--- type: Palm Sutra Concept title: "Decade Luck (大限)" description: "The ten-year decades of a Palm Sutra reading, and where schools disagree on starting them." resource: https://localpapa.com/tools/yizhang.html category: "Damo Yi Zhang Jing · Decades" tags: [yizhang, palm-sutra, daxian, decade-luck, time] timestamp: 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z --- # Decade Luck · 大限（十年運） Classical Palm Sutra texts read the four pillars; decade luck (大限) is a later addition and schools do not agree on it — whether to start from the Year or the Hour pillar, and whether direction depends on sex. This tool states its method rather than assuming one. Both count by East Asian age: the first decade is ages 1–10, one palace per ten years. ## How the decades run 行運 1. Pick the starting palace by the chosen method (below). 2. Each palace covers **ten years**, counted by East Asian age — the first decade is ages 1–10, the second 11–20, and so on. 3. The palm star of each palace colours that decade; read it against the natal pillars the same way an [annual](./annual.md) is read. ## Where schools differ 起法 - **From the Year pillar, forward (default) (自年柱順行（預設）)** — Start on the Year-pillar palace and move forward, one palace per decade, the same for everyone. The Year pillar is the foundation, and the decades unfold from it. - **From the Hour pillar, yang-male / yin-female forward (自時柱起、陽男陰女順行)** — Start on the Hour-pillar palace; men born in a yang year and women born in a yin year move forward, the other two move backward — the same convention as Bazi and Zi Wei Dou Shu. Requires sex. > Decade luck is **not** part of the classical four-pillar reading; it is a later layer and the methods above are two common ones rather than a settled rule. The tool lets you switch between them and always says which is in use. Step through the decades for a birth date at . --- *[Annual fortune](./annual.md) · [Schools & conventions](./schools/index.md) · [Palm stars](./stars/index.md) · [Palm Sutra knowledge base](./index.md)*