Nian beast is a legendary creature. According to legend, in ancient times, there was a fierce monster called Nian, which was in the deep sea all the year round, but at the turn of the new year, it came out to destroy crops and hurt people and animals, and the people complained bitterly. Once it went to the village to do evil again and was scared away by the red clothes hanging at the door. When I arrived at another place, I was scared by the lights and ran around. So people have mastered the weakness of Nian's fear of sound, red and fire. At the end of each year, people put up red couplets, set off firecrackers, hang red lights at home, burn firewood in the yard, chop vegetables and meat with kitchen knives, make noise, scare Nian into the sea and stop harming people. People are safe.
It is said that it was surrendered by the bodhi old zu of Hong Jun and became his mount.
From the above information, we can only see that it is ancient.