The map
A Zi Wei chart is a fixed grid of twelve palaces arranged by Earthly Branch. The star placements change from person to person; the map never does. Learning the twelve domains is 80% of learning to read a chart.
The twelve domains
Ming (命) — self, temperament, the anchor of the chart. Siblings (兄弟) — peers, partners-in-crime, later business partners. Spouse (夫妻) — intimate relationships and marriage patterns. Children (子女) — children, but also students, juniors, and creative output.
Wealth (财帛) — how money flows to you and how you handle it. Health (疾厄) — constitution and vulnerabilities, read by branch and star. Travel (迁移) — the outside world: relocation, strangers, luck away from home; also the palace opposite Ming. Friends (仆役) — subordinates, networks, the people who work with you.
Career (官禄) — vocation, status, how you do your work. Property (田宅) — home, real estate, the family vault. Fortune (福德) — inner life: contentment, taste, spiritual bandwidth. Parents (父母) — parents, superiors, documents and credentials.
How palaces talk to each other
Each palace is read with its opposite and its two triangular neighbors — the 'three harmonies and four cardinalities' (三方四正). Wealth is read with Career and Fortune; Spouse is read against Ming. This is why a chart is a network, not a list: a star rarely speaks for one domain only.
A thirteenth residence: the Body Palace
The Body Palace (身宫) is not a separate domain but a second anchor — it co-locates with one of the twelve and marks the life area that grows in weight after mid-life. When Ming and Body point to the same palace, that domain dominates the whole life story.