---
type: Palm Sutra Concept
title: "大限起法 (Decade-luck start)"
description: "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."
resource: https://localpapa.com/tools/yizhang.html
category: "Damo Yi Zhang Jing · Schools"
tags: [yizhang, palm-sutra, school, convention, daxian, decade-luck]
timestamp: 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z
---

# 大限起法 (Decade-luck start)

- **中文 / Chinese:** 大限起法

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.

## Conventions 各派做法

- **From the Year pillar, forward (default) (自年柱順行（預設）) — default** — 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.

The [reading tool](https://localpapa.com/tools/yizhang.html) lets you pick the convention; the first option is the common default. Different choices can shift the pillars for births at late Zi or in a leap month.

---
*[All schools & conventions](./index.md) · [The four pillars](../pillars/index.md) · [Palm Sutra knowledge base](../index.md)*