Kua Number Calculator: Find Your Personal Feng Shui Element

Your Kua number (卦命) is the single most personal data point in classical Feng Shui. It’s a number from 1 to 9 (with 5 reassigned) derived from your birth year and gender. It tells you which four directions support your life, which four drain it, what element you naturally align with, and even which other people you’re likely to be compatible with at home and at work. This guide walks through how to calculate it by hand, why most online calculators get it wrong for one specific edge case, and what to actually do with the answer.

What is a Kua number?

The Kua number maps you onto one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching — eight fundamental patterns of energy that classical Chinese cosmology says everything in the universe can be reduced to. Each trigram has:

• A name (Kan, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Qian, Dui, Gen, Li)
• A direction it lives in
• A natural element (Water, Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire)
• A set of personality, life-area, and body associations

The Kua number is essentially a shorthand that says: “This person is energetically structured like the Kan trigram” (or Kun, or Zhen, etc.). Once you know that, all the directions and elements fall out of it automatically.

How to calculate your Kua number by hand

The formula differs by gender. Use the year of your Chinese birth year, not necessarily your Gregorian one — if you were born before Chinese New Year (which falls between Jan 21 and Feb 21), you technically belong to the previous Chinese year. Most online calculators ignore this and produce wrong results for about 8% of users.

For males (born 2000 or later — Period 9)

1. Take the last two digits of your Chinese birth year.
2. Sum them. If the result is two digits, sum again until you get a single digit.
3. Subtract from 9. If the result is 0, treat it as 9.

Example: Male born 2002. Last two digits = 02. Sum = 0+2 = 2. 9 – 2 = 7. Kua number = 7.

For males (born before 2000 — Period 8 and earlier)

Same formula but subtract from 10 instead of 9. Male born 1985: 8+5 = 13 → 1+3 = 4. 10 – 4 = 6. Kua = 6.

For females (born 2000 or later)

Sum the last two digits to a single digit, then add 6. If two digits, sum again.

Example: Female born 2003. 0+3 = 3. 3 + 6 = 9. Kua = 9.

For females (born before 2000)

Same, but add 5 instead of 6. Female born 1990: 9+0 = 9. 9 + 5 = 14 → 1+4 = 5. Reassigned to 8 (see below).

The “no Kua 5” rule

The number 5 is the center palace in the 9-palace grid — it has no direction. So Kua 5 doesn’t exist for direction purposes:

• Male Kua 5 becomes Kua 2.
• Female Kua 5 becomes Kua 8.

This is the second edge case most online calculators flub.

Easier: just use the calculator

You don’t have to do any of the above. Our free Eight Mansions Calculator handles all three edge cases — Chinese New Year boundary, Period 8 vs Period 9 formula, and the Kua-5 reassignment — in one shot. Enter birth year, gender, and (optionally) exact birth date, and it gives you your Kua plus all eight directions ranked.

East Group vs West Group

The nine Kuas split cleanly into two groups:

Group	Kuas	Lucky directions	Element
East Group	1, 3, 4, 9	N, S, E, SE	Water, Wood, Fire
West Group	2, 6, 7, 8	W, NW, SW, NE	Earth, Metal

The two groups don’t mix at the direction level — every direction that’s lucky for East Group is unlucky for West Group, and vice versa. This is the most useful single fact in Feng Shui: once you know your group, half the universe is filtered for you.

What each Kua means

Kua	Trigram	Element	Personality keywords
1	Kan 坎 (Water)	Water	Deep, adaptable, introspective, career-driven.
2	Kun 坤 (Earth)	Earth	Nurturing, supportive, patient, mother energy.
3	Zhen 震 (Thunder)	Yang Wood	Energetic, bold, pioneering, eldest-son energy.
4	Xun 巽 (Wind)	Yin Wood	Gentle, persuasive, networker, scholar.
6	Qian 乾 (Heaven)	Yang Metal	Authoritative, decisive, leadership, father energy.
7	Dui 兑 (Lake)	Yin Metal	Joyful, expressive, social, youngest-daughter energy.
8	Gen 艮 (Mountain)	Yang Earth	Steady, principled, accumulator, youngest-son energy.
9	Li 离 (Fire)	Fire	Charismatic, visible, fame-oriented, middle-daughter energy.

(Kua 5 reassigned as above.)

What to actually do with your Kua

Knowing your Kua is only useful if you use it. Three highest-leverage applications:

1. Sleep with your head toward your Sheng Qi direction

Your Sheng Qi (生气) — your single best direction — varies by Kua. Sleeping with your head pointed that way means the qi enters through your crown for ~7 hours every night. Cumulatively this is the single largest Feng Shui intervention you can make.

Kua	Sheng Qi direction
1	SE — Southeast
2	NE — Northeast
3	S — South
4	N — North
6	W — West
7	NW — Northwest
8	SW — Southwest
9	E — East

2. Face your Sheng Qi direction at your desk

Sit at your desk so that when you look at your monitor, you’re facing your Sheng Qi direction. If you can’t fully reorient the desk, even rotating your chair so your face points the right way during meetings can help.

3. Sanity-check your front door

If your front door faces any of your four lucky directions, you’re in great shape. If it faces one of your four unlucky directions (especially Jue Ming, the worst one), use element remedies — see our front door guide.

Kua + compatibility

Two people from the same group (both East or both West) generally find their living spaces easier to harmonize — same lucky directions, same favored colors, same furniture orientations. Two people from opposite groups need negotiation: every direction that’s good for one is bad for the other.

This isn’t fatal — opposite-group couples make it work all the time — but the Family Layout tool can help by suggesting which bedroom goes to whom, which direction the bed should face, and whether the household’s center of gravity should lean East or West. Try our Couple Compatibility tool for a two-person breakdown, or Family Layout for the whole household.

Kua vs Bazi: which matters more?

This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is: they’re complementary, not competing.

• Kua tells you about directions and the energetic structure of your relationship with space.
• Bazi tells you about elements, timing, and the energetic structure of your relationship with time (life phases, ages, years).

A professional consultation uses both. For a quick home layout, Kua alone is enough. For “what color should my front door be” or “what materials should I use in my office,” you want Bazi too — try the Bazi × Feng Shui tool for that layer.

Frequently asked questions

What’s my Kua number?

Use our free Eight Mansions Calculator — just enter your birth year, gender, and ideally your full birth date. It handles the Chinese New Year boundary case (which trips up most online calculators) and tells you your Kua plus all four lucky and four unlucky directions, ranked.

Why is there no Kua 5?

The number 5 corresponds to the center palace of the 9-palace grid, which has no direction. So when the formula produces 5, it gets reassigned: male Kua 5 becomes 2 (Earth), female Kua 5 becomes 8 (Earth). Both 2 and 8 are Earth-element West Group Kuas, which makes structural sense — the center of the grid is also Earth.

Does my Kua number change?

No. Your Kua is fixed by your birth year and gender — it doesn’t change with age, location, or life events. (Your annual luck in directions does shift each year as the visiting flying stars rotate, but your underlying Kua stays constant.)

Are male and female Kua formulas different?

Yes — and this is intentional. The yin/yang polarity of biological sex maps to different trigram assignments. The formula difference also means that a male and female born in the same year almost always have different Kuas. (For example, a male born in 1990 is Kua 7, while a female born in 1990 is Kua 8.)

What if I was born in early January or February?

You may belong to the previous Chinese year. The Chinese New Year falls between Jan 21 and Feb 21, depending on the lunar calendar. If you were born before Chinese New Year in your birth year, your Kua is calculated from the previous Gregorian year. Our calculator handles this automatically.

Can I have a different Kua at different ages?

No. Kua is a structural property of your birth year, not your current age. What does change with age is the luck pillar in your Bazi (10-year periods that activate different elements), but that’s a different system. Your Kua stays the same from birth to death.

What’s the relationship between Kua and the I Ching trigrams?

Each Kua maps directly to one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching — Kua 1 is Kan (Water), Kua 2 is Kun (Earth), and so on. This is what gives the Kua its symbolic depth: the personality and life-area associations come from millennia of I Ching commentary on those eight trigrams.

Next step

Calculate yours with the free Eight Mansions Calculator. Once you know your Kua and your four lucky directions, layer it with our Flying Stars chart of your home (which tells you the house’s directions) and the Bazi × Feng Shui tool (which adds your elemental preferences). The intersection of all three is where serious Feng Shui starts.