Travel Direction

Where are you heading — east, southwest? The calculator finds the direction along the shortest route, converts it into one of the eight directions and 24 mountains and checks it against Chinese tradition: what the year, month and day of departure say about it, the Qi Men chart for the hour you set out, and your Kua number. Below are the hours of the next three days when the door in that direction is favorable.

Calculation

You can pick a city from the list or place a point on the map. The map loads from OpenStreetMap servers only after you press “Open map,” and the address goes to OpenStreetMap search only when you press “Search.” The departure time is the local clock time at the departure point. The calculation data stays in your browser and never goes into the page address.

What Is Checked and Why

Chinese tradition looks at the direction of a trip in several layers: the year and month tell you where it's better not to move during this period, the day and hour tell you when to set out, and the Kua number tells you which directions are “yours.” The calculator brings them together.

Tai Sui and Sui Po. Tai Sui, the Grand Duke, is the spirit ruling the year; he sits in the mountain of the year's branch: in 2026 that is Wu, the south. Opposite him is Sui Po, the “Year Breaker.” Almanacs advise against starting a move or construction in either direction, and Sui Po is considered the more serious of the two.
Three Killings. Three adjacent mountains of one direction — “robbery, calamity and illness”: in 2026, the north. People don't move in this direction all year.
5 Yellow and 2 Black. The flying stars of misfortune and illness. Their positions change every year at Lichun and every month at the start of a new solar term; the calculator checks both the annual and the monthly stars.
Three Killings and the Month Breaker. The same rule as for the year, but by the month branch: the Dog month, for example, “breaks” the Dragon mountain in the southeast.
Day Sha, Day Breaker, clash. For every day, the Tong Shu almanac names a Sha direction — one of four — and the sign the day clashes with. People born in the year of that sign are advised not to start anything important on such a day.
Day Officer. One of the almanac's twelve officers. An Establish day is good for travel; Stable, Initiate, Destruction and Danger days are considered unsuitable.
Qi Men Dun Jia. The chart for the hour of departure: practitioners look at the palace in the direction of travel — its door, star and deity, the hour's Void and the Travelling Horse. Choosing a direction and an hour to set out is the classic use of Qi Men.
Personal Ba Zhai directions. By Kua number, each person has four favorable and four unfavorable directions. Originally this rule is meant for the home; modern practitioners apply it to travel.

How the Direction Is Measured

The direction of a trip is the initial azimuth of the shortest route, that is, of the great-circle arc that airplanes fly along. From Moscow to Beijing it is 72°: east, the Jia mountain.

Great circle vs. the line on the map. On an ordinary map, a straight line is a rhumb line (loxodrome), a path with a constant heading. Over long distances it diverges from the shortest route: from Moscow to New York the great circle heads off at 310° (northwest), while the line on the map heads at 258° (west). The calculator shows both headings and warns you when they fall in different sectors. The checks are based on the great circle, as with practitioners who measure on a globe.
True north. The azimuth is measured from true (geographic) north, as on a map. A compass would show a number shifted by the magnetic declination — about 12° in Moscow.
Directions and mountains. Eight directions of 45° each: north runs from 337.5° to 22.5°, northeast from 22.5° to 67.5°, and so on. Each direction is divided into three mountains of 15°. If the azimuth is within 3° of a boundary between directions, the calculator warns you and shows what would change in the neighboring direction.
Near and far. The direction is calculated for a trip across town too — just place the points on the map. For a place almost on the opposite side of the Earth there are many shortest routes, and the azimuth loses its meaning.

How to Read the Result

“What Tradition Says” is a short list of pros and cons: a green mark is a favorable sign, a red one an unfavorable one. There's no score: schools weigh the signs differently, and for a move a single Sui Po counts for more than several good doors.
Year, Month and Day is a table of all the checks: where each restriction lies at this time and whether it falls on your direction.
The Qi Men chart shows the nine palaces for the hour of departure, with south at the top. The palace in your direction is outlined in gold.
Good Times to Set Out lists the two-hour periods of the next three days when your direction has a favorable door outside the Void. Rows where both Qi Men systems agree are highlighted; days with Sha in your direction are marked separately.

If a direction is closed, tradition suggests moving the date or the hour. The Japanese school of Kyusei Kigaku also has a “detour,” katatagae: first travel in a different direction and spend the night there.

An Honest Look at the Method

The calculator works out the direction and the rules of the tradition precisely: the azimuth has been checked against a geodesic library, and the positions of the year's restrictions against published tables. But no study has confirmed any link between the compass direction or hour of departure and how a trip goes.

Treat the result as an old custom of choosing the day and direction, where it doesn't get in the way of anything. The safety of a trip depends on the weather, the roads, the transport and how you feel, and decisions about it aren't made this way.

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Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't the direction match what I see on the map?

An ordinary map is drawn in a projection where a straight line is a constant heading, not the shortest route. The shortest route over the Earth's surface is an arc of a great circle, and over long distances its initial direction differs noticeably: from Moscow to New York the great circle heads northwest, while the line on the map heads west. The calculator shows both directions and warns you if they fall in different sectors.

Do I need to enter my birth year?

No. Without it, the calculator still works out the direction, the year, month and day restrictions and the Qi Men chart. Your birth year and gender add personal directions by Kua number and a check of whether your departure day clashes with your sign.

What matters more — the year or the hour of departure?

It depends on the trip. For a move or a long business trip, tradition looks at the year and month first: people don't move toward Sui Po or the 5 Yellow. For a short trip, the day and hour matter more: you can choose them, but you can't choose the year. Schools weigh these factors differently, so the calculator doesn't reduce them to a score.

Where does my data go?

The calculation runs in your browser; the data stays there and never goes into the page address. Your browser loads the map images from OpenStreetMap servers — only after you press “Open map.” Address search sends the text you type to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim service — only when you press “Search.”