Birth year lookup

Kua and element by birth year

When people look up their "cung mệnh" to choose a house facing or colours, they usually mean two things together: the Bát Trạch Kua, worked out from the lunar birth year and sex and split into the East and West groups, and the nạp âm element of the birth year. Enter a birth date to see both, or find the year in the table.

Traditional divination Stem-branch, nạp âm, the Tết dates and the Kua number are computed; good and bad directions, colours and trades by element are feng shui and Five Elements conventions.

What are the Kua and element for births from 1950 to 2030?

The table gives one row per lunar year from 1950 to 2030: stem-branch, nạp âm element, the Kua for men and for women, and the Tết date on which that lunar year begins.

Born before Tết: which year counts?

By the lunar year, which turns at Tết rather than on 1 January. Tết of Giáp Tý fell on 2 February 1984: anyone born from 1 January 1984 to 1 February 1984 belongs to Quý Hợi (1983) and takes the element and Kua of the 1983 row.

Do men and women born in the same year share a Kua?

Usually not. The Bát Trạch Kua is worked out from the lunar birth year with separate formulas for men and women, so in 1984 a man is Đoài (Dui) and a woman Cấn (Gen). The nạp âm element is the same for both, since it depends only on the year's stem-branch.

Which directions suit each Kua?

In the Bát Trạch school each Kua has four directions held to be good (Sinh Khí, Thiên Y, Diên Niên, Phục Vị) and four held to be bad (Họa Hại, Lục Sát, Ngũ Quỷ, Tuyệt Mệnh). The East group is said to suit east, southeast, south and north; the West group the other four. See the eight directions explained in the Bát Trạch tool.

Which colours and directions go with each element?

In the Five Elements convention common in Vietnam, each element is said to suit its own colours and those of the element that generates it. Direction by element is not the same as direction by Kua in the table above; for a house facing, people usually go by the Kua.

Is this the same as the Destiny palace in a Tử Vi chart?

No. In Tử Vi the Destiny palace (cung Mệnh) is one of the twelve palaces of a chart, placed by birth month and hour, so two people born in the same year can have different ones. What this page gives is the Bát Trạch Kua plus the nạp âm element. The Destiny palace in Tử Vi, What the Kua is.

The Kua, colours, directions and trades by element are feng shui and Five Elements conventions, not scientific results. No study has shown that choosing a home, colour or career by element improves anything, and the books differ on colours and trades.