The earliest lucky money appeared in the Han Dynasty.

What is the original meaning or the earliest function of lucky money? The earliest lucky money in history appeared in the Han Dynasty, but it was not used for circulation, but an exorcism. On the front of coins used to "suppress old age", auspicious characters such as "Long live the Millennium" and "eliminate disasters" and auspicious patterns such as dragons, phoenixes, turtles and snakes are generally cast. There are many versions of legends about the origin of lucky money. Online "Baidu" found that the generally accepted legend is that every year on the 30th night of the lunar calendar, a demon named "Chong" comes out to harm people and specially touches the head of a sleeping child. The touched child immediately became sick with fever, and became a dementia fool after the fever was gone.

Coins contain magical colors.

A couple has an eldest son. In order to prevent children from being "spoiled", they wrapped eight copper coins in red paper and put them on their son's pillow after dinner. Sure enough, "Chong" appeared in front of the sleeping child in the dead of night, and was about to reach out and touch the child's forehead. The copper coins on the pillow gave off golden light, and "Chong" was scared away. After the news spread, everyone followed suit and wrapped money in red paper to "exorcise evil spirits" and "suppress special things" for children on New Year's Eve. Because the pronunciation of "year old" and "year old" is the same, over time, "lucky money" is called "lucky money"

As for the function of the "lucky money", even the official history such as "Learning from Our Fathers" has been "proved". In the 26th volume of the book, when it comes to the birth of Yang Guifei, it is said that "Xuanzong personally saw it and gladly gave it to her." The "money laundering for children" mentioned here is not only a congratulatory message, but also a talisman to ward off evil spirits.

According to historical records, from the Han Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the main purpose of giving lucky money to the younger generation during the Spring Festival was the same as that of "giving money to wash children" in Tang Xuanzong, that is, to ward off evil spirits.

In modern times, with the appearance of elders giving their children an ocean during the Spring Festival, the meaning of lucky money has changed a lot. Since then, the function of "exorcising evil spirits" of lucky money has gradually come to an end, and its new "inspirational" functions such as "one book for all", "expanding financial resources" and "rising step by step" have emerged ... Why can money bear the heavy responsibility of exorcising evil spirits? This is related to the mysterious color of China ancient currency as soon as it appeared. As we all know, the earliest currency in China is "shellfish", that is, seashells, turtle shells and other natural materials. Especially the tortoise shell, the longevity of the tortoise has brought mysterious colors to people, and the peculiar shape of the tortoise shell has stimulated people's rich imagination. Therefore, coins made of tortoise shells are naturally regarded as supernatural things by the ancients, and they have a mysterious power.

In this way, "money" has become an ideal tool for people to predict fortunes. With the development of productive forces, people gradually turned their eyes from natural materials such as tortoise shells to metal materials, so there appeared copper imitation coins, knife coins and cloth coins.

Of course, the most powerful is Qin Shihuang, whose copper coin "Confucius Brothers" ruled for two thousand years. The popularity of the copper coin "Brother Kong Fang" has a lot to do with its "round place" shape. The round place comes from "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments, and two instruments give birth to four images ..." In the Book of Changes. This shows that money has been endowed with charm and magic power from the beginning to the evolution. From this perspective, it is also reasonable for ordinary people to use this thing to "ward off evil spirits".