Zhaocai Tongzi (Wealth-Inviting Boy)

Zhaocai Tongzi is one of the most widespread folk deities associated with auxiliary wealth and auspiciousness. Typically sculpted as a chubby, red-bellybanded boy resembling the Buddhist Sudhana (Shancai Tongzi), he stands beside Caishen, holding a golden ingot or treasure basin. Merchants commonly hang couplets on their Caishen altars reading 'Zhaocai Tongzi arrives; Lishi Xianguan (Prosperity Official) comes', and at the start of the new business year, offer sweets and cakes to him in ritual worship—praying that he will attract wealth from all four directions and usher in treasures from all eight quarters. His iconography emerged from the fusion of the Buddhist Sudhana (a youthful seeker of wisdom and virtue) and popular Chinese aspirations for material prosperity. As the most frequently depicted wealth-bringing motif in Chinese commercial establishments and New Year prints, his image is traditionally pasted above doorways and on cabinets during festivals, embodying the common people’s heartfelt, down-to-earth yearning for abundance and well-being.