Traditional Chinese signboards, which began to decline during the early 20th century, may be traced to the later period of primitive society. At that time, humankind had developed from the fishing and hunting stage to the farming stage, with small amounts of surplus products. When coming to fetch water in the mornings, people would bring their limited surplus along to the well, for display and for trade. This practice was called "fair well" (marketplace). This was how fairs or the trading places of later times acquired the term "fair well." According to ancient literature, Shennong or the Divine Farmer, the legendary sage who discovered farming and medicinal herbs, at one time had instructed people about trade. The Chinese classic "Xi Ci Xia" of Zhou Yi clearly documented this:

After the death of Fuxi, Lord Shennong rose... the fair was held at noon, where people from all over the world gathered with their goods. After transactions were made, they left the fair, each to their own homes.

To date, this is the earliest description found of commercial transactions in prehistoric times. As early as 11th century BC, some cities had established a relatively rational market management system under the supervision of professional officers. Moreover, archaeological studies have proven that China possessed coins prior to the 13th century BC. Evidently, early trade transactions, whether through barter or the means of currency, could only be conducted by the displaying of articles, aided by hawking, to communicate supply-and-demand | information. This primitive yet most straightforward means of soliciting business, is still widely applied at fairs because of its simplicity and convenience.
Following the primitive signs displaying goods, there emerged signs showing more abstract designs. The earliest commodity sign, which appeared during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period (770-221 BC), was the wine banner. A type of trade sign in the form of a banner, it was then referred to as "zhi" (meaning "banner" or "flag") or "biao" (meaning "memorial"). In Han Fei Zi, a book on philosophy written at the end of the Warring States Period (476-221 BC) and the Van Zi Chun Qiu. a book recording the words and deeds of Yan Ying, a minister in the Kingdom of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), can be found such descriptions as "wine shops hung their banners high" and "their memorial was quite long."

In 221 BC Emperor Qinshihuang. or the first emperor of Qin. built up his empire, making China a unified centralized feudal country. For nearly a thousand years afterwards, successive central governments implemented a policy of discouraging private commercial merchants while favoring official merchants. Consequently, the private business sector encountered a number of restrictions, while official merchants received exclusive treatment. Trade in the cities was conducted at specified times and locations.

As early as the Zhou Dynasty (1066-256 BC), markets were delimited to the capital city. In accordance with the rules of the Zhou Dynasty, the capital city was divided into nine districts, with a layout resembling the Chinese character "井 "("well"). The central district was the ruler's palace. The district in front of that was the outer court and the market was placed at the back, an arrangement known as "the court in front and the market in the rear." During China's feudal period, all the old dynasties had followed these layout rules when building up their capital cities. With the development of the commodity economy, the pattern of "one city one market" was gradually broken. Some cities opened up new markets outside the rear markets: for example. Chang'an. the capital city of the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) had three markets in all. At ancient markets, there were gates on four sides that were opened at fixed times for merchants to enter and trade goods. Apparently, signs were not a necessity then, as all the goods on display served as the most direct sign. People would simply come and spread out their goods for sale and return home when the markets were closed. For this reason, the only commercial symbols extant prior to the 10th century, as confirmed by historical studies, were market towers, boards and wine banners. Market towers were landmarks of the markets, while market boards were signs of decree given by market administrators. Only wine banners deserve the title of "signs" in an authentic sense.

At first, the wine banner, also called a wine sign, was a piece of cloth without words that was hung high above the wine shop. Since people could catch sight of it from afar, it picked up another name, "Wang zi". meaning "something seen," gradually becoming mistakenly pronounced as "Huang zi." a near homonym of "Wang zi." So we can conclude that not only are wine banners the oldest form of signs, but their name was also derived from "Wang zi," the other name for wine banners. As a matter of fact, all types of shop signs in later periods were derived and developed from the wine banner. Even the advertising banners and huge advertising scrolls hung outside shops, that are a common sight on today's streets, are legacies of those wine banners.