"Can Chi, nạp âm and mệnh table for 60 years (1984-2043)"

"What is my mệnh if I was born in 1990?", "what animal is Canh Ngọ?", "what is the cung phi of a man born in 1985?" are questions Vietnamese families look up every Tết, before a wedding or when building a house. The answers sit in a few fixed tables handed down by tradition: the sixty-year Can Chi cycle, the nạp âm of each pair of years, and the rule for the cung phi. This article gives the full table for the 60 years from 1984 to 2043, explains how to read it, how to find the right lunar year for a birth date, and is plain about the limits of all this. You can check any case with the Can Chi and mệnh calculator.

One thing first: this is folk tradition, for reference only. The tables below are traditional conventions, not science, and the article predicts no luck, money, health or marriage for anyone.

How the sixty-year cycle works

Ten heavenly stems (Giáp, Ất, Bính, Đinh, Mậu, Kỷ, Canh, Tân, Nhâm, Quý) are paired with twelve earthly branches (Tý, Sửu, Dần, Mão, Thìn, Tỵ, Ngọ, Mùi, Thân, Dậu, Tuất, Hợi) in order: Giáp Tý, Ất Sửu, Bính Dần and so on. Because 10 and 12 share the factor 2, only 60 combinations exist, and after Quý Hợi the cycle returns to Giáp Tý. The year 1984 is Giáp Tý, so 2044 is Giáp Tý again; to find a more distant year, add or subtract multiples of 60 until you land in the table.

The zodiac animal is the branch: Tý the Rat, Sửu the Ox, Dần the Tiger, Mão the Cat, Thìn the Dragon, Tỵ the Snake, Ngọ the Horse, Mùi the Goat, Thân the Monkey, Dậu the Rooster, Tuất the Dog, Hợi the Pig. Vietnamese counts the fourth animal as the Cat, not the Rabbit of the Chinese zodiac.

Nạp âm and mệnh

Each pair of consecutive years in the cycle shares one nạp âm, a poetic name such as "Hải Trung Kim" (gold in the sea) or "Lộ Bàng Thổ" (roadside earth). The last word of the nạp âm is one of the five elements (Kim, Mộc, Thủy, Hỏa, Thổ), and that element is the mệnh of people born in that year. So Canh Ngọ (1990) and Tân Mùi (1991) share Lộ Bàng Thổ and the mệnh Thổ, while Kỷ Tỵ (1989) belongs to the previous pair, Đại Lâm Mộc, mệnh Mộc.

Do not confuse the mệnh with the element of the stem and the branch themselves. Canh is Kim and Ngọ is Hỏa, yet the mệnh of someone born in Canh Ngọ is Thổ, because the mệnh comes from the nạp âm and not from each word.

The table for 60 years (1984-2043)

The table is built from the same functions as the calculator and is checked by tests against the original nạp âm cycle. The year in the table is the lunar year.

Finding the right lunar year for a birth date

Can Chi follows the lunar year, which starts at Tết, somewhere between 21 January and 20 February in the solar calendar. Someone born after 1 January but before Tết still belongs to the previous lunar year. Tết Canh Ngọ was on 27 January 1990, so a person born on 15 January 1990 (the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month) belongs to 1989, Kỷ Tỵ, nạp âm Đại Lâm Mộc, mệnh Mộc, and not to Canh Ngọ. Only from 27 January 1990 onwards is a birth in Canh Ngọ.

Another example: Tết 2000 fell on 5 February 2000, so a person born on 1 February 2000 is still in the year Kỷ Mão (1999), not Canh Thìn. Tết 2026 is 17 February 2026 and Tết 2027 is 6 February 2027, so the date moves a lot from year to year. The most reliable way is to convert the solar date with the lunar calendar converter, or to type the full date into the calculator and let it do that for you.

A mental shortcut for Can Chi

There is a small trick for any lunar year. The stem comes from the last digit: 0 is Canh, 1 Tân, 2 Nhâm, 3 Quý, 4 Giáp, 5 Ất, 6 Bính, 7 Đinh, 8 Mậu, 9 Kỷ. The branch comes from the remainder of the year divided by 12: 0 is Thân, 1 Dậu, 2 Tuất, 3 Hợi, 4 Tý, 5 Sửu, 6 Dần, 7 Mão, 8 Thìn, 9 Tỵ, 10 Ngọ, 11 Mùi. Try 1990: the last digit is 0, so the stem is Canh; 1990 divided by 12 leaves 10, so the branch is Ngọ; that makes Canh Ngọ. Try 2026: the last digit 6 is Bính and 2026 leaves 10, Ngọ, so it is Bính Ngọ.

How the cung phi is worked out

The cung phi, used in Bát trạch feng shui to pick house directions, comes from the lunar year and the sex. Add the digits of the year until one digit is left: 1990 gives 19, then 10, then 1. For births up to 1999 a man takes 11 minus that number and a woman 4 plus it. For births from 2000 a man takes 9 minus it and a woman 6 plus it. A result above 9 is reduced by adding its digits, and a result of 0 counts as 9. Then 1 is Khảm, 2 Khôn, 3 Chấn, 4 Tốn, 6 Càn, 7 Đoài, 8 Cấn and 9 Ly; the number 5 has no cung, so a man takes Khôn and a woman Cấn.

For 1990, a man gets 11 minus 1, which is 10, and adding the digits gives 1, so Khảm; a woman gets 4 plus 1, which is 5, so Cấn. For 1984, a man gets 11 minus 4, which is 7, Đoài; a woman gets 4 plus 4, which is 8, Cấn. The eight cung split into Đông tứ mệnh (Khảm, Ly, Chấn, Tốn) and Tây tứ mệnh (Càn, Khôn, Đoài, Cấn), and each cung has four good and four bad directions in the Bát trạch table.

What the table does not say

The table says only what a year is called, what its nạp âm is and what its element is. It does not say who will be rich, who will be healthy or who suits whom. Relations such as tam hợp or lục xung between the animals are folk conventions to consult if you wish, and they do not replace your own decision. If you need an age by the solar calendar use an age calculator, and to convert a date use the lunar calendar converter. As cultural material, and to satisfy curiosity, the sixty-year cycle is a beautiful way of counting time, and the table above should let you look things up quickly without tripping over the Tết boundary.