Kangxi stroke counts: restoring radicals and counting numerals
The stroke counts used in name numerology are not the ones children learn at school. They follow the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 and count each shortened radical as the full character it came from. So 江 (Jiang) is 7 strokes rather than 6, and 陳 (Chen) is 16 rather than 11.
Who this is for: this system works only on names written in Chinese characters. If you have a Chinese name, or are choosing one, enter it in characters (traditional forms) and the calculator explains the result in English. It cannot be applied to names in the Latin alphabet.
Radical table
| Radical | Restored to | Examples (Kangxi strokes) |
|---|---|---|
| 氵 (three-dot water) | 水 (4 strokes) | 江 7, 河 9, 洪 10 |
| 扌 (hand) | 手 (4 strokes) | 振 11, 揚 13 |
| 忄 (upright heart) | 心 (4 strokes) | 怡 9, 情 12 |
| 犭 (dog) | 犬 (4 strokes) | 猛 12 |
| 礻 (spirit) | 示 (5 strokes) | 祥 11, 福 14 |
| 衤 (clothing) | 衣 (6 strokes) | 裕 13 |
| 王 (jade) | 玉 (5 strokes) | 琪 13, 瑜 14 |
| 月 (flesh) | 肉 (6 strokes) | 育 10, 胡 11 |
| 艹 (grass) | 艸 (6 strokes) | 芳 10, 蔡 17 |
| 辶 (walk) | 辵 (7 strokes) | 連 14, 達 16 |
| 阝 on the left (mound) | 阜 (8 strokes) | 陳 16, 陽 17 |
| 阝 on the right (city) | 邑 (7 strokes) | 鄭 19, 郭 15 |
The rule is "strokes of the full radical + strokes of the rest of the character". Our character table was derived this way from the radical and stroke data in the Unicode Unihan database and spot-checked against 36 common surnames.
Three special cases
| Case | How it counts | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The character is itself a radical, or a form of one | Count the character as written | 王 4, 玉 5, 水 4 |
| Numerals one to ten | Count as their value | 四 (four) = 4, though it is written in 5 strokes; 九 (nine) = 9, written in 2; 十 (ten) = 10 |
| Simplified or variant characters | Count the traditional standard form | Enter names in traditional characters |
Where schools differ
There is no single standard. Some schools count the strokes as actually written and never restore radicals; some restore only certain radicals; and they disagree on whether 百, 千 and 萬 (hundred, thousand, ten thousand) count by value. We use the most common approach, full Kangxi radical restoration, and the calculator lets you override any count by hand.
Five Grids calculator
Enter a Chinese surname and given name in characters (traditional forms). The calculator looks up the Kangxi stroke count of each character and works out the Heaven, Person, Earth, Outer and Total grids and the San Cai elements, explained in English. If a character is missing or you follow another counting school, you can edit the strokes yourself. Everything is calculated in your browser.
Strokes follow the Kangxi Dictionary with radicals restored to their full form (氵 counts 4, 艹 counts 6 …); the numerals one to ten count as their value. Character data derived from the Unicode Unihan database.
Common misconceptions
The stroke count is just how many strokes you write.
Name numerology uses Kangxi counts with radicals restored, which often differ from the everyday count.
Every name numerologist counts strokes the same way.
There are several schools, so the same name can give different Five Grids depending on who calculates it.
A straight word: the Five Grids are a modern Japanese method, not an ancient one
The popular Five Grids method (Heaven, Person, Earth, Outer and Total grids read against the 81 numbers) was put together by the Japanese author Kumasaki Kenō in the early 20th century and later became common in Taiwan. It is not a classical Chinese tradition, and schools disagree both on how to count strokes and on which numbers are lucky. What makes a name good is its meaning, its sound, how it feels to write, and what it means to you; none of that is measured by strokes. We don't recommend changing a name because of an "unlucky" number. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Try a name
Enter a Chinese name to look up its Kangxi strokes and calculate its Five Grids.
Kangxi stroke FAQ
How are strokes counted in Chinese name numerology?
By the Kangxi Dictionary, with radicals restored to the full character: 氵 counts 4, 艹 counts 6, 阝 on the left counts 8 and on the right counts 7. The numerals one to ten count as their value.
How many strokes are 江 and 陳?
In Kangxi counting, 江 is 7 (氵 counts as 水, 4) and 陳 is 16 (the left 阝 counts as 阜, 8).
Why is 王 4 strokes while the 王 radical counts 5?
The character 王 is written in 4 strokes. As a radical on the left of characters like 琪 and 瑜, it is really 玉 (jade), so it counts as the 5 strokes of 玉.