China is not the birthplace of modern advertising, but the advertising-oriented propaganda mode has appeared very early. In the chapter "Zhou Song's Argument" in the Book of Songs, there is already a poem "Small Guan Bei Ju". According to Zheng Xuan in the Han Dynasty, "Xiao, weaving a small bamboo tube, now the seller blows it." Kong in the Tang Dynasty also explained: "At that time, candy sellers blew Xiao to show themselves." It can be seen that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, candy vendors already knew how to drum up business by blowing pipes. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius' traveling around the world can also be said to be a form of personal advertisement. Besides oral advertisements, the most common thing in ancient China was hanging advertisements. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, a famous painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, depicts the bustling market scene of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty, and advertisements can be seen everywhere in the picture. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Shanghai and other concession areas had become the developed areas of modern advertising in China.

Advertising in Ming and Qing Dynasties

Intellectuals in Ming and Qing Dynasties gradually got rid of the traditional concept of elegance and refinement, and began to set foot in the field of advertising, directly serving commercial advertisements with their own writing expertise (from the middle and late Ming Dynasty). They inscribed signboards, wrote advertising couplets (couplets became more popular after the Qing Dynasty, and all walks of life had their own special couplets, which became a form of commercial advertising), promoted new books and works (advertised with books), and favored woodcut New Year pictures (woodcut New Year pictures were quite popular in the Qing Dynasty), which made the advertising forms in the Ming and Qing Dynasties rich in knowledge and interest, and formed China's unique national style and national style. The national style and features of ancient commercial advertisements in China are best reflected in the signboard advertisements and commercial couplets in text advertisements.

Signboard advertisements were very popular in the Song Dynasty, and by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, both the content and the form were more mature. Signboards in the Ming and Qing Dynasties concentrated on the Confucian idea of "benefiting from righteousness", so they paid attention to business ethics and the reputation of shops in business activities. At this time, the signboard is no longer based on monotonous surnames or neighborhood names, but gives the signboard simple content. Secondly, in the meaning of the logo, some choose auspiciousness as the theme. Thirdly, the content of the signboard also takes the historical story related to the store goods as the theme.