Kua Number: How to Calculate Yours and Use the Directions
Your kua number sets four directions that support you and four that work against you. The formula, both tables, and the February rule most guides skip.
Put the same birthday into three kua number calculators and you can walk away with three different answers. The arithmetic behind them is four lines long. The disagreements come from two rules that most of those pages never mention: where the year starts, and what to do when the sum lands on 5.
Your kua number (命卦, mìngguà) places you in one of two groups and hands you four directions that support you and four that fight you. It uses your birth year and your gender. Nothing else.
This guide covers the formula for both centuries, the boundary date that catches everyone born in January and the first days of February, the full tables for all eight numbers, and the way practitioners actually apply them.
The grid behind the number
Kua numbers belong to Eight Mansions (八宅, bāzhái), the compass branch of feng shui. Where the bagua map assigns life areas to fixed sectors of a floor plan, Eight Mansions assigns directions to a person.
Everything starts from the Luoshu (洛書, luòshū), the square that Chinese cosmology uses to arrange the trigrams:
| 4 Xun (SE) | 9 Li (S) | 2 Kun (SW) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Zhen (E) | 5 | 7 Dui (W) |
| 8 Gen (NE) | 1 Kan (N) | 6 Qian (NW) |
The top row is south, the way a luopan compass is drawn rather than the way a road atlas is drawn. Nine cells, eight directions, and a centre that belongs to nobody.
Your kua number is your cell. From there, the other seven cells take fixed names describing how each one relates to you.
Those relationships were worked out once and written down as a mnemonic, the Da You Nian Ge (大游年歌, “Song of the Wandering Years”). One line covers each of the eight trigrams:
乾六天五祸绝延生
That is the line for Qian, the northwest cell. Read clockwise from Qian: the next cell is Liu Sha, then Tian Yi, Wu Gui, Huo Hai, Jue Ming, Yan Nian, and Sheng Qi, which brings you back around. Seven names for seven cells, with your own cell as the anchor. Every other line works the same way, which is why the whole table can be carried in a poem instead of memorised.
Of the eight names, four are wanted and four are not.
Calculating your number
Two steps, plus a boundary rule that catches a surprising number of people.
Step one. Take the last two digits of your birth year and add them. If the answer has two digits, add those too. Repeat until one digit remains. Born in 1987: 8 + 7 = 15, then 1 + 5 = 6. That 6 goes into step two.
Step two. Apply the formula for your gender and your century.
| Born | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 to 1999 | 10 minus the digit | the digit plus 5 |
| 2000 onward | 9 minus the digit | the digit plus 6 |
If the result is above 9, reduce it again. If a man’s subtraction lands on 0, his kua is 9. The split by gender is a convention of the system rather than a claim about anything else, and every table below assumes you applied the right formula for yours.
Five worked examples:
| Person | Step one | Step two | Kua | Gua |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man, 1987 | 8 + 7 = 15, 1 + 5 = 6 | 10 - 6 = 4 | 4 | Xun |
| Woman, 1987 | 6 | 6 + 5 = 11, 1 + 1 = 2 | 2 | Kun |
| Man, 1975 | 7 + 5 = 12, 1 + 2 = 3 | 10 - 3 = 7 | 7 | Dui |
| Woman, 2003 | 0 + 3 = 3 | 3 + 6 = 9 | 9 | Li |
| Man, 2000 | 0 + 0 = 0 | 9 - 0 = 9 | 9 | Li |
The date that changes the answer
The calculation does not use the year you would write on a form. It uses the solar year, and the solar year begins at Li Chun (立春, “start of spring”), which falls on 3, 4 or 5 February.
Born on or after Li Chun, use your birth year as written. Born between 1 January and the day before Li Chun, use the year before.
| Birth date | Year to use |
|---|---|
| 1990-01-30 | 1989 |
| 1990-02-02 | 1989 |
| 1990-02-05 | 1990 |
| 2000-02-03 | 1999 |
That last row is worth pausing on. A man born on 3 February 2000 calculates with 1999 and lands on kua 1. Calculated with 2000, he lands on kua 9. Two answers, eight directions apart, from one day of the calendar.
Chinese New Year is a different boundary and the wrong one for this purpose. It moves between 21 January and 20 February, and it follows the lunar calendar, so it drifts against Li Chun from year to year. In 2027 it falls on 6 February, two days after Li Chun. A calculator built on Chinese New Year would misfile everyone born in that gap. The same solar boundary governs the Chinese zodiac sign, for the same reason.
When the answer is 5
The number 5 sits in the centre of the Luoshu square and points nowhere. The system resolves this by reassigning it: men take 2 (Kun), women take 8 (Gen). You then use the west group table like everyone else holding that number.
It comes up often enough that it is worth knowing before you decide a calculator is broken.
East group, west group
The eight numbers split into two halves, and the split decides which four directions can help you.
East group: 1 (Kan), 3 (Zhen), 4 (Xun), 9 (Li). North, east, south and southeast are theirs.
West group: 2 (Kun), 6 (Qian), 7 (Dui), 8 (Gen). Their four directions are west, northwest, southwest and northeast.
Those are the directions the trigrams themselves occupy. An east group number finds its allies where the east group trigrams sit, which is the whole logic of the system in one line.
The four directions that help
| Kua | Group | Sheng Qi | Tian Yi | Yan Nian | Fu Wei |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Kan | East | SE | E | S | N |
| 3 Zhen | East | S | N | SE | E |
| 4 Xun | East | N | S | E | SE |
| 9 Li | East | E | SE | N | S |
| 2 Kun | West | NE | W | NW | SW |
| 6 Qian | West | W | NE | SW | NW |
| 7 Dui | West | NW | SW | NE | W |
| 8 Gen | West | SW | NW | W | NE |
Sheng Qi (生氣, generating qi) is the strongest of the four and the one people ask about first. It is tied to income, opportunity and forward motion. Sleeping with the top of your head toward Sheng Qi is the standard prescription for a run of money trouble.
Tian Yi (天醫, heavenly doctor) governs health and recovery. Practitioners point it at long-running illness and at anyone sleeping badly. It also carries helpful people, the doctor or friend who turns up when things are bad.
Yan Nian (延年, extending years) covers relationships: marriage, family harmony, longevity. For couples it is the first one to check, particularly when two people hold different numbers and need a direction that works for both.
Fu Wei (伏位, settled position) is your own direction, the cell you started from. It is calm rather than active, and it suits study, rest and steady work better than a push for gain.
The four to avoid
| Kua | Jue Ming | Wu Gui | Liu Sha | Huo Hai |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SW | NE | NW | W |
| 3 | W | NW | NE | SW |
| 4 | NE | SW | W | NW |
| 9 | NW | W | SW | NE |
| 2 | N | SE | S | E |
| 6 | S | E | N | SE |
| 7 | E | S | SE | N |
| 8 | SE | N | E | S |
Jue Ming (絕命, cut off life) is the worst of the four. Traditional texts tie it to serious illness, accidents and heavy loss. Whatever else you take from this system, the head of the bed does not point at Jue Ming.
Wu Gui (五鬼, five ghosts) covers confusion, gossip, arguments and fire. It gets the blame when a household cannot agree on anything.
Liu Sha (六煞, six killings) is the relationship-trouble direction: affairs, jealousy, entanglements, the kind of emotional mess that takes months to unpick.
Huo Hai (禍害, harm) is the mildest of the four. Small setbacks, difficult people, money that leaks rather than disappears, arguments that go nowhere.
Putting the directions to work
Four places matter most, roughly in the order practitioners care about them.
The bed. The head of the bed points toward a supporting direction. Most practitioners read the direction the top of your head points while you sleep rather than the direction your eyes face, though you will find teachers who read it the other way. If you share a bed with someone whose numbers differ from yours, the bedroom guide covers the compromises.
The desk. Your chair faces a supporting direction, with Sheng Qi or Fu Wei the usual picks for work. Facing Tian Yi while working is less common, since its business is recovery rather than output.
The stove. Classical texts treat the stove as the household’s source of nourishment and read the direction it faces. In a rented kitchen you rarely control this, so practitioners fall back on the burner you use most and the direction you stand while cooking.
The front door. This is the house’s mouth, and the front door guide covers how much weight to give it. In Eight Mansions the door belongs to the building, not to you, which is why a door facing one of your bad directions is not treated as a crisis.
Your number and your home’s number
A building has its own kua, read from the direction it faces, and it can sit in the opposite group from you. An east group person in a west group house is common enough that the classical texts deal with it directly, and the answer is not to move.
The building’s walls and door are fixed. The furniture is not. Practitioners work the problem in this order:
- Move what moves. The bed, the desk and the dining chair all carry a direction you can change today.
- Use the rooms that fall in your good sectors for sleeping and working, and push storage, laundry and utility into the rooms that do not.
- Accept the rest. A front door facing Huo Hai is a small tax, not a verdict.
Renting is not a barrier. Tenants cannot change a door either, and the two things that matter most, the head of your bed and the direction you face at work, travel with you from flat to flat.
What the system does not claim
Three things get attached to kua numbers that do not belong there.
Your number does not change. It comes from your birth year and your gender. Moving house, changing your name and getting married all leave it alone. Some practitioners calculate a separate number for the year, which is a different calculation for a different purpose.
It is not your zodiac sign or your star sign. The Chinese zodiac sorts people by birth year into twelve animals. Kua numbers sort people into eight trigrams by birth year and gender, and the two systems can disagree about which direction suits you.
There is no family direction. Every person in a household has their own number, and a family of four can easily hold four different sets of good directions. Advice to point the whole household’s beds the same way has no basis in Eight Mansions, since the system has no way to produce a single answer for a group.
FAQ
What is my kua number if the calculation gives 5?
Men use 2 (Kun) and women use 8 (Gen). The number 5 sits in the centre of the Luoshu square and has no direction of its own, so the system reassigns it. Once reassigned, you use the west group table for your new number.
I was born in January. Which year do I use?
The year before your birth year, if you were born before Li Chun, which falls on 3, 4 or 5 February. Someone born on 30 January 1990 calculates with 1989. Born on or after Li Chun, use the year as written.
Does my kua number change over time?
No. It comes from your birth year and your gender, and neither one changes. Some practitioners calculate a separate yearly number for other purposes, but your kua number stays fixed for life.
Can I use a bad direction if I have no choice?
Yes, and most people do. A rented flat rarely lets you control which way the front door faces. Move what you can instead: the head of the bed, the position of your desk, the direction you face while you work.
Do I still need a kua number if I follow the bagua map?
They answer different questions. The bagua map tells you what each part of a floor plan governs. Your kua number tells you which directions suit you personally. Many practitioners use both at once.
Kua numbers are one of the few parts of feng shui with a checkable answer. You put in a date and a gender, you get a number, and the tables follow from it. The two places it goes wrong are the February boundary and the 5, and you now know both.
The question of whether the directions do anything is a separate one, and this article will not settle it. What the system does offer is a way to make choices you would otherwise make at random: which side of the bed to take, which way to face a desk. If you are going to pick a direction anyway, you may as well have a reason.
For the layout side of the same tradition, the bagua map guide explains what each sector of a floor plan governs, and the beginners guide covers the concepts underneath both systems. If you want your whole home walked through against the eight areas, the feng shui home audit does it room by room.