---
type: Astrology Concept
title: "Decade Luck (大限)"
description: "The ten-year decades of a Zi Wei chart: where they start, which way they run, and how the decade transformations are derived."
resource: https://localpapa.com/tools/ziwei.html
category: "Zi Wei Dou Shu · Decades"
tags: [ziwei, zi-wei-dou-shu, daxian, decade-luck, time]
timestamp: 2026-06-21T00:00:00Z
---

# Decade Luck · 大限（十年運）

Decades start from the Life palace, ten years each, and **the starting age equals the Five-Element Bureau number** (Water-2 starts at 2, Fire-6 at 6). 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. Read that decade’s palace as the Life palace of those ten years: its stars set the tone, and the palace stem yields the decade transformations that say where the energy goes and where it snags. Ages are counted East Asian style (age 1 at birth).

## How the decades run

1. The first decade sits on the **Life palace**; each palace covers ten years.
2. The **starting age equals the Five-Element Bureau number** — Water-2 starts at 2, Fire-6 at 6.
3. Direction: **yang-year men and yin-year women move forward**, the other two backward.
4. Read that palace as the Life palace of those ten years, then take its **palace stem** to derive the decade’s four transformations.

## The three layers of transformation 四化的三層

- **natal** — Natal transformations come from the **birth year’s stem** — the lifelong ground tone, showing where this chart naturally invests and where it snags.
- **decade** — Decade transformations come from the **stem of that decade’s palace** — the direction of those ten years, temporarily overlaying the natal ground.
- **annual** — Annual transformations come from the **year’s stem** — that year only; the shallowest layer and the one most readily felt.

Mixing the three layers is the commonest way to misread a chart: a natal 忌 is a lifelong tendency, a decade 忌 colours ten years, an annual 忌 is one year. They are not the same weight.

See also [annual fortune](./annual.md) and [the four transformations](./transformations/index.md).

Step through the decades for a birth date at <https://localpapa.com/tools/ziwei.html>.

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*[Annual fortune](./annual.md) · [The twelve palaces](./palaces/index.md) · [Zi Wei knowledge base](./index.md)*