Shenshu and Yulü

The earliest record of Shenshu and Yulü occurs in a passage quoted from Shanhaijing (; Classic of Mountains and Seas) in Wang Chong (d., c. 97 AD)'s Lunheng (, "Discourses in the Balance", although the passage is not found in surviving recensions of the Shanhajing, and another corroborative source of this period, Ying Shao's Fengsu Tongyi ( 195) These sources add that the decorations are put up on New Year's Eve, or to quote more literally "the night before the La rites" (La 臘; held at the end of the year; precursor of Laba Festival). The peach figures, also called taogeng () are wood carvings. This legend has been commented on as the traceable origin myth for the cult of the posting of the Menshen gate deities, and in later times, different deities have superseded them as gate gods to a large measure, but regionally, Shenshu and Yulü still continue to be employed as the New Year's guardian gate gods. == Later history ==

The carven peachwood figures (taogeng, etc.) were later simplified using peachwood boards, known as peach[wood] charms (taofu; ), and portraits of Shenshu and Yulü were drawn on the boards, or their names written on them. The Qing dynasty period scholar Yu Zhengxie (Guisi cungao 癸巳存稿, Book 13) conjectured that originally there were not two door gods, but perhaps one, though this was evidently based on a misinterpretation of the quote from a classic work. But the question of 1 god or 2 as a moot argument for Yu, whose main thesis was that the gate gods Shenshu and Yulü originated from the concept of the "peachwood mallet/hammer" (taozhui or taochui; ). ==Explanatory notes==