The custom of posting Spring Festival couplets is said to have originated over a thousand years ago during the Later Shu period, which is documented in historical records. According to works such as "Yuzhu Bao Dian" and "Yanjing Sui Shi Ji", the original form of Spring Festival couplets was known as "Taofu".

　　In ancient Chinese mythology, it is said that there is a ghost world, where there is a mountain with a giant peach tree covering three thousand miles. At the top of the tree is a golden rooster. Every morning when the golden rooster crows, the ghosts that roam at night must return to the ghost world. The gate of the ghost world is located at the northeast of the peach tree, where two deities named Shen Tu and Yu Lei stand guard. If ghosts do anything evil at night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei will immediately discover them and catch them, tie them up with reed ropes, and send them to be devoured by tigers. Therefore, all the ghosts are afraid of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. As a result, people began to carve the figures of Shen Tu and Yu Lei from peach wood and place them at their doorways to ward off evil spirits. Later, people even carved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on peach wood boards, believing that this would also serve to ward off evil. These peach wood boards were later called "Taofu".