Sticking to the door god During the New Year, there is a custom of sticking to the door god in various parts of my country.

The original door god was carved into a human form of mahogany wood and hung next to the person. Later, the door god was painted as a portrait and posted on the door.

The legendary brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei specialize in controlling ghosts. With them guarding the door, evil spirits big and small dare not come in to cause harm.

However, the real door god recorded in history books is not Shen Cha and Yu Lang, but a warrior in ancient times named Cheng Qing.

It is recorded in Ban Gu's "Book of Han·Biography of the King of Guangchuan": On the door of the palace of King Guangchuan (Quji) there was a portrait of the ancient warrior Cheng Qing, wearing short clothes, large trousers and a long sword.

In the Tang Dynasty, the position of door god was replaced by Qin Shubao and Yuchi Jingde.

The narrative in "Journey to the West" is even more detailed, "In order to bet with a fortune teller, the Dragon King of Jinghe broke the rules of the factory and deserved to be executed. The Jade Emperor appointed Wei Zheng as the supervisor and executioner. In order to survive, the Dragon King of Jinghe went to

Tang Taizong begged for mercy. Taizong agreed, and when it was time to kill the dragon, he summoned Wei Zheng to confront him. Unexpectedly, Wei Zheng took a nap, and his soul ascended to heaven, and the Dragon King complained about Taizong without saying anything.

After hearing the letter, Taizong called for orders outside the palace day and night. General Qin Shuzhuo said: "I would like to wait outside the palace with Yuchi Jingde. Taizong agreed that night because he couldn't bear the hard work of the two generals."

He painted the real faces of the two generals and posted them on the door." There are also paintings of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as door gods.

There is one door-god statue on the left and right. Later generations often painted a pair of door-gods as civil and military.

There are three types of door gods: the first type is the "door god", which is usually posted on the car door or the entire door. It is about four or five feet high and two or three feet wide.

The second type is the "street door god", which is usually posted on the small street door. It is about two feet high and one foot wide.

These two door gods are two gods, one with a black face and one with a white face.

White left and black right, white good and easy, black ferocious and evil, each holding a yue.

The third category is the "house door god", which is slightly smaller and more limited than the street door god. It also has two gods, black and white, but there are also two gods, black and white, who are seated.

The most common thing on the door of the house is a picture of "Qilin delivering his son", two dolls painted with powder and grease and combed with prince crowns, each riding a Qilin.

This kind of door god was supposed to be posted on the door of the newly married house to bring good luck, and later it became a New Year decoration on ordinary street doors.

Pasting Spring Festival Couplets Spring Festival couplets originated from Taofu.

Taofu, rectangular peach boards hung on both sides of the door in the Zhou Dynasty.

According to "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Etiquette", the peach charm is six inches long and three inches wide, and the two gods "Shen Tu" and "Yulei" are written on the peach board.

"On the first day of the first lunar month, peach charms are made and placed in the household. It is called a fairy tree and is feared by all ghosts." Therefore, "Yanjing Chronicles of the Years" of the Qing Dynasty says: "Spring couplets are also peach charms." During the Five Dynasties, the court of Western Shu

Here, someone wrote couplets on the peach symbols.

According to "History of the Song Dynasty: Shu Family": Meng Chang, the Lord of Later Shu, ordered Zhang Xun, a scholar, to inscribe a mahogany board, "because he is not a craftsman, he wrote the inscription in his own Mingbi: 'New Year's greetings, Jiayuan Changchun'", this is our country's

The first couplets.

Until the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Taofu".

There is a line in Wang Anshi's poem, "Thousands of households always replace old talismans with new peaches".

In the Song Dynasty, the peach charms were changed from peach boards to paper, called "spring stickers".

In the Ming Dynasty, Taofu was renamed "Spring Couplets".

Chen Yunzhan of the Ming Dynasty recorded in "Hao Yun Lou Miscellanies": "The creation of Spring Festival couplets dates back to the Ming Dynasty. In the imperial capital of Jinling, before New Year's Eve, a decree was suddenly issued: a Spring Festival couplet must be added to the doorsteps of the houses of ministers and common people. A Spring Festival couplet appeared on the occasion of the Emperor's visit." Zhu Yuanzhang

Not only did he go out of the city in disguise to watch the laughter, he also wrote Spring Festival couplets himself.

He passed by a house and saw that there were no Spring Festival couplets posted on the door, so he went to inquire and found out that this was a house that castrated pigs and had not hired anyone to write them for them.

Zhu Yuanzhang specially wrote a Spring Festival couplet for the castrate, "Cleaving the road of life and death with both hands, and cutting off the roots of right and wrong with one knife."

The association is appropriate and humorous.

After Ming Taizu advocated it, Spring Festival couplets became a custom and have been passed down to this day.

Pasting blessing characters, pasting window grilles, pasting New Year pictures, and pasting hangings all have the folk custom functions of praying for blessings and decorating the residence.

New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country. They reflect the customs and beliefs of the people and express people's hopes for the future.

New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god".

Spring couplets developed from the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei to text, while New Year pictures still developed along the direction of painting.

With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year pictures is no longer limited to door gods, but gradually invites the God of Wealth into the home, and then in some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", "

Colorful New Year pictures such as "A bumper harvest", "Prosperous livestock", "Welcome the Spring and receive blessings" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year.

Because Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty advocated posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, New Year paintings became popular due to his influence. There are three important production areas of New Year paintings in the country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong, forming the three major schools of New Year paintings in my country.

In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures.

This is a new form of New Year pictures.

This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar.

Hanging Qian is to use auspicious words engraved on red paper with a long ruler and stick it in front of the door to complement the peach charms.

Those with figures of the Eight Immortals on them were hung in front of the Buddha.

It is mostly used by thousands of households, but less used by aristocratic families.

The yellow paper is three inches long and the red paper is more than an inch long. It is a "small hanging thousand" and is used by shops.

The earliest hanging Qiandang was made of coins (copper coins). Like New Year's money, it has the effect of suppressing victory.

Set up a heaven and earth table. This is a temporary offering table, specially designed for New Year’s Eve.