The source of Spring Festival couplets is the symbol of Spring Festival couplets from peaches. According to the Book of Rites, the peach symbol is six inches long and three inches wide, and the words "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" are engraved on the mahogany board. "On the first day of the first month, I made a peach symbol for this family and named it Xianmu. All ghosts are afraid of it." In the Five Dynasties, in the court of West Shu, someone wrote couplets on peach symbols. In the Qing Dynasty, Yanjing Shi Sui Ji said: "Spring Festival couplets are also Fu Tao."
Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more at the beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome good luck.
This custom originated in the Song Dynasty and was popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Sticking Spring Festival couplets has become a custom now. Red couplets were posted on the gate, and the room was suddenly brightly lit.
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, horizontal batch, Spring Festival couplets and bucket couplets according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Horizontal batch" is attached to the crossbar of the lintel; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls. At the same time, every household should put the word "Fu" on the door, wall and lintel. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China.
After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers.
In the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on mahogany boards. The word "Spring Festival couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty.