It dates back to the "Taofu" of the Zhou Dynasty. The so-called peach symbol is actually two mahogany boards. At that time, Fu Tao was not hung only during the Chinese New Year, but always hung at the gate, generally like the "Taishan Shi Gandang" in front of the house now; At that time, the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu were also written on the mahogany board, and the legend of peach wood to ward off evil spirits came from them.
Second, expand the content.
In the Han dynasty, when there are relevant records, it is directly stated that the peach symbol is hung on the first day of the first month, which has the function of exorcising evil spirits. In this way, Fu Tao has a direct relationship with China New Year. Then, with the prevalence of parallel prose genre and poetry in Sui and Tang Dynasties, there appeared the emphasis on antithesis and even-handedness. What is really called "the first Spring Festival couplets in history" is the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period after the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Meng, the last emperor of Houshu, tried early adopters and ordered a civil servant named Xin to write on the hanging peach symbols, thus creating the first Spring Festival couplets.
Although the first Spring Festival couplets appeared on it, its carrier is still "Fu Tao"; Then came the invention of papermaking in the Song Dynasty, which popularized the use of paper, so that paper couplets were created and posted on the Spring Festival. However, in the Song Dynasty, this kind of "Fu Tao" was still named "Fu Tao", although its carrier and content changed. One of the most famous poems in the Spring Festival, Yuan Ri, was written by Wang Anshi in the Song Dynasty. There is a poem that says, "Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones." With the development of the times, this custom of writing and pasting Spring Festival couplets began to be popular in the Ming Dynasty, and in the Qing Dynasty, it was handed down in terms of paper color and number of words. The so-called "beaming, every household sticks Spring Festival couplets".