Zi Wei Dou Shu on the Service Period and Training Fees

A service period is not an indenture; the penalty is limited to training costs and prorated by remaining years.

What This Question Is Really Asking

Some are bound by a service period even for ordinary onboarding training and face large penalties when leaving, not knowing the legal cap.

The Underlying Logic

The service period corresponds to the Career and Wealth Palaces, marking employer investment in training and required years of service.

Only when specialized training costs are paid for professional-technical training can a service period and penalty be agreed.

The penalty cannot exceed the training fee or the portion prorated to unfulfilled years.

Ordinary onboarding and role adaptation cannot support a service period.

A Step-by-Step Way to Read It

1. Confirm whether this is specialized training and whether the employer paid dedicated costs
2. Check whether the service period and penalty are written
3. Confirm the penalty is limited to training costs and prorated by years
4. Keep the training agreement, cost records and contract
5. Read the Career and Wealth Palaces to judge departure costs
6. For disputes, follow the written agreement and the law

Three Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Treating ordinary training as specialized and being bound by a service period

Mistake 2: Not checking when the penalty exceeds the training fee

Mistake 3: Paying an arbitrary penalty when leaving

Back to Your Own Chart

The service period applies only to specialized training, and reading Career and Wealth reminds you to check the penalty basis. It is limited to training costs and prorated by years, and ordinary training cannot bind you, with specifics following the written agreement and the law.

Reading Order

1. Cast the natal chart first and locate the palaces and major stars tied to the service period and training fees before judging anything
2. Open the triple-direction of those palaces and count the auspicious, malefic and assistant stars separately
3. Check where the natal Four Transformations land to set the chart's baseline tone
4. Read the decade-limit transformations to see whether the the service period and training fees line is activated in this stage
5. Then read the annual transformations and the year's palace to pin down this year's trigger and timing
6. Layer natal, decade and year before concluding, then decide how to act rather than labeling good or bad