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According to Meng Changjun, King of Shu after the Five Dynasties, on New Year's Eve in 964, he asked a bachelor named Xin to write two sentences on the mahogany board and hang them on the door frame of his living room as peach charms. These two sentences are "Qing Yu in the New Year, Changchun in the First Festival". Enjoy the legacy of the previous generation in the new year. The second sentence is to the effect that festivals show that spring is always there. Since then, the form and content of Fu Tao have changed, not only by replacing "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" with parallel couplets, but also by expanding the connotation of Fu Tao, not only to ward off evil spirits and disasters, but also by adding the content of praying and wishing. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China.
After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, heard ghosts screaming outside, and stayed up all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the images of these two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.
In the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on mahogany boards. Wang Anshi wrote in his poem "January Day" that "firecrackers are one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su. Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones, which reflects the grand occasion of hanging peach symbols on New Year's Eve (today's Spring Festival couplets). At the same time, with the appearance of the door god and the peach symbol symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness written on red paper, the mission of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters shouldered by the previous peach symbol has gradually shifted to the door god, and the content of the peach symbol has also evolved into expressing people's good wishes for good luck and good harvest in the coming year.
Zhu Yuanzhang promoted the popularization of Spring Festival couplets.
Writing Spring Festival couplets on red paper began in the Ming Dynasty. Pan Zongding's Chronicle of Jinling Years Old records: "On the first day of New Year's Day, thousands of families put up Spring Festival couplets, and the best one is called Wan Nianhong. It goes without saying. "
It is written on red paper, because in China's traditional culture, red represents happiness, warmth, auspiciousness and peace. And its founder is Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Chen's Miscellaneous Notes on Mao Yunlou said: "The setting of Spring Festival couplets began in Jinling, the imperial capital. On New Year's Eve, public officials and scholars were sent home and had to add a pair of Spring Festival couplets to their doors." Although Zhu Yuanzhang's education is not high, he loves traditional culture very much. He not only ordered every household to post Spring Festival couplets, but also paraded around incognito and enjoyed entertainment.
Under the vigorous advocacy of Ming Taizu, it has become a common phenomenon to stick Spring Festival couplets in Nanjing, and a new "cultural industry"-writing and selling Spring Festival couplets is booming in Nanjing. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, some literati have taken to the street market and set up stalls for sale.
"Jinling Years Old" records: "There will be a cloister in the market tomorrow, so there will be no royal driving. Businessmen gather in galleries, such as Black Gallery, Bookstore Gallery, Mingwa Gallery and Jewelry Gallery, which still follow the name. " The "corridor" has become a lively business place. In the early Ming Dynasty, there was a professional household in Shuiximen Street, Nanjing who wrote Spring Festival couplets-Mengjiashou Pavilion. Whenever the Spring Festival comes, people come here to write Spring Festival couplets in an endless stream. His calligraphy style is unique and self-contained, commonly known as "font on the gallery". In the year of the big exam, Meng Jia was also invited to write a list of talents in Wenwu Township. At that time, the word "Hongxi" written by the Meng family was the most popular in the Spring Festival, and the portal posted "Celebrate the country, celebrate the family and live a happy life". Jin Wuxiang, a poet in Jiangyin, wrote a poem about Spring Festival couplets in Memories of Lu Tao: "When people celebrate their birthdays, they have plenty of food and clothing, serve the country with gratitude, celebrate the grand occasion and make the people happy, which means that the Gan family is at its peak."
In the Qing Dynasty, posting Spring Festival couplets has become a famous folk custom, and the forms and types of Spring Festival couplets have been further developed, such as door heart, horizontal approval, framing, fighting for weight, Spring Festival couplets and so on. "The Year of Yanjing" records: "Since I entered Rome, there have been literati writing Spring Festival couplets under the eaves of city shops in an attempt to polish the pen. After the sacrifice, it gradually sticks and looks brand-new. Or use James Zhu, or use red paper, but both the imperial court and the imperial clan princes use white paper with red edges and blue edges, and non-imperial clan members are not allowed to use it at will. " Qing Palace Spring Festival couplets are written in ink on white paper or white silk, and then decorated with borders. This is because Manchu people are nomadic people. Hunting in the mountains in winter, red is the color of raw meat, which is easy to be attacked by wild animals. They think this is an unlucky color. In order to disguise, hunters wear white clothes, which are not easy to be found by wild animals. It was not until the Qianlong period after the Manchu entered the customs that the Spring Festival couplets of Manchu civilians gradually turned red, but they were also decorated with the color of their flags, while the Spring Festival couplets of the court and the royal family were always white.