Luck Pillar Start Age Calculator
When your ten-year luck pillars (Da Yun 大運) begin, worked out step by step from your birth and the nearest solar term.
Updated October 8, 2026
Your first luck pillar starts after a gap measured in days: count from your birth to the next solar term (forward) or back to the previous one (backward), then treat every 3 days as 1 year of life. Men born in a yang year and women born in a yin year count forward; everyone else counts backward.
Calculate your start age
Step by step
ExampleExample
First luck pillar at age 2 years 1 month
It begins on July 12, 1992, with the 庚辰 pillar.
The direction rule
Backward
Find the solar term
Start of Summer
- 1
Find the year stem and its polarity
Your year pillar is 庚午. Its stem 庚 Gēng is yang.
- 2
Decide the direction
Women born in a yang year count backward, to the previous solar term.
- 3
Find the solar term
Only the twelve terms that open a month (the Jie 節) count. Yours is Start of Summer (立夏), on May 6, 1990, 02:35. You were born on May 12, 1990, 14:30.
- 4
Measure the gap
From birth to the term is 6 days and 11 hours (6.50 days).
- 5
Convert days to years
Every 3 days count as 1 year, 1 day as 4 months and 1 hour as 5 days. 6.50 days ÷ 3 = 2 years 1 months 30 days.
- 6
Read the result
Your first luck pillar begins 2 years 1 month after birth, on July 12, 1992. Each pillar then lasts ten years.
Your ten luck pillars
See them in your full chartThe direction rule
Direction depends on two things only: the polarity of your year stem and your sex at birth.
| Year stem | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| Yang (甲 丙 戊 庚 壬) | Forward | Backward |
| Yin (乙 丁 己 辛 癸) | Backward | Forward |
Worked example: same birth, opposite directions
The same birth moment, Aug 20, 1985, 10:00, for a man and a woman. The year stem 乙 Yǐ is yin, so one counts forward and the other backward.
Men
Backward · Start of Autumn
From birth to the term is 12 days and 11 hours (12.50 days).
Starts at 4 years 1 month
Women
Forward · White Dew
From birth to the term is 18 days and 14 hours (18.62 days).
Starts at 6 years 2 months
Why websites give different start ages
Rounding
Some calculators round the result to whole years. A start of 7 years 10 months becomes 7 on one site and 8 on another.
Minutes or hours
The gap can be measured to the day, the hour or the minute. Near a solar term, a few hours shift the start by weeks.
Time zone of the solar term
Solar terms are moments in time. Tables printed in Beijing time can put a term on a different calendar day for someone born in New York.
Nominal age
Traditional Chinese age (xu sui) counts you as 1 at birth, so a start at 7 is sometimes written as 8.
Luck pillar start age questions
See every luck pillar in your chart
The full chart shows each decade's pillar, its ten god, the luck curve and the years and months inside it.
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