What is foot binding?

Foot binding, also known as foot binding, began at the end of the Five Dynasties. From the cultural relics excavated underground and ancient documents, we know that the shape of men's and women's shoes was the same before the Five Dynasties. During the reign of Li Yu, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties, she indulged in music, poetry, singing and dancing, and drank and had fun with concubines all day long. There was a concubine named Yan Niang in the palace, who was originally the daughter of an official family, but later became a prostitute in Jinling because of her poor family. She was born slim and good at singing and dancing, and was favored by Li Yu. Li Yu's imperial edict is to build a golden lotus platform, which is six feet high and decorated with treasures. The net belt is tassel, and all kinds of red lotus flowers are inlaid in Taichung. Let your mother tie her feet with silk, bend down to make a new moon, dance in the lotus in plain socks, and spin like a lingyun. Li Yu was overjoyed. Since then, in order to maintain and improve the stunt of this dance, in order to stabilize the favored position, Renniang often wraps her feet tightly with white silk. Over time, she wrapped her feet into "red diamonds" and "crescent moons", making her dance more natural and beautiful. When people competed to imitate, after five generations, it gradually formed an atmosphere that swept the whole society.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the old man Taiping wrote & gt further comments: "There are three things in modern times that can't be compared with those in ancient times:' flowers, tea and women's feet'." It can be seen that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the women in Luoyang wrapped their feet in gorgeous peony and the fragrant tea in Jianzhou were hailed as wonders of the world! In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Lingshi wrote the poem "Huanxisha", one of which said: "Bow shoes are stable." Since then, "three-inch golden lotus" has become synonymous with women's feet. By the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, women's foot-binding had become quite common. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was a shame for women not to bind their feet. Women's foot-binding did not begin in the Qing Dynasty, but was pushed up all the time, which was about produced in the Five Dynasties or the early Song Dynasty. Anyway, people in the Tang Dynasty didn't bind their feet. Foot-binding prevailed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the Song Dynasty, only aristocratic women bound their feet, while ordinary women did not. Moreover, the requirements for foot binding at that time were only straight, which was not so bad for later generations.

It is said that ancient women bound feet because Li Yu, queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, liked to watch women dance on the "Golden Lotus". Because the golden lotus is too small, the dancer wraps her feet with white silk and stands on it with her feet bent. When dancing, it is graceful and gentle. At first, it was a dance costume, and then it gradually spread from the harem to the upper class. Later, folk women followed suit and gradually became a common social custom.

Beauty is very important to women. It is an important means and way to get a better life. As for whether we can leave, who cares?

Why is foot binding popular in China? There are roughly two reasons, one is the influence of the ruler's will on people all over the world, and the other is the appreciation and praise of intellectuals. Foot-binding has its origin and is related to rulers. It is said that foot-binding originated from Li Yu, queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who sang "When is the Spring Flower and the Autumn Moon". His concubines wrapped their feet in a crescent shape with cloth and danced on a lotus made of gold. Li Houzhu thought it was the most beautiful, so they began to bind their feet in the harem and later spread to the people. As long as the emperor likes something, it will be welcomed by the people The emperors of the Tang Dynasty liked Taoist culture, and Xuanzong even claimed to be the Taoist emperor. Therefore, Taoism reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Qianlong loved calligraphy and promoted its development. Li Houzhu likes women with small feet, and they all become very popular. There are several opinions about the origin of foot binding, some say it originated from Pan Yunv, the imperial concubine of the Southern Dynasties, some say it originated from the late Tang Dynasty, and some say it originated from Yang Di. But they all had relations with the rulers without exception, which also explained this reason.

Apart from the will of the rulers, that is the influence of literati on social customs. In ancient times, women paid great attention to headdress, and then left it at their feet. The idioms "commenting" and "commenting" all have the meaning of discussing women's appearance and posture. Head and foot have become an important standard of female beauty in the eyes of cultural people. There are many words of praise from intellectuals for Feet, such as "Golden Lotus", "Three-inch Golden Lotus" and "Xianggou". Su Dongpo's "Bodhisattva Man" chants "It's hard to say exquisite, but you must look at it from the palm of your hand", and even sets seven criteria for the beauty of small feet: thinness, smallness, pointiness, bending and so on.

The most standard type is 3 cm wide and 10 cm long [so-called three-inch golden lotus]

A pair of foot wraps, if larger than 4 inches, are called "sticking"; Within 4 inches, it is called "anemone"; As small as 3 inches, it can be called "Golden Lotus".

The tortured foot-binding girl can only use a kind of leaf called "Crystal Phoenix Flower" to smear on carrion, which will relieve the pain a little.

In ancient times, foot binding usually began at the age of five, because at that time the bones were tender and shapeless. The toes were pointed with the thumb of the foot, and the other four points were wrapped with hard objects. The molded feet are in the shape of zongzi (so many people think that the Dragon Boat Festival is an auspicious day for foot binding). It is also necessary to wrap the broken ceramic pieces in the foot cloth, and then wrap them tightly until the blood oozes, once in the morning and once in the evening, until the woman gets married. Once wrapped, it cannot be removed, because it is also a kind of protection.

Foot-binding is a unique phenomenon in China feudal society, and it is one of the manifestations of distorted and deformed social thoughts of feudal rulers. After the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a decree was promulgated to liberate foot binding.

Of the population of China1300 million, less than1000 women are still alive. They are scattered in different provinces of China. In today's Liuyi Village, Yunnan, there are probably the most women who bind their feet in the world. Today, there are still about 22 mother-in-law who bind their feet in Liuyi Village. It is said that because of the remote geographical location of Liuyi Village, when they were young, they didn't know that the China government had banned female foot binding on 1928, so they still had to do it.

In another twenty years, the cruel custom of foot-binding may disappear completely in China.