Kua number calculator: your four directions, as feng shui's tradition gives them
In feng shui's Eight Mansions school, the tradition holds that your kua number (1 to 9, never 5) comes from your birth year, with one formula for men and one for women. Add the year's digits down to one digit (s): the male formula is 11 − s, the female 4 + s, each reduced to one digit. Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9 are the East group (favourable directions N, S, E, SE); 2, 6, 7 and 8 the West group (W, NW, SW, NE). The year starts at Li Chun, about 4 February.
Type your date of birth. The calculator gives your kua number on both of the tradition's formulas, your East or West group, and a compass of the eight directions, with the four the tradition calls favourable in amber. It checks January and early-February births against Li Chun for you.
Where the kua number comes from
Feng shui is a Chinese tradition of placing buildings, rooms and objects. It began with the siting of tombs and houses: Guo Pu's Book of Burial, from the Jin dynasty (266–420), describes its oldest branch. The kua number belongs to a later compass school called Eight Mansions (Ba Zhai). It ties each person to one of the eight trigrams of the I Ching, the classic book of changes, and each trigram to a direction.
So kua 1 is the trigram Kan, linked with water and the north; kua 9 is Li, fire and the south. Eight Mansions teachers use the number to choose a front door, a desk and a bed direction. It is one school among several. The Form School, which gives the bed its commanding position, uses the room and the door, not your birth year.
We report the tradition as its teachers write it. We do not claim it brings luck, wealth, love or anything else, and nobody has shown that it does.
The formula, step by step
- Find the year the tradition counts. It starts at Li Chun, on 3, 4 or 5 February. Born before it? Use the year before.
- Add the year's digits down to one digit. 1990: 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, then 1 + 9 = 10, then 1 + 0 = 1. Call it s.
- Male formula: 11 − s, then reduce to one digit. For 1990: 11 − 1 = 10, which reduces to 1.
- Female formula: 4 + s, then reduce to one digit. For 1990: 4 + 1 = 5.
- No kua 5. A 5 becomes 2 on the male formula and 8 on the female. So 1990 gives kua 1 (male) or 8 (female).
The version most guides print uses only the last two digits (n), and splits at 2000. Before 2000: male 10 − n, female n + 5. From 2000: male 9 − n (a 0 becomes 9), female n + 6. It gives the same numbers as the four-digit version above, which needs no split. We checked every year from 1900 to 2099.
Kua numbers by birth year
The number repeats every nine years. Find your year (counted from Li Chun) in the left column.
| Birth year (from Li Chun) | Male formula | Female formula |
|---|---|---|
| 1945, 1954, 1963, 1972, 1981, 1990, 1999, 2008, 2017, 2026 | 1 (East) | 8 (West) |
| 1946, 1955, 1964, 1973, 1982, 1991, 2000, 2009, 2018 | 9 (East) | 6 (West) |
| 1947, 1956, 1965, 1974, 1983, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2019 | 8 (West) | 7 (West) |
| 1948, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1984, 1993, 2002, 2011, 2020 | 7 (West) | 8 (West) |
| 1949, 1958, 1967, 1976, 1985, 1994, 2003, 2012, 2021 | 6 (West) | 9 (East) |
| 1950, 1959, 1968, 1977, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2013, 2022 | 2 (West) | 1 (East) |
| 1951, 1960, 1969, 1978, 1987, 1996, 2005, 2014, 2023 | 4 (East) | 2 (West) |
| 1952, 1961, 1970, 1979, 1988, 1997, 2006, 2015, 2024 | 3 (East) | 3 (East) |
| 1953, 1962, 1971, 1980, 1989, 1998, 2007, 2016, 2025 | 2 (West) | 4 (East) |
The eight directions for each kua number
Each kua number has four directions the tradition calls favourable and four it advises against. The favourable four are listed in the tradition's own order, first to fourth. We give the Chinese names of the other four without their dramatic English translations, which say more than the tradition means by them. Their order runs from mildest to strongest.
| Kua | Group | Sheng Qi | Tian Yi | Yan Nian | Fu Wei | Huo Hai | Wu Gui | Liu Sha | Jue Ming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East | SE | E | S | N | W | NE | NW | SW |
| 2 | West | NE | W | NW | SW | E | SE | S | N |
| 3 | East | S | N | SE | E | SW | NW | NE | W |
| 4 | East | N | S | E | SE | NW | SW | W | NE |
| 6 | West | W | NE | SW | NW | SE | E | N | S |
| 7 | West | NW | SW | NE | W | N | S | SE | E |
| 8 | West | SW | NW | W | NE | S | N | E | SE |
| 9 | East | E | SE | N | S | NE | W | SW | NW |
The first four columns are favourable, the last four unfavourable. Fu Wei is always the direction of your own trigram: north for kua 1, south for kua 9.
Why the calculator shows both formulas
The classical formula has two versions, one for each sex at birth. We do not ask your gender. The calculator works out both numbers and shows both, and you choose which compass to draw. If you follow a teacher, use the version they would use for you. The result is the same for some years: 1952, 1961, 1970 and the rest of that row give kua 3 on both.
Born in January or early February
The kua year does not start on 1 January. Most teachers start it at Li Chun, the first day of spring in the Chinese solar calendar, when the Sun reaches 315° along its yearly path. That falls on 3, 4 or 5 February. So anyone born in January counts as the year before, and so does anyone born in early February before Li Chun. For example, 18 January 1968 counts as 1967: kua 6 on the male formula, 9 on the female.
The calculator works out the moment of Li Chun for your birth year in your device's time zone. If you were born on the day itself, it asks for your time of birth. Our formula runs a few minutes early against published times, so a birth within 20 minutes of Li Chun is too close for it to call: check a Chinese almanac, the "Ten Thousand Year Calendar".
Lunar New Year or Li Chun? Lillian Too's school (WOFS) starts the year at Lunar New Year instead, which falls between 21 January and 20 February. For a birth between the two dates the schools give different years. When that could apply to you, the calculator gives the other answer too.
Reading the direction of your bed
In the Eight Mansions school, the tradition points the top of your head, lying in bed, towards one of your four favourable directions. Teachers differ on which of the four to use. Most of them put the room's layout first: the bed in the commanding position, where you can see the door without lying in line with it. If both cannot be had, they keep the commanding position and turn the bed only as far as the room allows.
Each direction covers a 45° slice of the compass, so a bed only needs to point within about 22° of a direction to count. That leaves room to choose. Our bedroom layout guide gives the clearances a bed needs on each wall.
How to take the reading
- Open the Compass app on your iPhone. In Settings, under Compass, turn on "Use True North".
- Stand at the foot of the bed (or with your back to the front door, or seated at the desk, facing the way the tradition asks about).
- Hold the phone flat, at waist height, away from radiators, steel bed frames and speakers. Metal and wiring can pull a magnetic reading off.
- Take the reading three times from slightly different spots. If they differ by more than 10°, move away from metal and try again.
- Round to the nearest of the eight directions: north is 337.5° to 22.5°, north-east 22.5° to 67.5°, and so on in 45° steps.
Common mistakes
- Using 1 January as the start of the year. January births count as the year before. So do births in early February before Li Chun.
- Using the pre-2000 formula for a 2000s birth. The two-digit version changes at 2000. The four-digit version (11 − s and 4 + s) avoids the mistake.
- Keeping a 5. There is no kua 5: it becomes 2 or 8.
- Reading the compass beside a radiator. Metal close by pulls a phone's compass off. Take the reading in open floor.
- Turning the bed into a worse layout. A bed that blocks the door or leaves no walkway to one side fails the room before any tradition. Most teachers put the commanding position first.
Where teachers disagree
| Question | What teachers say | We use |
|---|---|---|
| When the year starts | Most: Li Chun, 3–5 February. WOFS (Lillian Too): Lunar New Year, 21 January to 20 February. | Li Chun, and we show the other answer when it could differ |
| Which direction for the bed | The SCMP: the top of the head towards a favourable direction. Teachers differ on which of the four. | All four shown, in the tradition's order |
| Desk | Some say face a favourable direction. Others say sit with it behind you. | Both views stated |
| Kua 8's Jue Ming | Most charts: south-east. One commercial page: east. | South-east, as in Skillon's chart and the trigram rule |
| Bagua or kua first | Classical teachers use the compass. The Western BTB school ignores it and lays the bagua map from the door. | Both, on separate tools |
Try every wall in your own room first
Turning a bed to face a new direction is heavy work, and some walls will not take it. Snuug, the iPhone room app, rebuilds your room in 3D from one slow walk round it, to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes. Take your compass reading once, then try the bed on each wall of your Snuug room in 5 cm steps. You see at once which layouts keep the door in view, the walkway clear and the wardrobe door free, before you lift anything. Our team checks every room by hand, and your first room is free.
Questions
How do I calculate my kua number?
Add the digits of your birth year until one digit is left: 1990 gives 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 19, then 1 + 9 = 10, then 1. On the male formula, take that from 11 (11 − 1 = 10, which reduces to 1). On the female formula, add 4 (4 + 1 = 5). A 5 becomes 2 on the male formula and 8 on the female, so 1990 gives kua 1 (male) or 8 (female). Born in January or early February? Use the year before if you were born before Li Chun.
What is my kua number if I was born in January?
The tradition starts the year at Li Chun, on 3, 4 or 5 February, so a January birth counts as the year before. Someone born on 18 January 1968 counts as 1967: kua 6 on the male formula, 9 on the female. Teachers who count from Lunar New Year also use the year before for any January birth before it.
What is the best direction to sleep in feng shui?
In the Eight Mansions school, the tradition points the top of your head, as you lie in bed, towards one of your four favourable directions. For the East group these are N, S, E and SE; for the West group, W, NW, SW and NE. Teachers differ on which of the four to choose, and most put the commanding position first: see the door from the bed, without lying in line with it.
Why is there no kua number 5?
The eight directions come from the eight trigrams of the bagua, and 5 is the centre, which has no trigram and no direction. So the tradition replaces it: 2 on the male formula, 8 on the female.
What is the difference between the East and West groups?
Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9 form the East group, whose favourable directions are north, south, east and south-east. Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8 form the West group, with west, north-west, south-west and north-east. In the tradition, a house that sits with its back to an East direction suits the East group, and the same for West.
Does the kua number actually work?
Nobody has shown that it does. Feng shui is a tradition, and philosophers of science class it as non-scientific. Many people use the directions as one way to choose between layouts that already work, and that is how we present them here.
Editorial notes
Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.
- WOFS (Lillian Too's site), How to calculate your kua number, 3 Apr 2023, updated 27 Dec 2025 (formula, the 2000 rule, Lunar New Year cut-off), read 31 Oct 2026
- LoveToKnow (Hathaway, 14 Mar 2022), Feng shui kua number calculation guide (the formula before and after 2000), read 31 Oct 2026
- Feng Shui Web (UK), Eight Mansions feng shui (births to about 5 Feb count as the year before; Gua 1 directions), read 31 Oct 2026
- LynC (8 Apr 2013), Feng shui, bazi and the lunar and solar calendars (the year changes on about 4 Feb; 18 Jan 1968 gives kua 6 or 9), read 31 Oct 2026
- Wikipedia, Lichun (the Sun at 315°, about 4 February; its table of times, which we compared with ours as a search summary), read 31 Oct 2026
- Stephen Skinner, The much neglected Eight Mansions method, Feng Shui Today, 6 Mar 2021 (East and West groups, the eight directions), read 31 Oct 2026
- Skillon, Kua number calculator (a full Kua 8 chart; Kua 5 in the West group), read 31 Oct 2026
- South China Morning Post, Head in the right direction (the head of the bed towards a favourable direction). We read a search summary only
- Wikipedia, Feng shui (history, schools, scientific status), read 17 Oct 2026
- Wikipedia, Position of the Sun (the low-precision solar longitude from Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms, which we use for Li Chun)
Use this from an AI assistant
This answer as JSON, or as one paragraph with format=text: https://snuug.app/api/v1/tools/kua-number
MCP server: https://snuug.app/mcp · OpenAPI · llms.txt. Every rule cites its source.