The custom originated from ancient times when people were ignorant of the law of the nature. They couldn't explain such events as droughts, floods, earthquakes and accidents in a scientific way. They believed that it was the devils that brought them misfortunes. They also believed the devils could be avoided or driven away in a magic way. So at the beginning of each year, each family would hang two peach boards on both sides of the entrance into the house. The figures of gods carved on the boards were said to be powerful to prevent the devils from entering the house.

There is also a story about why peach boards were used. According to a legend, in the East Sea there used to be a beautiful mountain named Dushuo. On it there was a 3000-year-old peach tree. The tree was so tall that a branch bent with its top touching the ground. The bending branch formed an entrance. Devils had to go through this entrance to go out of the mountain. The Celestial Ruler knew that they would go out and do wrong to people. To stop the devils, he ordered two of his generals to guard at the entrance. They were empowered to arrest any devil going out.

Villagers around learned this. They copied this practice and placed two peach boards on either side of the door. At first they carved images of gods on the boards. Later they simplified the work by drawing the images. Still later, they simply wrote some words on two sheets of paper. The words were mostly incantations, which were thought to be magically effective to stop devils.

By Five Dynasties (907-960), someone in the royal court began to write distiches on paper instead of carving or drawing pictures or writing incantations. The lines are vertically arranged with the same length. As distiches usually express people's wish for prosperous life and appear in a very beautiful artistic form, hanging distiches in the Spring Festival soon became a popular practice throughout China.