年畫爲我國農曆新年時最爲應景的民間藝術，其款式多樣，色彩豔麗，看似庶民藝術的背後，其實蘊藏著龐大的文化脈絡。而本文將針對年畫中「畫雞」的由來與「雞」如何能鎮宅，提出考證。雞成爲祭品並與太陽密切相關，早在先秦典籍中屢見不鮮，雞一定具有某種神聖性才足以當此重任。爾後，由實體的雞牲再慢慢過渡到畫雞，並與新年前後的節俗漸漸合流，形成民俗體系中的重要環節。雞能對抗無形的惡氣之外，牠也是不少有毒生物的剋星，所以畫雞吃毒蟲的主題，更成爲大宗。除了實質上的避害目的，「雞」與「吉」有諧音關係，人們將更多對美好生活的願望寄託在畫雞上，使得畫雞的內容更加豐富。針對此一龐大的文化現象，筆者梳理文獻、史料的相關記載，並採用人類學、宗教學的觀點，嘗試發現其文化脈絡，藉由「雞牲」到「磔雞」再到「畫雞」的演變，對「雞王鎮宅」一說，勾勒出合理的解釋

Chinese New Year paintings (nianhua) were the most ordinary type of folk art that was seen during the Chinese New Year. This artwork was full of diverse styles and vivid colors. An art form which may seem geared toward ordinary people, these paintings actually contained deep cultural contexts. This paper focuses on the origin of roosters that were found in such paintings. Textual research shows that the rooster was a symbol that represented stabilization of home life. Pre-Qin books state that the rooster was commonly used as a sacrificial offering and was closely related to the sun in ancient times. Thus the rooster took on a certain level of sacredness. Later, sacrifice of roosters transformed gradually to Chinese New Year paintings of roosters. Merged with other folklore regarding Chinese New Year, these paintings have formed an important part of the folk system. Roosters were immune to poisonous air, and were the natural enemy of any toxic creatures. Therefore, roosters eating poisonous insects has become a common theme. In addition to substantially avoiding hazards, the pronunciation of the word 'chicken' is similar with the word 'auspicious' in Chinese. Consequently, such paintings also carry with them a sense of well-wishing. This connection also enriched the content of this genre of paintings. For such a large cultural phenomenon, the author surveyed ancient books and relevant historical records, using anthropologic and religious points of view, to discover its cultural context. The argument of this paper is that a transformation took place from rooster sacrifice to rooster dismemberment, then to rooster New Year paintings. These are used to explain the old Chinese saying 'The rooster king stabilizes the home' and its influence in Chinese culture