Feng Shui FAQ: Kua Numbers, Directions & Eight Mansions

This feng shui calculator uses the Eight Mansions (Ba Zhai) method. From your birth date and gender it works out your Kua number (1–9, with no 5), whether you belong to the East or West group, and which four compass directions are traditionally favorable and unfavorable for you. It also shows the element of your Kua trigram and a compass drawing of all eight directions. Everything is calculated in your browser, and the result is traditional cultural reference, not professional advice.

Your Kua number comes from the birth year (after the January/February year boundary) and the male or female formula. Each Kua number belongs to a trigram, and the calculator shows that trigram's element as your element: Water, Earth, Wood, Metal or Fire. It does not show a separate birth-year element. Different traditions derive a birth-year element in different ways, for example from the year's Heavenly Stem or from Na Yin, and we do not present any one of them as the correct one. See Eight Mansions explained.

Traditionally people point the headboard of the bed toward a favorable direction such as Tian Yi (health) or Yan Nian (relationships), and sit at a desk facing Sheng Qi (vitality). Unfavorable sectors are traditionally given to quiet uses such as storage or a bathroom. Where you cannot change a layout, such as the front door, start with the bed and desk. Measure from the center of the room with a compass. The directions guide walks through each room.

Eight Mansions feng shui follows yin and yang: the traditional formula is different for men and women, so the same birth year can give two different Kua numbers. In the male formula the number counts down from a fixed value; in the female formula it counts up. When the result is 5, men take 2 and women take 8. The calculator asks which of the two traditional formulas to apply, and it does not use your answer for anything else.

The traditional year does not start on January 1. It starts at Li Chun (around February 4) in the solar calendar, or at Lunar New Year in the lunar calendar. If you were born before both, the previous year is used. If your birthday falls between the two dates, the standards disagree. This feng shui calculator uses Li Chun as its primary standard and also shows the Lunar New Year result for comparison, so you see both.

Stand in the center of the room, hold the phone flat at waist height, and open its compass app. Keep away from steel furniture, radiators and speakers, and take two or three readings a step apart; if they disagree by more than a few degrees, move away from whatever is pulling the needle. Each direction covers a 45° slice around you. Remember that a phone shows magnetic north, as a luopan needle does; in many places the difference from map north is only a few degrees.

This is common and not a reason to move. Eight Mansions treats the door as one factor among many, and it is the hardest one to change. Use your favorable directions where you can, starting with the bed and the desk. Keep the entrance bright, tidy and easy to walk through. If you mostly come and go through a side or garage door, that door is the one to consider. Some traditions hang a bagua mirror outside the door, facing out; it is a cultural custom, not a guaranteed remedy.

If you are both in the same group (East or West), you share the same four favorable directions, so choose one that appears in both lists, ideally Tian Yi or Yan Nian. If you are in different groups, no direction is favorable for both. One traditional convention follows the main breadwinner; many couples instead let the bed suit the partner who sleeps less well, and use each person's own directions for their desk and favorite chair. Either choice is reasonable; agree on it together.

It depends on the boundary. Feng shui and Kua numbers traditionally follow Li Chun, the start of spring around February 4. Animal signs are popularly counted from Lunar New Year, which falls between January 21 and February 20. This site keeps both: the feng shui tools use Li Chun as the primary standard and show the Lunar New Year result for comparison, while the zodiac tools use Lunar New Year as primary and show Li Chun. When the two disagree, you see both results.

No. The bagua map used in Black Hat (BTB) feng shui lays a fixed grid over a floor plan, aligned with the front door, and does not use a compass or your birth date. Eight Mansions belongs to the classical Compass School: it measures real compass directions and assigns them according to each person's Kua number. The two systems can give quite different advice for the same room. Every tool and guide on this site uses Eight Mansions, read with a compass.

Not in Eight Mansions. Your Kua number comes from your birth year, so your four favorable and four unfavorable directions stay the same for life. What changes every year is the annual Flying Star chart, a separate classical method: the center star goes down by one each year, the nine stars move around the compass in the Lo Shu order, and the new chart starts at Li Chun. The optional Kua & Eight Mansions Full Report lays the current year's Flying Stars over your personal directions; the methodology page explains how the chart is worked out. The free calculator shows the Eight Mansions directions only.

Teachings vary. Common traditional advice places moving water in the North, which belongs to the Water element, or in the East and Southeast, where Water feeds Wood in the generating cycle. Many sources also prefer one of the household's favorable sectors, keep water out of the bedroom, and avoid the South, where Water is said to clash with Fire. Keep the water clean and moving. This is traditional custom only: no water feature can promise money or any other result.

Yes. Eight Mansions works at the scale of a single room, so you do not need to own the home or change any walls. Start with the two things you can move: point the bed's headboard toward a favorable direction and face a favorable direction at your desk. Then use favorable directions for the seat you use most. Give unfavorable corners to storage. In a studio, measure from the center of the main room. If a piece cannot move, choose the mildest option and do not worry about the rest.