Kua Number Calculator

Your kua number (卦 guà, "trigram", often written gua number or life gua) is a single digit from 1 to 9, worked out from your birth year and your gender. In the classical Eight Mansions school of feng shui it is the key that unlocks your four auspicious and four inauspicious compass directions, which is why it is usually the first thing a practitioner asks for.

Enter your birth year and gender below and the calculator does the rest. If you would rather do the arithmetic yourself, the exact formula is underneath, along with the one edge case (January and early February birthdays) that trips up most online calculators.

What is a kua number?

A kua number is a single digit from 1 to 9 (5 excluded) assigned to you from your birth year and gender in the Eight Mansions (八宅 bāzhái, "eight houses") school of feng shui. It maps you to one of the eight trigrams of the bagua and sorts you into either the East group or the West group. Your group determines which four compass directions the classical rule treats as supportive for you and which four it says to avoid.

How to calculate your kua number

The classical rule runs on the solar year and splits by gender, with a different constant for births from 2000 onward. Here it is as steps you can do on paper:

1. Take the last two digits of your birth year and add them together. Keep adding until you have a single digit. Example: 1987 gives 8 + 7 = 15, then 1 + 5 = 6.
2. Men born 1999 or earlier: subtract that digit from 10. Example: 10 - 6 = 4, so a 1987 man is kua 4.
3. Women born 1999 or earlier: add 5 to the digit and reduce to a single digit. Example: 5 + 6 = 11, then 1 + 1 = 2, so a 1987 woman is kua 2.
4. Boys born 2000 or later: subtract the digit from 9. If you get 0, your kua is 9.
5. Girls born 2000 or later: add 6 to the digit and reduce to a single digit.
6. If any of these gives you 5, see the kua 5 rule below.

Born in January or early February?

The classical system counts years by the solar calendar, which starts at Li Chun (立春 lìchūn, "start of spring"), around February 4, not January 1. If you were born between January 1 and about February 3, the classical convention treats you as belonging to the previous year, so calculate with the year before your calendar birth year. Born February 3 to 5? The exact Li Chun moment shifts within that window from year to year, so it is worth checking the date for your specific birth year. This boundary is the single most common reason two calculators give the same person two different kua numbers. Honesty note: many popular calculators use January 1, and some use the Lunar New Year; the solar-year (Li Chun) boundary is the classical convention, and it is the one we use.

What if I get 5?

Five sits at the center of the lo shu grid and has no trigram of its own, so it is not used as a personal kua. The classical convention reassigns it: men who calculate to 5 use kua 2, and women who calculate to 5 use kua 8. Both land in the West group.

East group and West group

The eight kua numbers split into two groups. Each group shares the same four supportive compass directions.

Which of your four directions does what (and which four to avoid) is the next step: the auspicious directions chart lays out all eight directions for every kua.

The 8 kua profiles

These are the classical associations of each kua's trigram: an element, a natural image, and a temperament the tradition reads into it. Take them as the system's vocabulary, not as a verdict on who you are.

Kua 1

Trigram 坎 (kǎn, water), the East group. The image is deep water: the tradition associates kua 1 with depth, adaptability, and a preference for thinking things through before speaking. Your supportive directions are North, South, East, and Southeast.

Kua 2

Trigram 坤 (kūn, earth), the West group. The image is the receptive earth: steady, patient, nurturing, the person others lean on. Your supportive directions are West, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast.

Kua 3

Trigram 震 (zhèn, wood), the East group. The image is thunder: initiative, quick starts, a temperament that wants things moving. Your supportive directions are North, South, East, and Southeast.

Kua 4

Trigram 巽 (xùn, wood), the East group. The image is wind: gentle persistence, communication, influence that works by degrees rather than force. Your supportive directions are North, South, East, and Southeast.

Kua 6

Trigram 乾 (qián, metal), the West group. The image is heaven: structure, authority, a taste for order and finished work. Your supportive directions are West, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast.

Kua 7

Trigram 兌 (duì, metal), the West group. The image is the lake: sociability, speech, charm, the pleasure of good company. Your supportive directions are West, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast.

Kua 8

Trigram 艮 (gèn, earth), the West group. The image is the mountain: stillness, reliability, the long game. Your supportive directions are West, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast.

Kua 9

Trigram 離 (lí, fire), the East group. The image is fire and brightness: warmth, visibility, a pull toward recognition and expression. Your supportive directions are North, South, East, and Southeast.

Quick answers

Can my kua number change?

No. It is fixed by your birth year and gender, so it stays the same for life. What changes year to year are the annual influences studied in other schools, such as the flying stars covered in our eight mansions guide and its sister systems.

Why did another site give me a different kua number?

Three usual causes. First, the year boundary: classical calculators use the solar year starting at Li Chun (about February 4), while many sites use January 1, which shifts January and early-February birthdays. Second, the kua 5 rule: some sites display 5 instead of converting it to 2 or 8. Third, a few older calculators apply the pre-2000 formula to post-2000 births.

Is my kua number the same as my Chinese zodiac sign?

No. Both come from your birth year, but the zodiac animal cycles through twelve years while the kua cycles through nine, and the kua also depends on your gender. They belong to different systems and answer different questions.

My partner and I are in different groups. Is that a problem?

The tradition does not treat it as one. The practical classical convention is to favor the directions of whichever person a given spot serves most, for example each person's own side of the bed or desk, and to prioritize shared spaces by use. More on this in the applications section of the directions guide and the FAQ.

What does my kua number actually unlock?

Your personal map of the eight compass directions: four the classical rule treats as supportive (for sleeping, working, and facing) and four it says to avoid. That map, for all eight kuas, is here: your auspicious directions, the full chart.

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Sources and standard: formula and tables cross-checked 11 Jul 2026 against the classical 大遊年 (dàyóunián) trigram derivation and multiple independent references (LoveToKnow, WOFS, FengShuiNexus, Astroccult, YourChineseAstrology, ProKerala, The Qi Flow). Where published charts disagree, we state the classical convention and say so. This page describes a traditional system; it makes no promises about outcomes.