Surrounded palaces

The surrounded set is the most commonly used reading scope in Zi Wei Dou Shu. A matter cannot be read from its own palace alone: the stars of the opposite palace and the two trine palaces bear on it just as much, and only all four together give the full picture.

The four palaces

All four fields are Palace objects, so every method of the palace object is available on them.

Three ways to get one

# from the chart
sp = chart.surrounded_palaces("soulPalace")

# from a palace
sp = chart.palace("soulPalace").surrounded_palaces()

# from a star (the surrounded set of the palace it sits in)
sp = chart.star("ziweiMaj").surrounded_palaces()

All three give the same result; pick whichever matches what you already have.

have / not_have / have_one_of

Purpose Test whether the four palaces together hold the given stars.

Zi Wei meaning A phrase like "Ziwei is in the surrounded set" asks exactly whether a star appears anywhere among these four palaces, without asking which one.

Signature

def have(self, stars: list[str]) -> bool
def not_have(self, stars: list[str]) -> bool
def have_one_of(self, stars: list[str]) -> bool

Parameters

Return value

Example

from x_iztro import MajorStar, MinorStar

sp = chart.surrounded_palaces("soulPalace")

print(sp.have([MajorStar.ZIWEI, MajorStar.TIANXIANG]))
print(sp.have_one_of([MajorStar.QISHA, MajorStar.POJUN]))
print(sp.not_have([MinorStar.HUOXING]))

Output

True
False
True

Ziwei is in the Soul palace and Tianxiang in the Wealth palace — different palaces, but both within the four, so have is true.

Edge cases and pitfalls

have_mutagen / not_have_mutagen

Purpose Test whether the four palaces carry a given natal mutagen.

Zi Wei meaning "Ji is in the surrounded set" means one of these palaces holds a star the birth-year stem sent ji to — a common condition when locating a source of pressure.

Signature

def have_mutagen(self, mutagen: Mutagen) -> bool
def not_have_mutagen(self, mutagen: Mutagen) -> bool

Parameters

Return value bool.

Example

from x_iztro import Mutagen

sp = chart.surrounded_palaces("soulPalace")

print("lu in the surrounded set:", sp.have_mutagen(Mutagen.LU))
print("ji in the surrounded set:", sp.have_mutagen(Mutagen.JI))
print("no ke in the surrounded set:", sp.not_have_mutagen(Mutagen.KE))

Output

lu in the surrounded set: False
ji in the surrounded set: False
no ke in the surrounded set: True

This chart's natal mutagens land in four palaces: Taiyang with lu in Children, Wuqu with quan in Wealth, Taiyin with ke in Friends, Tiantong with ji in Health. The Soul palace's surrounded set is Soul, Surface, Wealth and Career — only the quan falls inside it, so both the lu and the ji test False while a quan test would be True.

Edge cases and pitfalls

to_text

Purpose The surrounded palaces' semantic text: one section each for the target palace, its opposite, and the wealth and career positions.

Signature

def to_text(self) -> str

Example

sp = chart.surrounded_palaces("soul")

print(sp.to_text().split("\n")[0])

Output

Target Palace: soul (renwoo)

When the target palace is detached from a chart there is no charting context and ValueError is raised. The full format is on Semantic text.