Here is an easy formula to determine what trigram belongs to any person.
For a man, you subtract the last two digits of his year of birth from 100, and then divide by nine. We ignore the answer, but use the remainder to determine the person‘s trigram. If there is no remainder the person is always a Li.
For a woman, you subtract four from the last two digits of the year of birth and then divide by nine. Again if there is no remainder, she is a Li person.
- If the remainder is a one, the person is a K’an.
- If the remainder is two, the person is a K’un.
- If the remainder is three, the person is a Chen.
- If the remainder is four, the person is a Sun.
- If the remainder is five, the person will be a K’un if male, and a Ken if female.
- If the remainder is six, the person is a Chien.
- If the remainder is seven, the person is a Tui.
- If the remainder is eight, the person is a Ken.
- If there is no remainder, the person is a Li.
The Trigram of Your Home
Once you have determined your personal trigram, you can determine the trigram to which your home relates. This depends on which direction the back of your home faces. (In feng shui this is known as the direction in which the back sits.) For example, a Li home faces the north and has its back sitting to the south. A Ken home faces southwest, and its back sits to the northeast.
The East and West Four Houses
The trigrams can be combined into two groups: the East Four Houses (Li, K’an, Chen, and Sun) and the West Four Houses (Chien, K’un, Ken, and Tui). The trigrams in the East Four Houses group belong to three of the five elements: fire, water, and wood. This is because water gives birth to wood, which then gives birth to fire, making these three elements a highly compatible, harmonious grouping. Likewise, the trigrams of the West Four Houses group belong to the elements earth and metal, which is also harmonious since earth gives birth to metal.
You are most likely to be happy in a home that belongs to the same grouping as you. For instance, if you are a Chien person, you will be happiest living in a Chien home. However, you would also be very happy living in a K’un, Ken, or Tui home as they all belong to the West Four Houses group. You would also be most successful living in a home that had a front door that opened to the west.
Likewise, someone from the East Four Houses group would be happiest in a home with the front door facing towards the east. In fact, it is believed that if you are living in a home that is facing the wrong direction for you, you are risking bad luck, ill health, and financial and marital difficulties.
Now we come to a difficult question. The average home usually has a number of people living in it. What happens ii two of them come from the East Four Houses group and another belongs to the West Four Houses? In practice, the home is assessed by comparing its trigram with that of the (major breadwinner. Individual rooms can be arranged according to the primary people using them.
It is considered very fortunate if a husband and wife belong to the same group of houses. This is because the same directions and positions in the home will be perfect for both (This is just one factor in determining compatibility with Chinese astrology. To determine compatibility properly complete astrological charts need to be constructed.)
