According to the ancient Chinese Astronomy, north, south, east and west contain a body of stars divided into four groups:

• The northern group: Zi Wei
• The southern group: Tai Wei
• The eastern group: Tien Si
• The western group: Shao Wei

The northern group founded the Zi Wei system. Contrary to western astrology, in Polar astrology, the sun does not play the main part. Zi Wei is the ruling star of the northern part of Heaven, the big leader of all the groups of heaven, known as the “King of Kings.” In the Chinese astronomy concept, Zi Wei is the most important star in the sky, hence its name was chosen to describe this astrology on the whole. Zi Wei is called the Pole Star as it is situated very close to the Celestial North Pole.

It commands many other stars also included in Polar Astrology. The meaning of Zi Wei is “subtle purple,” being as it emanates a subtle purple light in the sky. For this reason, the ancient emperors and spiritual masters wore purple cloaks.

Zi is purple, Wei is subtle. Dou, however, can be translated in various ways. It can mean constellations or measuring instruments, as it refers to a diamond-shaped object used to measure volumes and weights. By association, Dou presents itself as an instrument that measures a person’s quality and energy, as an entity or event, gauging a person’s nobility, weight and importance within society. Dou also refers to the idea of mathematics and numbers.

Shu comes from Qi Shu, which is the number of breaths that detects or characterises the important moments of our lives, society and humanity. In Ancient China, when referring to a person’s potentials in life, the word Qi Shu was used (Qi = breath; Shu = number). We all have a Qi Shu, a number of breaths which define the number of times that we will breathe in our whole life. It does not relate to the number of years that will be lived. Living for 30 years is one thing, breathing 80 million times is another. If we breathe faster our time will come to an end faster. If we breathe slowly, our life will last longer.

Therefore, a person’s potential of living is called Qi Shu, or just Shu, as in Zi Wei Dou Shu. Shu is the number that indicates great moments and the circumstances of transformation.

With the Zi Wei constellation, there are five subdivisions, or five Dous. The Dou of the North, South, East, West and Centre. Of these five sub-groups, the most important ones are the Dou of the North and South, or rather the constellations of the North and South. These are joined to the Luminaries of the Centre of Heaven, composing the Dou of the Centre.

The Dou of the North, or Bei Dou, is what we know in the West as the Ursa Major Constellation. It is composed of seven main stars (Tang Lang, Ju Meng, Lu Chuen, Wen Qu, Lian Zeng, Wu Qu and Po Jung) and two complementary ones (Zuo Fu and You Bi).

The Dou of the South, or Lan Dou, is the southern constellation. The first star is called Tian Fu, and the others are Tian Lian, Tian Ji, Tian Tong, Tian Xiang and Qi Sha. This is also one of the eight mansions of the Lunar Astrology, used by the Chinese as well as the Arabs. The Lan Dou stars are situated in part of the Sagittarius constellation. This means that the way of classifying constellations in the past followed quite a different logic to today’s. In ancient China, the Sagittarius constellation was divided in two parts, one called Dou and the other Ji.

The Dou Centre is composed of the Tai Yang and Tai Yin stars and are called the Luminaries of the Centre of Heaven.

The Chinese consider Zi Wei Dou Shu, or Pole Star, as their highest reference. Despite using approximately a hundred and fifty stars, some of these stars are given more importance and are known as the main stars. These main stars are basically the Northern (Bei Dou) and Southern (Lan Dou) constellation stars.
These stars are fictitious from the physico-astronomical point of view, which does not mean that this system lacks an objective and assertive foundation. It was elaborated thanks to the observations and statistics of ancient masters, who through centuries of studies, proved and refined this system. When referring to fictitious stars, we refer to the positioning of the stars on the chart in different sectors (the so-called palaces, equivalent to the house system in western astrology) which is not in accordance with their real positioning in the sky. Instead, we use a specific mathematical and numerological system that stemmed from I Ching and has achieved technical excellence. The stars are translated as signs and energy codes, that aside from the complex theories derived from I Ching, also rely on the teachings, wisdom and experience obtained from nature, human and lunar cycles, the sequence of the seasons as well as the meticulous observations of the great Taoist masters.

The two main constellations, North and South, correspond to the elements of water and fire, respectively. Water and fire are two primordial elements which determine the existence of life: cold and heat, Yin from the earth and Yang from the sky.