Kua number calculator 命卦
Your Kua number — also called your Ming Gua, "life trigram" — is the compass-school answer to a simple question: which directions suit you? In the Eight Mansions system （八宅）, your birth year and gender give you one of eight Kua numbers, and that number assigns each of the eight compass directions a quality: four that support you, and four that work against you. Calculate yours below, then read what to do with it.
Calculate your Kua number
Solar (Gregorian) birth year and gender, as in classical practice.
YOUR FOUR AUSPICIOUS DIRECTIONS 吉方
YOUR FOUR INAUSPICIOUS DIRECTIONS 凶方
Calculated in your browser with the same formula as the homepage calculator — nothing is sent to a server.
How the calculation works
The formula is short enough to check by hand. Add the digits of your birth year together until a single digit remains — for 1990: 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, then 1 + 9 = 10, then 1 + 0 = 1. For a man born before 2000, subtract that digit from 10: 10 − 1 = 9, so a man born in 1990 is Kua 9. For a woman born before 2000, add 5 instead: 1 + 5 = 6, so a woman born in 1990 is Kua 6. From 2000 onward the constants shift by one — men subtract from 9, women add 6 — because the cycle turned with the century. Two adjustments complete the rule: there is no Kua 5 in the eight-direction system, so a result of 5 is read as 2 for men and 8 for women; and a result of 0 is read as 9.
One calendar caution, stated plainly: the traditional year boundary is Li Chun 立春 (on or about 4 February), not 1 January. If you were born in January or the first days of February, classical practice counts you under the previous year — enter that year above. The calculator itself applies the standard formula to the year you give it, exactly as the homepage tool does.
Each Kua also carries a trigram and an element. Kua 1 is Kan 坎 (Water), 2 is Kun 坤 (Earth), 3 is Zhen 震 (Wood), 4 is Xun 巽 (Wood), 6 is Qian 乾 (Metal), 7 is Dui 兑 (Metal), 8 is Gen 艮 (Earth) and 9 is Li 离 (Fire). The numbers split into two families: Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9 form the East Group 东四命, whose good directions are north, south, east and southeast; Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8 form the West Group 西四命, favoured in the west, southwest, northwest and northeast. Traditional house-matching reads a home the same way — an "East Group house" for an East Group person is the classical ideal.
The eight directions, and how to use them
The four that support you
Sheng Qi 生气 — vitality. Your strongest direction, linked to wealth, opportunity and momentum. Face it while working where you can; if you choose one direction to favour, it is this one.
Tian Yi 天医 — the heavenly doctor. The health direction. Tradition places the bed's headboard, or a convalescent's room, toward Tian Yi, and keeps this sector of the home clean and calm.
Yan Nian 延年 — longevity. The relationship direction: harmony, partnership and durable bonds. Couples traditionally share a Yan Nian orientation; it is also the direction for work built on long-term trust.
Fu Wei 伏位 — stability. Your own Kua's home direction: quiet, grounding, good for study, meditation and sleep. The least dramatic of the four, and the easiest to live with every day.
The four that work against you
Jue Ming 绝命 — total loss. The harshest of the four in the classical texts. Tradition avoids it for the front door's facing, the head of the bed, and the direction you sit facing for long hours.
Wu Gui 五鬼 — five ghosts. Linked to friction, gossip and things that unravel. Not a direction for your desk, your bed, or a door you use all day if you have the choice.
Liu Sha 六煞 — six killings. Associated in the texts with setbacks in relationships and work. Classical practice steers important seating and sleeping orientations away from it.
Huo Hai 祸害 — mishaps. The mildest of the four: small accidents, annoyances, leaks of time and money. Worth avoiding for the big placements; not worth fearing.
Using the result does not require rebuilding your home. Practitioners work with what can move: the direction your desk chair faces, which way the head of your bed points, the seat you choose at a table, the door you habitually use. Small, consistent choices are the classical idea — your Kua is a compass for attention, applied where life actually lets you choose. For room-by-room placement worked out against your floor plan, see the Home Feng Shui Audit; for the bedroom in particular, our bedroom guide shows how sleeping direction is picked from this table.
Your Kua is one line of a longer chart
The Kua number comes from your birth year alone. Your BaZi chart uses the full moment — year, month, day and hour — and it is read together with your Kua in a complete consultation: the report's direction and colour guidance is built on the same numbers you just calculated. Start with the free chart preview on the homepage, or order the full reading.
Get my Destiny Report — $39 Free chart preview
Kua and the Eight Mansions are presented as traditional cultural interpretation, for reflection and entertainment — a system for arranging your space thoughtfully, not a guarantee about outcomes.