Tian De: Rooster as Rat, and its twin list

The two "Tian De" on a chart

People reading a chart sometimes ask: the twelve stars in front of the year include a "Tian De", and the minor stars include a "Tian De" too, so are they the same star? Start with position.

Open the full-size diagram

Four birth years compared: the two highlighted columns come from the year-front list and from the minor stars, taken from the site engine and checked across all sixty year pillars.

The two highlighted columns match on every row: the Tian De (天德) of the year-front list and the Tian De of the minor stars sit on the same branch. The reason lies in how each list is counted. The year-front list is a set of twelve stars the engine lays out from the year branch, in the order Sui Jian (岁建), Hui Qi (晦气), Sang Men (丧门), Guan Suo (贯索), Guan Fu (官符), Xiao Hao (小耗), Da Hao (大耗), Long De (龙德), White Tiger (白虎), Tian De, Diao Ke (吊客) and Bing Fu (病符), with Sui Jian on the cell of the year branch. Tian De is the tenth, which makes it nine places after the year branch. The minor star "starts from Rooster, counted as Rat", and Rooster is exactly nine places after Rat. Both lists apply the same shift; only the wording differs.

From Rooster, one step per branch

Juan 2 of the Quan Shu (紫微斗数全书) has Tian De begin on the Rooster cell, called Rat, and count on to the Grand Duke of the year; the engine reads that as the birth-year branch. A Rat year takes no steps, so Tian De sits at Rooster. A Dog year counts from Rat to Dog, the eleventh name, and the eleventh cell from Rooster is Goat.

Each of the twelve birth years is counted once, and each landing point is used once:

The third star in the same rule: Jie Shen

The book writes Jie Shen into the same rule as Tian De and Yue De:

Jie Shen begins on the Dog cell, called Rat, and is counted backward to the Grand Duke of the birth year.

Read literally, Jie Shen starts at Dog, runs backward, and ends at the birth-year branch, so like Tian De it depends on the year branch only. The site engine implements this sentence as a separate star, Nian Jie: counted backward from Dog as Rat to the birth-year branch, it lands where the book says. The star the chart labels Jie Shen is placed by birth month instead and moves only when the month changes. Of the three stars in one rule, Tian De agrees with the book, and the book's Jie Shen corresponds to the chart's Nian Jie.

The landing table for the book's star is in Nian Jie, and the month-based star is in Jie Shen.

One year, four charts

The branch holding Tian De is fixed by the birth year alone. Everyone born in 1988, a Wu Chen (戊辰) year, has Tian De at Ox; move the Life palace and the palace name follows. The table below uses four real charts for 1988:

Counting from the Life palace to Ox: when Life is at Tiger, Ox is the branch just before it, and that is where the Siblings palace sits; when Life is at Horse, Ox lies five branches before Life, and that cell is the Health palace. The other two charts follow the same count.

Between Lunar New Year and Start of Spring

How the year is changed can move Tian De directly. Take 10 February 1985, after the Start of Spring and before Lunar New Year.

Someone born that day gets a one-cell difference depending on the boundary. This site changes the year at Lunar New Year; when comparing with a chart that changes it at the Start of Spring, check the year pillar first.

Before recording a Tian De, ask three things

1. 1

   Which year boundary supplies the branch

   This site changes the year at Lunar New Year; when comparing with a chart that uses the Start of Spring, anyone born between the two lines needs a double check.

2. 2

   Count from Rooster

   The landing cell is where the count ends; the year-front Tian De sits in that same cell, so no second calculation is needed.

3. 3

   Let the Life palace name it

   Only a branch comes out of the count. Its palace name comes from the Life palace of this chart, and the note says whether the record is the year-front or the minor-star Tian De.

BaZi has a "Heavenly Virtue noble" too, but it is looked up from the month branch; see the Heavenly Virtue noble article. The minor star paired with this one is Yue De, and the whole family of minor stars is in supporting, malefic and minor stars.