Zhuazhou: Does What a Baby Grabs at the First-Birthday Feast Count?

A few days ago I went to a relative’s house for a first-birthday banquet. A red cloth was spread on the table, with an abacus, a fountain pen, a seal, a bun and a toy car laid out; the baby crawled over and, in one grab, seized the pen that was farthest from him. The reaction around the table was bigger than the baby’s.

How old zhuazhou is

Zhuazhou is also called “shi’er,” the testing of the child. One of its earlier records in China appears in the Admonitions of the Yan Family (Yanshi Jiaxun · Fengcao): by Jiangnan custom, when a child reached one year old the family dressed him in new clothes and laid out bow and arrows, paper and brush for a boy, and knife, ruler, needle and thread for a girl, to see what he would grab—this passage has a searchable version in the classical-text archive. Korea’s version is called 돌잡이 (doljabi), an item of the first-birthday feast (돌잔치, doljanchi); Japan’s is called “erabitori” (選び取り), often held together with the ceremony of tying a stack of rice cakes onto a one-year-old’s back.

Zhuazhou is not fate calculation

This is the place most easily confused. Zhuazhou is folklore, looking at “that one moment on the spot”; the fortune systems look at the chart cast from the moment of birth. One speaks of tendency, the other of structure. Someone posts a video of their child’s zhuazhou in a group chat, captioned “he’s destined to study medicine”—that is only a joke, and need not be taken to heart.

Why it is popular again now

Zhuazhou did not disappear; it merely changed form: the red cloth and the objects can be bought online in one go, with a card bearing auspicious sayings; once the child has grabbed, the adults take a photo first and then post it to the group. This is how folklore survives—the content unchanged, the packaging forever new.

If you really want to look at “tendency”

To look seriously at “what this child is inclined toward in the future,” the fortune systems arrange the birth year, month, day and hour into four pillars: BaZi (Eight Characters) discusses the four pillars and ten gods, while Zi Wei Dou Shu discusses the twelve palaces, and the two can be read together. 占卜迷指’s process is: state clearly what you want to ask → the system recommends a method → it casts the chart, interprets it and exports.

The most accurate thing that day was probably that the child grabbed the hearts of every adult at the table.

Information current as of October 9, 2026.

Disclaimer: This article covers traditional culture and folklore and is intended for entertainment and self-reflection only. It is not medical, psychological, investment, legal or marriage advice. Do not submit ID numbers, detailed addresses or other sensitive personal information. If you experience persistent insomnia, anxiety or physical discomfort, please see a doctor or consult a professional.

Sources

• Original text of the Admonitions of the Yan Family · Fengcao (the “Jiangnan custom… a child’s first year” passage on testing the child) (Chinese Text Project)
• 돌잡이 (zhuazhou) (Wikipedia · supplement)