BAZI KNOWLEDGE BASE
Heavenly Virtue Combination: eight stem targets and month variants
Heavenly Virtue Combination (Tian De He, 天德合) looks for the combining partner of a month’s Heavenly Virtue. The word combination describes its derivation; it does not establish transformation in a chart. The key version difference concerns Mao, Wu, You and Zi months.
Choose the actual table before looking for a match
Volume 5 of Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu gives eight combining stem targets. Its cardinal months use trigrams and have no corresponding day-stem (the upper symbol in the birth-day column) combination. None below means no target under that rule, not an unfavorable finding.
A branch-derived convention substitutes Shen, Hai, Yin and Si, then uses their Six Harmony partners Si, Yin, Hai and Shen. That is a different derivation, not four missing entries to add silently to the eight-stem source.
| Month | Volume 5 stem target | Branch-derived convention |
|---|---|---|
| Yin | Ren | Ren |
| Mao | None | Si |
| Chen | Ding | Ding |
| Si | Bing | Bing |
| Wu 午 | None | Yin |
| Wei | Ji | Ji |
| Shen | Wu 戊 | Wu 戊 |
| You | None | Hai |
| Xu | Xin | Xin |
| Hai | Geng | Geng |
| Zi | None | Shen |
| Chou | Yi | Yi |
Must Heavenly Virtue also be present?
In a Yin month, Heavenly Virtue is Ding and its combination target is Ren. If Ren is visible but Ding is absent, the combination target can be present alone. Finding Ding in the chart is not a prerequisite for looking up Ren.
For a Mao month with Si present, the branch-derived rule can record a match; the volume 5 stem rule has no target. These answers differ because the conventions differ, not necessarily because a chart was calculated incorrectly.
What does a combination label actually tell you?
Finding Ren as this marker does not create an absent Ding. If both stems occur, their positions, season and other stems still matter before interpreting a Ding–Ren combination.
The traditional imagery concerns accommodation and room to adjust. It explains terminology rather than predicting a negotiation or relationship outcome. Clarify does not calculate Tian De He; cardinal-month conventions are especially useful to compare when reading other reports.