The phenomenon of foot-binding began in the Five Dynasties. Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, wrapped her feet in cloth to make it look like a "crescent moon", wore plain socks and danced on the golden lotus. Li Yu liked it very much after reading it, saying that it was a state of Lingyun.
This fashion first emerged in the palace curtain, and then entered the folk. It was widely circulated in Xining period in northern Song Shenzong, and it regarded foot-binding as a virtue of women, and regarded not foot-binding as a shame. Ma Huanghou, the empress of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was laughed at for her natural big feet.
In the past, girls usually began to bind their feet at the age of five or six. The method is to break the four toes except the big toe and bend them to the soles of the feet with long strips of cloth to form a "three-inch golden lotus" in the shape of bamboo shoots. Its tragic pain can be imagined, which is generally under the pressure of elders. Mothers or grandmothers ignore their children's tears and shouts to fulfill their responsibilities and ensure their children's future marriage.
This kind of artificial disability behavior can be widely popular because it creates a unique "feminine beauty" in an artificial way. Five generations ago, there were poems praising the beauty of women's feet.
After the Five Dynasties, foot binding was even called "Golden Lotus", "Incense Hook" and "Step by Step Lotus". Scholars even summed up Jiao Xiao's "four beauties" (shape, quality, posture and spirit) and "three beauties" (fat, softness and beauty). To the Qing dynasty. Foot binding is very popular, and there are no Han women who don't do it.
Extended data:
Other purposes of foot binding:
Foot binding seems to have another purpose. Because the feet are small and it is inconvenient to walk, letting women wrap their feet can prevent "affair". Just as men in ancient Egypt did not wear shoes for their wives; In medieval Europe, men made chastity belts for women.
In fact, in poor and backward China, except for a few well-off women, most women with feet have to make a living, and they have to pay much more hardships than a woman with feet.
Foot-binding, as a custom, has also led to the formation of other customs, such as the race in Datong, Shanxi Province in ancient times. Women show their feet to people on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month and are proud of winning praise.
Foot-binding was also banned in history. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty explicitly prohibited it, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also promulgated similar laws. It was not until the opening of the sea ban in the late Qing Dynasty that the custom of foot-binding died out very slowly in the constant appeal of foreign cultures and advanced intellectuals. Especially after the Revolution of 1911, foot binding from urban to rural areas was gradually abolished.
Today, we can also see some women who are called "liberating feet" or "half-bound feet", and those real "three-inch golden lotus" are less and less common.
The custom of foot binding. It embodies the unique aesthetic standards in ancient China and the social structure that men are superior to women. Its disappearance shows the liberation of women and the improvement of their status, and also marks the transition of China from tradition to modernity.
Aesthetics: At that time, both men and women thought feet were beautiful, especially for men, feet were very attractive. For example, the word "three-inch golden lotus" represents a noun that praises the beauty of women's feet.
Those less than four inches are called "silver lotus" and those larger than four inches are called "iron lotus", which shows the degree of advocating small feet. Regarding the aesthetics of feet, the most famous work on foot aesthetics is Fang Xuan's "Made in Xiang Lian" in Qing Dynasty, which classifies and comments on women's feet from the perspectives of shape, size, decoration and smell.
There are also "four taboos in Xiang Lian", which say, "Don't stand on tiptoe, sit down and shake your skirt, and lie down and tremble." Gu Hongming loves her feet like a life, and she smells great about women's football.
The influence of the ruler's will on the people of the world. Foot-binding has its origin and is related to rulers. Foot binding began in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty and rose in the Southern Song Dynasty. The royal family and the upper class in the Song Dynasty first began to bind their feet.
"He Lu" records: After four years of advice, "I am very fortunate and suspicious. He frowned and said, "The Jin people drove them away and marched in Wan Li. How can they return to their original state? "... this is sad. "History of the Song Dynasty Five Elements" records: "Li Zongchao, imperial secretary tied his feet straight." This is an example of female foot-binding in the royal family and palace in Song Dynasty.
Su Shi's Bodhisattva Man chanting Buddha's Feet calls women's feet "palace-shaped", and Cao Yuanchong calls them "official" in a poem, which also shows that foot-binding originated from the upper class in the Song Dynasty, such as bureaucrats and nobles. Without exception, it is related to the rulers, which also explains this reason.
Because the emperor and officials thought the feet were beautiful, the ignorant folk regarded them as beautiful, and even called them "three-inch golden lotus". In the eyes of people at that time, little feet were a very important aspect of "female beauty".
No matter how good a woman looks and figure, if she has a pair of small feet or her feet are not small enough (more than three inches), she will be laughed at and will not get married. People completely put aside the damage to the human body and the inconvenience of moving, thinking that small feet are exquisite, exquisite and beautiful, which can be pleasing to the eye, while women with small feet walk unsteadily, like the wind shaking, and look good.
This aesthetic view is really incomprehensible! This kind of "beauty", which goes against nature and health and is based on destroying women's bodies, is an extreme distortion and metamorphosis of real beauty.
It is beneficial to imprison women in boudoir and strictly limit their activities to conform to the ethical code of "three obedience and four virtues", so as to achieve the goal of dominating male chastity according to one's wishes.
Yi Shizhen's "Langya Ji" in the Yuan Dynasty said: "It is said that a saint has a daughter, so it is not easy for him. Because of his foot-binding, he used to live in a boudoir. If he wants to go out, he has a car, so he has nothing to do." For another example, why does it say in the "Improved Daughter Classic": "Why are you wrapped up? Not because it looks like a bow; I am afraid that she will walk out of the house lightly and be bound by countless ties. "
Baidu encyclopedia-foot binding