Compatibility
Enter two birth dates to see how the old matching method pairs them.
- What it answers
- How two people fit by the traditional measures.
- What you need
- Both birth dates.
- What you get
- A side-by-side of zodiac animals and day pillars, with the old rules behind each match or clash.
五鬼
The old method calls this 五鬼 Five Ghosts
A poor match in this method
This is a piece of cultural history, not advice about a relationship. Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu, the Qing court manual, rejected this kind of matching as a fraud on the public, and the imperial editors cut it from the official almanac. A real relationship depends on the two people in it.
Life trigrams
- First person
- 坎 Kua 1 · East group · 庚午 Horse
- Second person
- 兌 Kua 7 · West group · 壬申 Monkey
Zodiac animals
These two animals have no special relation.
Understanding marriage matching
For centuries families compared two people’s birth details before an engagement. This page shows one such method, from the book Xuan Ze Yao Lue. It turns each birth year into a life trigram, then reads the pair through eight named results.
How it works
- Find each life trigramAs on our Kua Number page, from birth year and sex.
- Pair the trigramsChange the lines of the first trigram in a fixed order until it becomes the second.
- Name the resultThe step where they meet gives one of eight names.
- Grade itThe book ranks three as best, three as middling, and two as bad.
How to read it
- Read it as historyThis shows how families once thought about marriage.
- Know its criticsThe Qing court manual called such matching baseless.
- Do not decide by itNothing here says anything real about two people.
Our method
- Result table
- Xuan Ze Yao Lue, middle volume. Every printed pair is tested. Three cells are misprinted in the transcription and were corrected by its own rule.
- Life trigram
- Same count as our Kua tool, following Xing Ping Hui Hai and Ba Zhai Ming Jing. Xuan Ze Yao Lue starts men on seven, one and four instead, so results for men can differ from that book.
- Same-sex couples
- The old method was written for a man and a woman. We let you choose each person’s sex, and the result is simply the method applied.
- Criticism
- Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu, vol. 36, and the Siku catalogue.
Common questions
Our result is bad. Should we worry?
No. This is a historical custom, and the Qing court itself rejected it.
Why offer it at all?
It is part of Chinese culture and many people are curious about it.
Are the dates saved?
No. They stay in your browser.
Sources
- Xuan Ze Yao Lue, middle volume, Wikisource.
- Xing Ping Hui Hai, vol. 5, online transcription.
- Qin Ding Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu, vol. 36, Siku Quanshu text on Wikisource.
- Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao, entry on Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu.