In the Yuan dynasty, the elderly ascetic Pang is remembered for his boast, "To figure my age, you will need an abacus." The best-selling Ming dynasty abacus manual, the Compendium of Mathematics, holds formulae for reckoning the sex of one's unborn children. Forthright fortune tellers use abacuses to divine disasters to come.
元朝的龐居士便要說「去那算盤撥了我的歲數」；明朝最暢銷的算盤書「算法統宗」中，則附有推算生子生女的口訣；鐵口直算的命相師，更以算盤算人遠災近禍。