The oldest technique involves a chart, which translates roughly as "The Precious Palace Sex Selection Chart", designed for use by women from sixteen to forty-five. The gender of the forthcoming child could be determined by the year and month in which the woman became pregnant, so said believers, and the chart was closely coordinated with the traditional Chinese cosmology of yin and yang, the five elements and the eight hexagrams.
在中國，也有若干偏方。目前所知最古老而有文字圖表流傳的方法，是一張「清宮珍藏生男生女預計表」，上面列出十八歲至四十五歲婦女在某年齡、某月受孕將得男或生女。