The earliest couplets should be Spring Festival couplets, which evolved from "Fu Tao". Fu Tao was born in the Qin Dynasty. At that time, Fu Tao was written with the names of "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" Er Shen on a crimson mahogany board, or painted with their images to ward off evil spirits and pray for happiness.
With the appearance of parallel prose and the development of Tang poetry in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the content of "Fu Tao" is also updated, resulting in two dual "Fu Tao Poems", which is the earliest prototype of Spring Festival couplets. "Spring Festival in Qing Yu, Spring Festival in Changchun"-these two poems are recognized by most people in the couplets circle as the earliest Spring Festival couplets.
During the Spring Festival, the custom of hanging "picking symbols" on the portal website continued in the Song Dynasty. In Wang Anshi's Yuanri poem, "Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old ones." This "new peach" is the "peach rhyme" of the new topic. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, couplets carved on wooden pillars appeared in palaces, official doors, temples and Buddhists, and were later called "couplets". According to relevant records, the earliest birthday couplets, elegiac couplets and inscribed couplets were also produced at that time.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was known as the "couplet of the Emperor", passed an imperial edict on the 30th of the year: "A pair of Spring Festival couplets must be posted on the doors of public officials and scholars". Overnight, from the palace giants to the homes of ordinary people, there were Spring Festival couplets. Sticking Spring Festival couplets has become a custom since the Spring Festival. In the development history of couplets, the feudal emperor Zhu Yuanzhang played an important role.
In the prosperous period of Qian Kang in the Qing Dynasty, the art of couplets reached perfection, with a wide range of subjects and a large number of celebrities and experts.
Today, couplets, a unique art form, are still full of artistic youth and are deeply loved by people. The reason why couplets are enduring for thousands of years is that they have both extensive practical value and artistic appreciation value that appeals to both refined and popular tastes. It can be asserted that as long as Chinese characters exist, couplets with stable antithesis and harmonious rhythm will not disappear.