The Origin of Children's Painting in China

According to ancient books, a long time ago, there were two brothers named Shen Tu and Lei Yu who specially supervised ghosts. When they find harmful ghosts, they tie them up and feed them to tigers. So the Yellow Emperor painted portraits of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the portal to prevent ghosts. This myth is the reason why the "door god" painting came into being later. It is said that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty ordered Wu Daozi to paint Zhong Kui.

There is also an interesting legend about "door children's painting". During the reign of Emperor Taizong, King Jinghe violated Heaven, and the Jade Emperor decreed that he should be beheaded. The executioner is Wei Zhi, the prime minister of the world. Yuan Shoucheng, the dragon king of Jinghe River, came to Taizong's dream and asked Taizong to stall him when Wei Zhi was executed and beheaded. Emperor Taizong agreed. On the day of beheading, Emperor Taizong invited Wei Zhi to play chess, and Wei Zhi fell asleep.

Door child painting is one of the traditional folk crafts of Han nationality. Originated in ancient China, what we can't understand is regarded as a magical power, which is closely related to people's daily life and can't explain scientific reasons. Then there is the image of the door related to people's life that was first painted on the door to ward off evil spirits.