The twelve palaces provide the seats of a Purple Star chart; the stars are what occupy them. Of the many stars a chart names, fourteen are called the major stars (主星, zhǔxīng), and they carry the bulk of the interpretation. They fall into two groups, each led by a star that anchors the rest: the six of the Ziwei group, led by 紫微, and the eight of the Tianfu group, led by 天府. This section gives each of the fourteen its own article.

Two groups, one anchor

The placement of the star 紫微 Ziwei is the first act of chart construction, and everything else follows from where it lands. The other five stars of its group take fixed positions relative to it, and the leader of the second group, 天府 Tianfu, is placed from it by a standing reflection rule. From there the eight stars of the Tianfu group fall into place at set intervals. This is why the system is named for Ziwei rather than for any other star: it is the one star from which the skeleton of the chart is measured.

That structure also shapes the reading. The two groups are traditionally associated with different temperaments — the Ziwei group read as more individual and self-directed, the Tianfu group as more social and situational — but the association is a tendency, not a rule. What a star says depends on the palace it occupies and the Four Transformations laid upon it.

The Ziwei group

The six stars measured from Ziwei. Their traditional sense is given here in one line; follow the name for the full article.

Star	Chinese	One-line sense
Ziwei	紫微 Zǐwēi	The emperor — authority, dignity, leadership at the centre
Tianji	天機 Tiānjī	The strategist — intellect, planning, movement
Taiyang	太陽 Tàiyáng	The sun — visibility, giving, the father, outward drive
Wuqu	武曲 Wǔqǔ	The general and treasurer — finance, executive force, discipline
Tiantong	天同 Tiāntóng	The fortunate child — ease, enjoyment, goodwill
Lianzhen	廉貞 Liánzhēn	The upright official — propriety and discipline, complex in love

The Tianfu group

The eight stars measured from Tianfu.

Star	Chinese	One-line sense
Tianfu	天府 Tiānfǔ	The treasury — steadiness, conservation, management
Taiyin	太陰 Tàiyīn	The moon — the mother, refinement, property, inner life
Tanlang	貪狼 Tānláng	The wolf — desire, appetite, talent, romance
Jumen	巨門 Jùmén	The great gate — speech, analysis, teaching and dispute
Tianxiang	天相 Tiānxiàng	The minister — support, appearance, diplomacy
Tianliang	天梁 Tiānliáng	The beam — seniority, protection, benevolence
Qisha	七殺 Qīshā	Seven Killings — decisiveness, action, authority by force
Pojun	破軍 Pòjūn	Army Breaker — demolition, transformation, large change

The English names above are working translations; the classical sources use the Chinese, and different lines of transmission render them differently — Lianzhen, for instance, appears as both "Chastity" and "Upright Official". Where this knowledge base gives a translation it is a label for the star, not a definition of it. The sense of a star is built from the palace it takes, its element and polarity, and the transformations on it, all read together.

The stars around them

The fourteen major stars are the skeleton, not the whole chart. Around them sit several classes of lesser star, and a reading that ignored them would be flatter than the tradition intends.

Supporting stars. The six auspicious stars (六吉, liùjí) — 左輔 Zuofu and 右弼 Youbi, 文昌 Wenchang and 文曲 Wenqu, 天魁 Tiankui and 天鉞 Tianyue — are read as help, refinement, literacy and benefactors. The six inauspicious stars (六煞, liùshà) — 擎羊 Qingyang, 陀羅 Tuoluo, 火星 Huoxing, 鈴星 Lingxing, 地空 Dikong and 地劫 Dijie — are read as friction, haste and loss.

Wealth and movement stars. 祿存 Lucun is the star of stored wealth and 天馬 Tianma the star of travel and change; they are read closely with the palaces they join.

Transforming stars. The Four Transformations are not a separate class of star but a set of modifiers attached to stars, and they are the sharpest layer of the reading.

How a star is read

A star has no meaning on its own. 七殺 Qisha in the Wealth palace speaks about money made by action and decisiveness; the same star in the Spouse palace speaks about a partnership that is forceful or unsettled. The unit of meaning is not the star but the star in its palace, seen with its trines and opposite and with the transformations on it.

For the same reason, a palace without a major star is read through its partners rather than as empty, and a star sharing a palace with another is read as a combination rather than a list. The tradition's many named pairings — which stars strengthen, weaken or complicate one another — are the subject of the interpretive literature, and they belong to the reading of a specific chart rather than to a general rule.

Why fourteen, and why two groups?

The fourteen are the stars the classical charts treat as the backbone of interpretation, and the division into a group of six led by Ziwei and a group of eight led by Tianfu follows from the placement rules: the first group is measured from Ziwei, the second from Tianfu. The number is a property of the system, not a round figure.

Does the strongest star in my chart decide everything?

No. Purple Star Astrology reads the palaces as a whole, with the trines and opposite palace completing each one. A single star, however prominent, is qualified by the stars beside it and by the Four Transformations on it.

Are the minor stars as important as the major ones?

They carry less weight individually, but they alter the reading, and in a palace without a major star they do much of the work. The auspicious stars soften, the inauspicious ones sharpen, and Lucun and Tianma add their own emphasis on wealth and movement.

Where do the stars get their characters from?

From the classical texts and from the tradition's centuries of interpretation. The knowledge base gives each star a short working sense, but the full character of a star is a matter of the sources, and translations vary — the Chinese name is the stable reference.