Most of the tombs in the pre-Qin period were made of animal skins, and historical records also recorded that "the shoes of Xia and Shang dynasties were made of leather." Archaeologists unearthed boots of more than 3,000 years in the five treasures cemetery in Hami, indicating that the nobles were wearing leather shoes at that time. This is mainly because the shoes are in contact with the ground under their feet and are seriously worn. At that time, the choice of raw materials for shoes was very narrow. The best shoes are made of leather, while the rich wear silk shoes. These shoes are very expensive and difficult to make. When courtiers meet the king or offer sacrifices, they should take off their shoes and put them by the door. At this time, they set up an official position in charge of shoes, called "Right Ren". It can be seen that shoes were so precious at that time that ordinary people simply couldn't afford to wear them, so they could only wear Ma Xie. For a long time, China has been a farming economy, facing the loess and facing the sky, working in the fields, and the consumption of shoes is serious, so farmers can only wear straw sandals. At the end of the Han Dynasty, before Liu Bei met Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, he knitted straw sandals to support his family, which shows that there was a great demand for straw sandals at that time.

In fact, shoes made of grass are very simple, just like shoes, which can only protect the soles of the feet. In the muddy ground, it is almost the same as naked, not strong. Many people who do farm work simply don't wear them, and they have become iron feet.

The quality of ancient pavement was not good, either sand or mud, and the wear of soles became a headache. Often the vamp is not damaged and the sole is worn out, so the soles of ancient people are made very thick. Nowadays, in many classical dramas, the ancients wore thick-soled boots, which were artistically processed into the shape of shoes in the current dynasty.

In the era without rubber and plastic, in order to maintain the wear resistance of soles, for a long time, the soles of ancient people were made of wood, and now Japanese clogs are all shoe styles inherited from the Tang Dynasty in China. However, although the wooden foundation protects the soles of the feet and increases the wear resistance, the working people are inconvenient to move and affect production, so farmers simply don't wear shoes in weather with suitable temperature.

In the 1980s, shoes were still very precious in rural areas. I remember my uncle who joined the volunteer army left a pair of black leather shoes after he retired. My father and several uncles regard these shoes as treasures. When anyone wants to go to town or do something important, they take them out and put them on. Usually they only wear handmade Melaleuca shoes at home. My fourth uncle was still wearing this pair of leather shoes when he got married in the 1980 s, which was very decent.

One winter in the early 1990s, I was still cold in a military coat. Relatives of Master Chen, my internship unit, came to him to find a job. They have no shoes, their clothes are thin and they are shivering with cold. The master said that the temperature in Yunnan mountainous area is high, so you don't need to wear shoes in winter. These relatives have never been to the north and have suffered. Several colleagues of Master Chen pooled their money to buy a pair of cotton shoes with black stripes for his fellow villagers, but tied the shoelaces together and carried them on their shoulders, saying that they were not used to wearing them.

Now that the country is strong, the economy is growing substantially, and people's lives are guaranteed, everyone is very particular about wearing shoes, not only pursuing comfort, but also being picky about styles and brands. When young people see the photos of walking barefoot, they should not only be regarded as the mark of history, but also know how to be grateful and cherish.

▲ The picture above shows a quarry in the late Qing Dynasty. There are workers and bosses. You can see the gap between the rich and the poor at a glance. But they all wear shoes on their feet.

▲ If you don't wear shoes, you can't work in the quarry. The people in this photo are also very poor and still wear shoes on their feet.

▲ In the above picture, you are waiting for a coolie on the street, hungry and full. You are the lowest person in society. Look at their feet. They also have shoes, just the simplest straw sandals.

▲ You see, no matter how poor, vagrants and beggars have shoes on their feet.

However, there were indeed many cases of not wearing shoes in the late Qing Dynasty.

Under what circumstances can people wear no shoes? In fact, anyone who owns a piece of land and an enterprise can get a pair of shoes to wear, so that they can work! Unless you have no land and no job, you are forced to beg and wander, and you can't eat. Naturally, shoes don't matter.

▲ For example, in this photo, one person is not wearing shoes, and the other person is suspected of wearing sandals, which is similar to not wearing them. Judging from their clothes, they are either beggars or refugees.

▲ This one is barefoot, and it looks like a beggar at first glance.

Many people who really can't put on shoes are vagrants and beggars, but there are indeed many vagrants in the late Qing Dynasty, such as the Ding Wu famine in Guangxu period, which lasted for four years.

From the first year of Guangxu, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other provinces began to suffer from drought. The drought lasted for four years. The grain is abundant and the land is barren, so the people can only flee everywhere, and there are more than 10 million people who starve to death alone.

20 million victims fled everywhere, and more and more people crossed the river to the south. Most refugees can't fill their stomachs, and people starve to death in the streets everywhere. Life is gone, how do you care about shoes?

Therefore, if you look at the old photos of the late Qing Dynasty, you will find that most of the people who can't afford to wear shoes are beggars and vagrants, which is the sorrow of that era.

The origin of shoes

In ancient times, ancestors lived by hunting and picking. At that time, the environment was harsh. Whether in Shan Ye or in the plain, there were sharp objects such as stones and thorns, which often damaged the soles of the feet. At this time, a wise man tried to wrap his feet and found that walking was very comfortable and safe, and it was still warm!

From this, from one hand to ten hands, from ten hands to a hundred hands, so everyone learned. At the same time, in order to facilitate the acquisition of materials, ancestors used animal skins, bark or tough plants to make foot binding. In this process, some ingenious people cut the skin of animals and weave plants according to the shape of their feet to make the earliest shoes for human beings.

In 1970s, three small pieces of kudzu vine were found in Caoxieshan site in Jiangsu province about 7000 years ago. The Book of Songs, Ge Tan, wrote, "Those who are Ge are applied to the bells and drums, and those who are Mo Mo. Yes, it's a pity, because it's a shame and there is no need to serve. " Among them are fine kudzu cloth and coarse kudzu cloth, and the shoes made by kudzu vine are kudzu vine, that is, straw sandals. This also proves that shoes were born very early and are widely used.

footwear

With the progress of mankind, the development of civilization and the birth of a country, classes have followed!

Before cotton cloth was widely used, fabrics were probably divided into silk and cloth. Silk is made of silk, which is very expensive. It can be used as a currency substitute for a large number of commodity transactions, and is often said together with gold and silver treasures, such as gold and silk wealth. The value of shoes (silk shoes) made of this raw material can be imagined, and only the rich can afford it. Cloth is mostly woven with pueraria lobata and ramie as raw materials, with low cost, simple process and convenient production, which has become the standard for ordinary people.

In order to divide the ranks and distinguish them from the general public, the rulers have formulated strict laws on clothing! Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty wrote in The Story of the Spring and Autumn Period: Clothing System: "Scattered people dare not take variegated colors, and hundreds of businessmen dare not take foxes ...". "History of the Later Han Dynasty, Yu Fu Zhi" wrote, "... you can't take his clothes unless you are a man, so you are obedient". The same is true in the Song Dynasty: Records of the History of the Song Dynasty: "Shu Ren, merchants and geisha are not officials who pity others, but only wear clothes of soap and white, ...".

Unless you are a man, you can't obey. Simply put, it means "don't wear what you shouldn't wear, I'll punish you." Therefore, there are rules for the shoes under your feet. The rulers wear silk shoes and boots, while the poor can only wear cloth and linen. The colors cannot be bright, mainly black, blue and white, so the rich have black shoes and white socks, and the poor only have barefoot sandals. Up to now, most old-fashioned cloth shoes are blue and black, which stems from this.

Most of the old photos without shoes now are caused by the working environment. For example, the coolie on the dock carries heavy objects every day, and his feet are hard. Sandals and cloth shoes are not strong enough to eat and rot after a few times, so most of them walk barefoot when working. You see, as coolies, there is no rickshaw puller without shoes, and the environment is different. There are also farmers who can't work with shoes on, and most of the land is close to home. Most of the rural areas are dirt roads, which don't hurt their feet, so barefoot is the norm. Just last year, when I was on a business trip in Jiangxi, I could see farmers transplanting rice barefoot, rushing home and going barefoot. ) Those who didn't go barefoot when visiting relatives were all dressed up.

Shoes are essential for human beings, but they are artificially divided into three or six grades, and people who wear shoes also have grades. In fact, why ancient times, today? Ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, can be avoided!

It's not like you can't afford shoes. In ancient farming society, no matter whether the rich or the poor wore shoes, most people could make shoes from local materials, such as straw sandals. The main reason for barefoot is to keep feet close to nature in warm weather, because at that time, modern sharp tools such as nails and glass were not needed to hurt feet.

Needless to say, in ancient times, the poor could not afford to wear shoes, and even at the beginning of the founding of New China, many people could not afford to wear shoes. I was born in that era. I remember going barefoot when I was a child and washing my feet and wearing clogs at night. Wear patched clothes at ordinary times, and only wear new clothes on holidays. How many people are still in rags? As for shoes, who doesn't have several pairs of shoes worn in different seasons? It's just that some young people don't know if they are lucky.

Things are better here. Ordinary people basically have shoes to wear. In summer, they wear clogs, commonly known as gada boards. In winter, they have cotton shoes. Some people wear them. A tie is actually a piece of pigskin tied to their feet with a belt, and cotton wool or soft grass is placed on the soles of their feet to keep them warm. Spring and autumn are cloth shoes. There are children without mothers, no one makes shoes, and no one goes barefoot. It is said that winter is very cold. As soon as I saw the cow shit, I put my foot in to keep warm. But it takes a lot of effort and materials to make shoes, so we cherish them very much. Some people walk barefoot in warm seasons. But rich people must wear them. According to my grandmother, their family used to make their own leather shoes and paint them themselves.

As can be seen from the old photos now, people in ancient times took photos almost barefoot. Why? Today, let's analyze why.

One of the reasons:

At that time in ancient times, it was not because people didn't want to wear shoes, but because they were too poor to afford shoes. Moreover, there was no family planning in ancient times, so there were almost no fewer than five or six children in a family. Originally, the family was too poor to even afford to eat, but with so many children to support, how could they care about wearing shoes? At that time, the most important thing was to be alive, and people outside had no time to take care of it.

The second reason is:

Ancient people have many historical traditions, and the historical tradition of "borrowing clothes instead of shoes" is one of them. Why can you lend clothes to others, but you can't lend shoes to others? Because the older generation thinks that children wearing other people's clothes will bring good luck, and borrowing clothes means borrowing good luck and does not affect their own fortune.

The third reason:

The ancients firmly believed that "barefoot people are not afraid to wear shoes", which is a proverb. Barefoot refers to a person who has nothing. They have nothing to lose, so they are carefree and dare to do anything. Those who wear shoes refer to people with status, status and money. Most of them are afraid to do risky things, and they are always afraid of these "barefoot" when looking forward to doing things, because barefoot often makes the wearer pay a considerable price. At the same time, it also expresses the fearless mentality of the people.

The economic conditions of the ancients limited their development, otherwise they might be more creative in this era.

Text: Shi Hai is on board.

The quality of ancient pavement was not good, either sand or mud, and the wear of soles became a headache. Often the vamp is not damaged and the sole is worn out, so the soles of ancient people are made very thick. Nowadays, in many classical dramas, the ancients wore thick-soled boots, which were artistically processed into the shape of shoes in the current dynasty.