How to Verify a Bazi Chart
Verify a Bazi chart by auditing its source record, time conversion, boundaries, Four Pillars invariants and derived layers in a fixed order.
Overview
To verify a Bazi chart, begin with the birth record rather than the interpretation. Confirm the calendar, leap-month flag, local date and time, precision, birthplace and historical time zone. Reconstruct the normalized instant and any declared true-solar-time correction, then measure its position relative to Li Chun, the current Jie, the selected day boundary and the double-hour boundary. Check the Four Pillars with structural invariants: adjacent sexagenary dates advance once, the Month Stem agrees with the Year Stem and Month Branch, and the Hour Stem agrees with the Day Stem and Hour Branch. Only then review hidden stems, Ten Gods and interpretation. A biography cannot prove a calculation correct.
At a glance
- First evidence
- Original birth record and precision
- Time audit
- Historical zone, offset and corrections
- Boundary audit
- Li Chun, Jie, day and double hour
- Cycle audit
- Canonical 60-pair order and tested anchor
- Dependency audit
- Year→month stem and day→hour stem
- Interpretive limit
- Life events do not validate arithmetic
Audit the source record and its precision
Read the original document or best available family record. Record whether the date is Gregorian or lunisolar, whether the lunar month is leap, the birthplace, clock time, precision and any conflict between sources.
Reject impossible dates and keep uncertainty as a range. A verification that begins from already-converted pillars only proves that two displays agree, not that either interpreted the record correctly.
- Preserve provenance for every input.
- Do not silently repair an inconvenient date.
Reconstruct the effective instant and boundary distances
Use the historical IANA zone and actual offset for the birthplace, resolve daylight-saving gaps or overlaps, and apply true solar time only under a declared option. Save both civil and effective Bazi timestamps.
Calculate the exact distance to Li Chun, the surrounding Jie, the selected day change and the hour-branch transition. If the supported uncertainty crosses one, verify each resulting candidate.
- Never substitute the current UTC offset.
- Show which boundary can change which pillar.
Check the Four Pillars with independent invariants
Confirm that the Year Pillar changes once at Li Chun and the Month Pillar only at Jie boundaries. Verify the Day Pillar against a trusted anchor and ensure the previous and next effective days move one step in the sixty-cycle.
Then confirm Five Tigers for the Month Stem and Five Rats for the Hour Stem. An impossible stem-branch parity or a broken dependency reveals an implementation error even when the labels look familiar.
- Use multiple distant anchors where possible.
- Test relationships, not only isolated examples.
Compare another implementation under identical assumptions
An independent calculator or authoritative table is useful only after both systems share the same calendar, time zone, solar-time option and boundary conventions. Compare the earliest intermediate state rather than only the final prose.
Once the pillars match, separately review hidden stems, Ten Gods, strength and school-specific interpretation. Save the engine and data versions; near a genuine unresolved boundary, retain candidates instead of claiming certainty.
- Distinguish arithmetic from school interpretation.
- Do not use personality fit as a checksum.
Sources and editorial basis
- Hong Kong Observatory: Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches香港天文台提供十干、十二支、六十甲子及時辰的標準次序，可核對陰陽配對、相鄰日循環與時干推導An official modern reference for the canonical stem and branch orders, the sexagenary cycle, and calendrical use.
- Hong Kong Observatory: The 24 Solar Terms香港天文台的立春與逐節交接資料提供年柱、月柱邊界的外部時間基準，核驗時應比較瞬間及邊界距離An official astronomical explanation of the 24 solar terms, their 15-degree divisions along the ecliptic, and the alternating major and minor terms.
- OpenFate Editorial MethodologyOpenFate 以跨閏日、跨年、節入、立春、五虎遁、五鼠遁和公開引擎一致性不變式驗證四柱，不以人生事件反推算式OpenFate separates deterministic chart calculation, traditional interpretation, and modern editorial explanation.