Dear Cal101
I supposed the details you provide are based on the solar calendar?
I would prefer to term it as Ziping Bazi. The word Bazi simply refers to lunar Date/Time of Birth of a person. The key differences are in terms of applications, accuracy, speed of getting the results and identifying events.
Ziping Bazi is just like the police at the crime scenes, fast in depicting whether the cause is natural or unnatural death. In this case, depicting occurrences or events in a year, for example, good wealth or fame for a particular year(s). ZWDS (Zi Wei Dou Shu), on the other hand, is slightly slower (due to the number of stars up to about 121 stars), however, like a pathologist, ZWDS is able to identify details leading to event and then finding possible solutions.
Both Ziping Bazi and ZWDS are 2 different but ultra powerful instruments.
Ziping Bazi is easy and fast to learn (compared to ZWDS stars, Ziping Bazi has got lesser stars), however, it can be hard to master. Different masters have got different ways of viewing the stars to identify events.
ZWDS is challenging and can be quite time-consuming to learn (stars are up to 121 stars, with different tiers of charts - Natal/Decade/Yearly/Monthly/Daily/Hourly charts), however, easy to master. ZWDS may have different school of thoughts (for example, Zhongzhou School, Sihua School, etc.) but depicting the outcome is quite fixed in each school thus easy to master.
Depending on individual expectations and requirements, in general,
- Ziping Bazi can depict "Oh, this year, you will divorce...",
- ZWDS can depict "Oh this year, you will divorce... Due to financial issues and your extra marital affair...".
If you do notice in bookstores, you can find shelves of Ziping Bazi books, sometimes known as Four Pillars (Si Zhu Ba Zi). Whereas for ZWDS, there is probably half to one shelf.
Hope the above gives you a general idea on the key differences.
Regards
Shaun
