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Your birth date, the hour you were born, and whether you were born female or male. Enter the date on the solar or the lunar calendar, whichever you know, including a leap month (闰月); the app shows the other calendar beside it. Dates from 1901 on can be cast. The hour is one of the twelve double-hours (时辰), or an exact time. A birthplace is optional and only used for true solar time. The chart is cast on your phone in a few seconds, and no account is needed.

Choose "I don't know my birth hour" and the chart is cast for the 子 hour (23:00 to 01:00). The hour decides which palace becomes your 命宫 Life Palace and which stars sit in it, so that palace may differ from your true chart. The hour finder can help: tap "Find a likely hour" under the birth details on the Chart tab, pick a rough part of the day, read the Life Palace each possible hour would give you, and say how much each sounds like you. Its result is an estimate, not a record: the chart marks the hour as estimated, Ask is told so, and you can redo or clear it at any time.

Zi Wei Dou Shu uses it for the direction of the 大限 decades: forward through the palaces for a male born in a yang year or a female born in a yin year, backward for a female born in a yang year or a male born in a yin year. The step that asks shows which way yours run.

That is the late 子 hour (晚子), and the chart counts it as the next day. The app says so when you enter the time. Your birth date stays as you entered it.

It is off by default, so the hour is read from the clock. On, the hour is read from the sun at your birthplace, from its longitude and the time of year, so it needs a birthplace. The birthplace's time zone on your birth date counts, summer time included. Near the edge of a double-hour it can move a birth into the next one, and the Life Palace with it. Turn it on in Settings, under Your chart, where the app shows what it does to your own birth time.

Open People, then Settings, then "Edit my birth details" under Your chart, and the chart is cast again from the new details. The row is hidden while Privacy mode is on; turn it off to edit.

Your 命盘: the twelve palaces from 命宫 Life to 父母 Parents, the fourteen major stars with their brightness (庙 旺 得 利 平 不 陷), the birth-year 四化, your 命主 and 身主, your 身宫 Body Palace and your five-element bureau (五行局), every term in Chinese and plain English. Tap a palace or a star to read what it means where it sits. A palace also shows its 飞化, the 四化 that fly out of it and into it from other palaces. The layer switch moves the chart from Birth to the current Decade, Year or Month, and the Life Palace moves with it.

The layers of time read over your birth chart. 大限 are the ten-year decades: each makes one palace the decade's Life Palace, and the Luck tab shows them as a strip with the age each begins, counted in 虚岁, the traditional way. The 流年 Life Palace sits at the year's branch; 流月 are the lunar months, each from the first day of a lunar month; 流日 is the day. Each layer brings the 四化 of its own stem. 小限, the year's minor limit, moves one palace a year, and a year's reading names the palace it has reached.

A decade, and a year, has twelve palaces of its own, and the overlay reads them against your birth chart. On the Luck tab, under the decade's reading, each area of the decade is shown with the natal palace it sits on and the 四化 and stars there, and each line opens that natal palace. A palace's Years tab says which palace it is in the running decade and in this year.

Each day is scored out of 100 from your own chart. It starts at 55 and gains or loses points for what the day touches: the day palace (流日) and the palaces that face and support it, where the day's 四化 land on your stars and on your birth-year 四化, the 四化 of the month, year and decade the day sits in, the day's moving stars (流曜), and a 冲 clash between the day and your Life Palace. 60 and above reads as a good day, 40 to 59 as a mixed one, and under 40, or any clash day, as a day to go gently. Under the reading, "How this is read" gives the factors that weigh most, one sentence each.

In the evening, Today asks how the day went, in one tap. After a week of answers it says how often your days matched the reading, and Settings, "How your days felt", sets your answers beside the scores, so you can see for yourself how the readings sit with your days.

A conversation about your own chart. Without Pro, Ask answers common questions straight from your chart on the phone; those answers are read by the app, not written by AI. Asking in your own words is part of Zi Wei Pro and needs you to be signed in, because questions are counted on the account. Those answers are written by AI, labelled as AI, and drawn from your palaces, stars and the layers you are in. Before your first question a screen asks your consent and says what is sent: your question with your chart as worked out on the phone, to an AI provider that processes it in mainland China. Your name, birth date, birth time and birthplace are never sent, and the names of people you mention are replaced with labels. When you ask about someone you saved, their chart goes with that question in the same form, labelled, never with their name or birth details. Your threads stay on your phone.

Zi Wei Dou Shu in its common modern form, calculated on your phone by Auspica's own engine, built on an open-source Zi Wei Dou Shu library. The 四化 of the ten stems follow the common table, in which 庚 gives 太阳 化禄, 武曲 化权, 太阴 化科 and 天同 化忌. Ages are counted in 虚岁. The 流年 turns at Chinese New Year, not at 立春, and the 流月 and 流日 follow the lunar calendar. For a birth in a leap month, days 1 to 15 count with the month before and day 16 on with the month after. The late 子 hour (23:00 to 23:59) counts as the next day. The decades run forward for 阳男 and 阴女, backward for 阴男 and 阳女. Star brightness follows the engine's own table.

Schools differ in a few places, and each one changes a chart: the 四化 table for some stems (庚 is the best known), the brightness table, whether the year turns at Chinese New Year or at 立春, how a leap month is split, and whether the late 子 hour belongs to the next day. Compare those, and whether true solar time is on, with the chart you know. If a star still looks to be in the wrong palace, report it from the app or write to us with the birth details, and we will check it against the engine and reply with the working.

No. They describe tendencies to reflect on and plan around, and what to keep in mind. They never promise an outcome, and nothing in them is guaranteed. Auspica Zi Wei gives no medical, legal or financial advice. Answers to questions asked in your own words are written by AI, and are for reflection too.

No. The chart, its readings and Today work without one. Signing in (People, then Settings, then "Sign in to sync") saves your chart and the people you add to your account, so they come back on a new phone or after a reinstall, and edits reach your other devices. Sign in with Apple, with Google, or with a code we email you. There is no password to keep.

Yes. One Auspica account signs in to every Auspica app: Auspica for BaZi, Auspica Zi Wei and Auspica Qi Men. On the welcome screen, "I already have an Auspica account" brings your chart back. Your chart and saved people are shared with Auspica, so a person saved in either app shows in both. Zi Wei keeps its settings on the phone, and its life events and evening check-ins in your account, apart from Auspica's. People that Auspica knows by their four pillars alone, with no birth date, do not show in Zi Wei.

No. They are separate subscriptions for separate apps: Zi Wei Pro unlocks only Auspica Zi Wei, and Auspica Pro only Auspica. One account can hold both.

Open People, then Settings, tap "Restore purchases" under Pro, then "Restore purchases" on the screen that opens. Pro bought with your Apple Account comes back on a new iPhone or after a reinstall. To bring back your chart and people as well, sign in with the account you used before.

A subscription bought in the app is managed by Apple: on your iPhone, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, and choose Zi Wei Pro. Pro lasts until the end of the period already paid for. Deleting the app or your account does not cancel it.

With App lock on, Zi Wei asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your phone's passcode when it opens and after more than a minute away. Turn it on in Settings, under Privacy; it asks once before it switches on, so a sensor that does not work cannot lock you out. The row shows only on a phone with a passcode or biometrics set up, in a version of the app that has it. Each Auspica app has its own App lock switch.

A switch in Settings, under Your chart, for showing the app to someone else: the screens use stand-in charts, and your real details are kept. Asking the Master pauses while it is on.

On your phone. The chart is cast there, and your birth details reach our servers only when you sign in to save and sync. Ask threads stay on the phone too; for Ask we keep only a count of your questions. The Privacy Policy sets out what we keep and why.

Open People, then Settings, then "Delete all data" under About. It removes your chart, people and settings from this phone. While you are signed in, your account keeps its copy, which comes back on the next sync; to remove that too, delete your account.

Signed in, open People, then Settings, then "Delete account". It deletes the account with your chart, people, life events and check-ins, and the reports you sent while signed in, and clears them from this phone. Auspica and Auspica Qi Men use the same account, so it goes there too. It cannot be undone, and it does not cancel a subscription bought in the App Store. If you signed in with Apple, the app then shows where to remove Auspica Zi Wei from your Apple Account. You can also write to privacy@auspica.app from your account address.