Calculating your life palace and nap am element by birth year: formulas and example table

The calculations below are traditional belief, which many people use for reference when choosing a home, colours or an apartment floor. Updated 23/10/2026.

When reading feng shui articles you will meet two concepts that are often confused: the life palace (cung phi) and the element (menh). A person born in 1990 may be "Earth element" (nap am) but have the Kham life palace (belonging to Water, for a man). There is no contradiction: the two calculations serve two different purposes.

1. Quick comparison

	Life palace (Eight Mansions)	Nap am element (five elements)
Calculated from	Birth year + gender	Birth year (stem and branch), no distinction between men and women
Result	1 of 8 palaces: Kham, Khon, Chan, Ton, Can, Doai, Can, Ly	1 of 5 elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth (and the nap am name, e.g. Lo Bang Tho)
Used for	Choosing house direction, door direction, bed direction, kitchen	Choosing colours, floors and objects by the generating cycle of the five elements
See also	Choosing a house direction by age	Choosing an apartment floor by element

2. How to calculate the life palace

Add the last two digits of the birth year (if the result is above 9, add again to get one digit); call it a:

• Men born before 2000: 10 − a. Men born from 2000: 9 − a.
• Women born before 2000: 5 + a. Women born from 2000: 6 + a. If the result is above 9, add the digits to get one digit.

Look up the resulting number: 1 Kham (Water), 2 Khon (Earth), 3 Chan (Wood), 4 Ton (Wood), 6 Can (Metal, Càn), 7 Doai (Metal), 8 Can (Earth, Cấn), 9 Ly (Fire). Number 5 is the central palace: men go to Khon, women to Can (Cấn). (Formula per the Batdongsan.com.vn life-palace guide; some sources give different elements for the Cấn palace, so this section only uses the palace to read direction.)

3. How to calculate the nap am element

The nap am element follows the stem and branch (can chi) of the birth year and repeats after 60 years (the sexagenary cycle). Each nap am applies to two adjacent years, for example 1975 and 1976. You can look up the 60-year table, or use the quick method handed down:

1. Stem (can): divide the birth year by 10 and take the remainder. Remainder 4 is Giáp, 5 Ất, 6 Bính, 7 Đinh, 8 Mậu, 9 Kỷ, 0 Canh, 1 Tân, 2 Nhâm, 3 Quý.
2. Branch (chi): divide the birth year by 12 and take the remainder. Remainder 4 is Tý, 5 Sửu, 6 Dần, 7 Mão, 8 Thìn, 9 Tỵ, 10 Ngọ, 11 Mùi, 0 Thân, 1 Dậu, 2 Tuất, 3 Hợi.
3. Scoring: Stem — Giáp, Ất = 1; Bính, Đinh = 2; Mậu, Kỷ = 3; Canh, Tân = 4; Nhâm, Quý = 5. Branch — Tý, Sửu, Ngọ, Mùi = 0; Dần, Mão, Thân, Dậu = 1; Thìn, Tỵ, Tuất, Hợi = 2.
4. Add the stem and branch scores; if above 5, subtract 5. Result: 1 Metal, 2 Water, 3 Fire, 4 Earth, 5 Wood.

Example: 1990. Remainder 0 when divided by 10 is Canh (4 points); remainder 10 when divided by 12 is Ngọ (0 points); 4 + 0 = 4, Earth element, nap am Lo Bang Tho. The following years were checked against the nap am lookup table on Chogia.vn.

4. Example table for birth years 1975–2000

Birth year	Stem and branch	Nap am	Element	Life palace (men)	Life palace (women)
1975	Ất Mão	Đại Khê Thủy	Water	Doai	Can (Cấn)
1980	Canh Thân	Thạch Lựu Mộc	Wood	Khon	Ton
1985	Ất Sửu	Hải Trung Kim	Metal	Can (Càn)	Ly
1990	Canh Ngọ	Lộ Bàng Thổ	Earth	Kham	Can (Cấn)
1995	Ất Hợi	Sơn Đầu Hỏa	Fire	Khon	Kham
2000	Canh Thìn	Bạch Lạp Kim	Metal	Ly	Can (Càn)

The table gives only every fifth year as an example; for other years, apply the formulas in sections 2 and 3. People born early in the solar year (January–February) may belong to the previous lunar year, in which case use the previous year for the calculation.

5. Generating and overcoming cycles of the five elements

By the five-element belief:

• Generating: Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood.
• Overcoming: Wood overcomes Earth, Earth overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, Metal overcomes Wood.

People use this rule to choose colours, objects and apartment floors that "suit" their element. This is a symbolic way of seeing things, not a natural law that can be measured.

6. How to use it when buying a home

• Life palace: use it for reference on the main door, balcony and bed direction. If the apartment does not face the right way, it can be handled through the interior.
• Nap am element: use it for reference on paint colours, interior tones and floors.
• Many online sources give different results because of the birth-year cut-off (Lunar New Year or Start of Spring) and how the palaces are numbered. If they differ, check one more source or ask someone knowledgeable.
• A purchase decision should rest first on legal status, location, price and cash flow; see costs on top of the price and calculating cash flow when buying a home.

Note: feng shui is for reference only and does not guarantee luck, fortune or profit. Put clear legal status, apartment quality, light and ventilation, and a price that fits your finances first.

• Batdongsan.com.vn (wiki) — Cung phi là gì? Cách tính cung phi Bát trạch (male / female formulas before and from 2000, number–palace table; updated 16/02/2024), accessed 23/10/2026.
• Chogia.vn — Xem tuổi & Tử vi theo can chi (nap am and element for 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000; distinguishes nap am from the zodiac animal's native element), accessed 23/10/2026.
• Bao Dau Tu — Hoang Trieu Hai, Tư vấn chọn nhà chung cư theo phong thủy, 24/06/2017 (birth-year cut-off counted by lunar year).
• The quick method for stem, branch and nap am by remainder and scoring, and the generating / overcoming cycle of the five elements: widely known folk knowledge, not tied to one source; the results for the 6 example years were checked against the Chogia.vn table.