The ancients reasoned that if a peachwood staff could kill even someone so violent and brutal as Yi, then ghosts would also be afraid of the wood. It thus became a folk custom to hang peach tree sticks over the household door to fool ghosts.
古代人認為兇暴如羿之人都被桃杖打死，鬼當然也怕桃杖；民間即有掛桃枝於門楣以驅鬼的做法。