# 12 Rooms

> 12 Rooms (十二扇門) is a canonical English-language reference for Chinese astrology, covering both Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗數) and BaZi (八字, the Four Pillars / 四柱). It pairs a fully cross-referenced glossary with live chart calculators and an AI interpretation layer, written for Western readers who want the actual system rather than fortune-telling clichés. Every term is defined descriptively — a tendency, not a verdict — and charged classical names (Seven Killings, Taboo, Hurting Officer, "weak" Day Master) are explained as misreadings, not predictions. The site is bilingual: English under /en/ and Traditional Chinese under /zh-tw/.

## Glossary
- [Glossary index](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary): every term defined the same way every time — 14 main stars, the minor stars, the 12 palaces, core concepts, plus the full BaZi vocabulary
- [Cross-system hub](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary/cross-system): each glossary term placed side-by-side across Zi Wei Dou Shu, Western astrology, and BaZi — loose analogies, explicitly never claims of equivalence

## Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗數)
- [Main and minor stars](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary): the fourteen main star archetypes (e.g. Emperor Star / 紫微) and the supporting cast that modifies a chart
- [The twelve palaces](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary): Life, Career, Wealth, Spouse and the rest of the twelve life areas a chart is read through

## BaZi (八字 / Four Pillars)
- [Four Pillars vocabulary](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary): the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, the twenty-four Solar Terms (二十四節氣 — the astronomical spine the BaZi calendar actually runs on, where only the twelve 節 open a new month pillar and the twelve 氣 open nothing, and the BaZi year itself starts at 立春, not Lunar New Year), Twelve Life Stages, Ten Gods, and Symbolic Stars (神煞 — Nobleman, Peach Blossom, Travelling Horse and others) — each block held to its own framing rule (an Earthly Branch is not a zodiac animal; the Twelve Life Stages describe an element's qi, not a life forecast; Symbolic Stars are a described tradition, never an output of the chart engine, which does not compute them)
- [Chinese Zodiac](https://12rooms.app/en/glossary): the popular twelve animals, always tied back to their underlying Earthly Branches rather than treated as fixed personality types

## Tools
- [Zi Wei Dou Shu chart calculator](https://12rooms.app/en/chart): enter a birth date and time, get a full twelve-palace chart computed in the browser
- [BaZi calculator](https://12rooms.app/en/bazi): four pillars with Ten Gods, hidden stems, life stages, and a season-weighted (月令) Day-Master strength reading

## Articles
- [Blog index](https://12rooms.app/en/blog): plain-English essays on how to read a Chinese chart
- [Is Bazi Just Fortune-Telling? What It Actually Claims](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/is-bazi-fortune-telling)
- [Is Zi Wei Dou Shu Real? A Clear-Eyed Look](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/is-zi-wei-dou-shu-real)
- [Zi Wei vs Bazi: Which Should You Start With?](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-vs-bazi)
- [Bazi (Four Pillars), Explained: The Questions Beginners Actually Ask](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-faq)
- [Zi Wei Dou Shu, Explained: The Questions Beginners Actually Ask](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-faq)
- [The Complete Guide to Bazi / Four Pillars (for Beginners)](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-complete-guide)
- [The Complete Guide to Zi Wei Dou Shu (for Beginners)](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-complete-guide)
- [A Zi Wei Dou Shu Reading Walkthrough](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/how-to-read-zi-wei)
- [Symbolic Stars (神煞): Peach Blossom, Nobleman, and Friends](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-symbolic-stars)
- [How to Read Your BaZi Chart, Step by Step](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/how-to-read-bazi)
- [The Zi Wei Time Layer: Decade, Year, and Month](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-time-layer)
- [What Is My Chinese Element?](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/chinese-five-elements)
- [The Four Activations (四化): Flow, Drive, Recognition, Friction](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-four-activations)
- [BaZi Patterns (格局): Reading the Chart's Structure](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-patterns)
- [Triangle and Axis (三方四正): How Zi Wei Palaces Talk](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-triangle-and-axis)
- [Chinese vs Western Astrology](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/chinese-vs-western-astrology)
- [The Fourteen Main Stars of Zi Wei Dou Shu](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-main-stars)
- [Combinations and Clashes in BaZi (合沖刑害)](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-combinations-clashes)
- [How to Read a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-how-to-read)
- [The Chinese Zodiac Is Not Chinese Astrology](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/chinese-zodiac-not-astrology)
- [Luck Pillars: How BaZi Adds Time to a Fixed Chart](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-luck-pillars)
- [Which Elements Actually Help You? The Honest Version of BaZi's “Useful God”](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-favourable-elements)
- [The Ten Gods: How BaZi Reads Everything as a Relationship to You](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-ten-gods)
- [Is Your Day Master Strong or Weak? BaZi's First Question](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/bazi-day-master-strength)
- [What Is BaZi? A Western Reader's Second Encounter](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/what-is-bazi)
- [Same Birth, Two Charts: One Birthday Through Both Chinese Systems](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/same-birth-two-charts)
- [Two Kinds of Pressure: How Zi Wei and BaZi Each Read the Hard Parts](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/two-kinds-of-pressure)
- [Self Palace vs Day Master: The Two Selves at the Heart of a Chinese Chart](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/life-palace-vs-day-master)
- [Zi Wei or BaZi: Which Chinese Astrology System Should You Start With?](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/zi-wei-or-bazi-which-to-start)
- [The 12 Minor Stars: What Modifies Your Chart After the Main Cast](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/minor-stars-explained)
- [What Is Zi Wei Dou Shu? A Western Reader's First Encounter](https://12rooms.app/en/blog/what-is-zi-wei-dou-shu)

## Notes
- A Traditional Chinese version of every page exists under /zh-tw/ (for example https://12rooms.app/zh-tw/glossary)
- Glossary term pages are marked up as schema.org DefinedTerm with the original Chinese term as termCode
- Full machine-readable URL list: https://12rooms.app/sitemap.xml