Burning paper for the dead is one of the folk traditions in China, which has a history of thousands of years. Burning paper money is like sending a parcel by a post office. It is said that burning paper money is the money of the underworld, and the dead will have money to use in that world, and at the same time they have placed their condolences on the dead.

According to Gao Cheng's "The Origin of Nine Years": "Since the Han Dynasty, people who were buried have lost their money." There are also records about paper money in Historical Records and Biography of Cool Officials: "Someone stole money from Xiaowen Garden." It can be seen that the custom of paper money existed as early as the Han Dynasty. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, when the Southern Dynasties were in Qi Dynasty, people generally used paper to hold money as a sacrifice to the gods. In addition to paper money, there have been more paper men, paper horses and other things, and there have been specialized practitioners ("digging for a business") and shops ("paper horse shops"), which have been in use ever since.

According to legend, after Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his business was booming and he earned a lot of money. Brother Cai Mo and sister-in-law Hui Niang are envious. Huiniang wants Cai Mo to learn papermaking from Cai Lun. But Cai Mo's perseverance is not enough. My husband opened a paper shop in a hurry before he came home. As a result, the poor quality of the paper was ignored, and the couple were worried about the paper in the room. Later, Huiniang came up with a clever plan. On the night of July 15, the neighbors suddenly heard the crying voice from Cai Mo's house. Everyone rushed over to ask, only to know that Huiniang died suddenly last night. The next morning, Cai Mo cried her eyes out in front of Hui Niang's coffin in front of her neighbors. -Cry.-Burn paper. Burning and burning, I suddenly heard something in the coffin. After a while, I heard Huiniang's voice calling inside: "Open the door, open the door quickly, I'm back." . Everyone was stunned and finally got up the courage to open the coffin. Huiniang jumped out and told her neighbors that she had gone to the underworld after her death, and the king of hell made her suffer. Because Cai Mo burned a lot of paper money for her, all the children scrambled to push her. She gave Yan the money again and Yan asked her to come back. Cai Mo deliberately asked, "Didn't I send you money? Huiniang pointed to the burning fire and said, "That's money! The underworld uses paper as money. " Hearing this, Cai Mosheng immediately went to hold two bundles of paper to burn, saying that it would make his parents in the underworld suffer less. Neighbors saw this and found that paper money was very useful, so everyone paid for paper made by Cai Mo. A few days after the news spread, all the newspapers of Cai Mohist School were sold out. As Huiniang returns to Yang on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, people will burn incense and paper for their ancestors on this day. This custom has been passed down to this day.