The 81 numbers: 1 to 81, lucky or not

Every number the Five Grids produce is looked up in the 81-number table. But more than one table is in circulation, and some numbers are lucky in one and unlucky in another. We show two common versions side by side: where they agree we give the reading, and where they don't we say so.

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.

How we counted: version A grades numbers as good, bad, good with some bad, or bad with some good; version B uses very good, fairly good, more good than bad, hard to call and so on. We sorted each version into lucky, mixed and unlucky, then compared them.

Numbers the two versions disagree on

Full table, 1 to 81

Glosses are loose English renderings of version A's four-character phrases. For numbers above 81, subtract 80; for example 82 reads as 2.

Common misconceptions

Want to pick characters by your BaZi Useful God instead of by stroke numbers? See BaZi baby names →