an Obstacle. The Body palace shows where your energy settles as you mature, and the decade luck numbers in each corner show which palace is active in each ten-year period of life, counted from the element bureau (Cục).
The 14 major stars
| English | Pinyin | Vietnamese | Key themes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor | Zi Wei | Tử Vi | Leadership, dignity, responsibility |
| Strategist | Tian Ji | Thiên Cơ | Intelligence, planning, adaptability |
| Sun | Tai Yang | Thái Dương | Generosity, visibility, public life |
| General | Wu Qu | Vũ Khúc | Money, discipline, decisive action |
| Fortunate | Tian Tong | Thiên Đồng | Harmony, comfort, recovery |
| Honest | Lian Zhen | Liêm Trinh | Integrity, passion, rules |
| Treasury | Tian Fu | Thiên Phủ | Resources, stability, management |
| Moon | Tai Yin | Thái Âm | Sensitivity, home, property |
| Wolf | Tan Lang | Tham Lang | Desire, charm, versatility |
| Gate | Ju Men | Cự Môn | Speech, analysis, debate |
| Seal | Tian Xiang | Thiên Tướng | Fairness, service, diplomacy |
| Sage | Tian Liang | Thiên Lương | Protection, wisdom, mentoring |
| Seven Killings | Qi Sha | Thất Sát | Courage, drive, independence |
| Rebel | Po Jun | Phá Quân | Change, reinvention, pioneering |
The twelve palaces
Counting counter-clockwise from the Life palace, the palaces are: Life, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Wealth, Health, Travel, Friends, Career, Property, Fortune and Parents. Each sits on one of the twelve Earthly Branches, which are fixed in the same square for everyone; what changes from person to person is which branch becomes your Life palace and where the stars fall.
What makes Vietnamese Tử Vi different
Vietnamese practitioners follow the classic Chinese rules but with their own conventions: the fourth animal of the zodiac is the Cat rather than the Rabbit, dates are converted on the Vietnamese lunar calendar (UTC+7), a birth between 23:00 and midnight is counted as the next day, and for a leap month the first fifteen days use that month while the rest use the following month. These choices can move a few stars compared with Chinese or Taiwanese software, so if you compare charts, check which conventions each one uses.
This English chart covers the essentials. For the full palace-by-palace reading, yearly and monthly luck and the in-depth AI interpretation (in Vietnamese), open the same chart in our Vietnamese Tử Vi tool. You may also like the Four Pillars calculator, which reads the same birth moment through the five elements.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Tử Vi and Western astrology?
Western astrology uses the real positions of the Sun, Moon and planets. Tử Vi uses symbolic stars placed by fixed rules from your lunar birth date and birth hour, so no astronomical data is involved beyond the calendar itself.
I do not know my exact birth time. Can I still use the chart?
Tử Vi only needs the two-hour period, but that period decides your Life palace, so a wrong hour changes the whole chart. If you are unsure, try the neighbouring hours and see which Life palace description fits you best.
I was born outside Vietnam. Which time should I enter?
Enter the local clock time and date where you were born. The tool converts that date on the Vietnamese lunar calendar (UTC+7); this only matters in the rare case that you were born within a day of a new moon.
What does an empty Life palace mean?
An empty Life palace (Vô chính diệu) has no major star of its own. It is read through the stars of the opposite palace, Travel, and often describes an adaptable person shaped strongly by surroundings. It is not an unlucky sign.
Why is my chart different from a Chinese Zi Wei Dou Shu app?
Schools differ on a few rules, such as the late Rat hour, leap months and the Four Transformations for some years. This tool follows common Vietnamese practice, the same as our Vietnamese chart.
How are the decade luck ages counted?
Decade luck uses the traditional Vietnamese age, which counts you as one year old at birth and adds a year at each Lunar New Year. Subtract one to get your approximate Western age.