Your Kua number and the Eight Mansions
Your Kua number (命卦, “life trigram”) is your personal trigram in Eight Mansions (八宅) feng shui. It comes from your birth year and gender, there are eight of them, one for each trigram of the bagua, and it tells you which four directions support you best: for where your desk faces, where your bed’s head points and your front door.
How to work it out
First get your birth year right. As in BaZi, it changes at 立春 (about 4 February): born in January or early February before 立春, use the year before.
Born 1900 to 1999: add the last two digits of the year, and keep adding until one digit is left.
- Men: 10 minus that number.
- Women: 5 plus that number, adding the digits again if it is over 9.
Born 2000 or later: add the last two digits down to one digit in the same way.
- Men: 9 minus that number; a result of 0 counts as 9.
- Women: 6 plus that number, adding the digits again if it is over 9.
There is no trigram for 5: men with 5 take 2 (坤), women take 8 (艮).
Example: born in 1990, 9 + 0 = 9. A man has 10 − 9 = 1, the trigram 坎. A woman has 5 + 9 = 14, 1 + 4 = 5, which becomes 8, the trigram 艮.
East group and West group
| Kua | Trigram | Element | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 坎 ☵ Kan | Water | East |
| 2 | 坤 ☷ Kun | Earth | West |
| 3 | 震 ☳ Zhen | Wood | East |
| 4 | 巽 ☴ Xun | Wood | East |
| 6 | 乾 ☰ Qian | Metal | West |
| 7 | 兑 ☱ Dui | Metal | West |
| 8 | 艮 ☶ Gen | Earth | West |
| 9 | 离 ☲ Li | Fire | East |
The East group’s four good directions are north, south, east and south-east; the West group’s are west, south-west, north-west and north-east.
The four good directions, and the four others
- 生气 Growth: the strongest, for energy and opportunity. Good for the front door and the way your desk faces.
- 天医 Health: traditionally health and helpful people. Good for the bedroom and the head of the bed.
- 延年 Relationships: for family and partners. Good for rooms you share.
- 伏位 Stability: for calm and focus. Good for reading and study.
- 祸害, 五鬼, 六煞, 绝命: four directions that support you less. Good for storerooms and bathrooms, places you don’t stay long.
The names sound alarming, but a less supportive direction is just that, not a sign that something will go wrong. No home can follow your Kua everywhere; turning your desk and bed is usually enough.
Eight Mansions and the flying stars
Eight Mansions is about you: your Kua never changes, and nor do your good directions. The flying stars (紫白飞星) are about time: nine stars move round the nine squares every year and every month. In 2027 Purple 9 takes the centre and Yellow 5 sits in the north. The two work together: choose directions that suit your Kua, then check the year’s stars, and leave the Yellow 5 sector alone for building work.
The free riffos chart shows your Kua trigram, your group and your two best directions.