Was there torture of little girls in ancient times?

The purpose of foot binding is to limit the growth of feet and bend the feet that have already grown, so the younger the foot binding, the softer the feet and the easier it is to get entangled. But it's too early to tie her feet now, and I'm afraid she won't be able to walk when she's wrapped up, and she's too young to bear the pain. Therefore, it is generally not until women can walk that foot binding begins. In China, they are even one year old when they are born, and three years old when they can walk on average, so that their feet can develop. The customs of different places are different, and the age of foot binding is also different. Shiori Sakura Sun San's Miscellaneous Notes on Typhoon: "When a girl is five or six years old, that pair is long and tight enough to be scattered and bound, so that the toe is bent back less than curled, and she can only walk with a stick or shoulder." Lin Qinnan's poem about women with little feet: "Only when they are five or six years old can they win clothes, and A Niang does foot binding ..." Zheng's article teaches women with dangerous words: "Women foot binding ... or when they are four or five years old, or when they are seven or eight years old, harsh words will destroy their bones ..." Thirty years ago, the decoration of men and women in Beijing was represented by thick axes:

The collection of beriberi was written in the first year of Xianchun (AD 1274). Since the Song Dynasty, when women were four or five years old, people began to bind their feet. If they are old and the mobility of joints and ligaments disappears, it is not only difficult to wrap them small, but also more painful to wrap them, so they can be wrapped at the age of seven or eight and wrapped after the age of ten. When is the best time to start packing in a year? Because the feet are burning when wrapping, it is generally recommended to start wrapping when the weather is cold in autumn. Gu Tieqing, a A Qing, said in Jia Qinglu: "On August 24th, glutinous rice and red beans were cooked into balls to offer sacrifices to the stove, so the little girls chose to bind their feet on this day, saying that the binding of feet with eating balls could make their calves soft." Because foot binding is to worship Little Foot Niang, and August 24th is Little Foot Niang's birthday, most women will choose that day to start foot binding, and some people choose "auspicious day for foot binding" to start foot binding.

Second, the preparation and binding process before foot binding

Matters to be prepared before foot binding:

1, six blue packages. It takes about eight to ten feet or more, and the wrapping cloth is longer than usual, and it should be well pulped so that it will not squeeze out wrinkles when wrapped on the feet.

2. Five pairs of flat shoes. The shape of the shoes is slightly pointed, and the size and width of the shoes should become smaller and thinner with the process of foot binding.

3. Two or three pairs of sleeping shoes. Wear it when sleeping to prevent the parcel cloth from coming loose.

4. Needle and thread. After wrapping the cloth, sew the seam and the head of the cloth tightly.

5. cotton. When binding feet, the protruding part of the foot bone should be padded with cotton when wearing shoes, so as to avoid rubbing feet and corning.

6, footbath and hot water. Wash feet with warm water before foot binding.

7, small scissors, manicure, corns.

Trial winding:

When binding feet, let the girl sit on a low stool, put hot water in the footbath and wash her feet. While the feet are still hot, bend the other four toes outside the big toe as far as possible to the center of the feet, and sprinkle alum powder between them to make the skin converge and prevent mold infection. Then wrap them in cloth and sew them with needle and thread to fix them. Feet often feel hot after being wrapped, and experienced people don't wrap them viciously from the beginning.

Try tight:

When winding, slowly tighten, so that the pressure on the skin of the feet is tighter every time. Don't be too tight at this time. Take the small pain that the foot can bear as the degree. During this period, bend your toes so that your feet roll down slightly. When wrapping, wrap the second and fifth toes in advance and let them roll up to your feet, and the third and fourth toes roll up to your feet. Trial binding takes several days to two months. During this period, the foot-binding cloth will be beaten into a pulp, wrinkles will be removed, and the foot will be slightly wrapped tightly, so that the foot will be subjected to the pressure of hard foot-binding cloth and tight wrapping, and then it can really be wrapped hard.

Tip wrap (toe wrap):

When winding, the cloth should be rolled as tightly as possible. Every time you untie the rewind, you should tighten your four curled toes inward from the soles of your feet. Bend your toes and press them under your feet every time you wrap them. At the same time, the four curled toes should move backwards one by one from the sole of the foot to the heel, so that there is a certain space between the toes to avoid the toes being crowded together and the toes being too thick after wrapping the feet. Wrap it until the little toe is under the waist and the second toe is under the big toe joint. When wrapping the tip, you often have to twist your toes to the soles of your feet so that they can't bend, and then clamp them tightly with a coated cloth. When dressing, the toe joint of the second toe and the toe joints of the third, fourth and fifth toes are greatly twisted, and several sprained joints are injured every time. It hurts when you wrap it. You have to sew it tightly. When walking, the weight is pressed on the eight toes that kneel in the inner bend, and the joint sprain is more serious. Because the toes just bend inward, they are not close to the soles of the feet. It is easy to grow corns on your toes when walking, and often remove corns with a needle when necessary.

During the day, my feet hurt so much that I can't move a step. Putting your feet in the quilt at night is not only painful, but also sultry, sometimes as painful as burning charcoal. You can only put your feet outside the quilt when you sleep. It is common to get up in the middle of the night and cry at my feet. Some of them hurt so much that I had to untie the foot wrap, but when I was found, I was just beaten up and then went back hard. I often stay up all night and stick my feet against the wall to cool down. You have to unwrap the cloth and wrap it tighter. At the end of the third, fourth and fifth days, the toe joint will be severely sprained or even dislocated. When you sprain and dislocate, your feet will swell badly and your skin will turn purple, which is extremely painful. But the package is still tight day by day until the swollen toe is wrapped under the foot, which is the work of wrapping the toe, and then the work of wrapping thin can be carried out.

Thin package (foot binding):

When tiptoeing, all four toes have curled up under the soles of your feet, but they may not be able to lean on the soles of your feet. The work of wrapping thin is to push the toe bone (that is, the exoskeleton) of the little toe down and roll it into the sole of the foot, bend the heel of the little toe down to the inside of the sole of the foot, and then tie it tightly with a coating cloth, so that the second, third, fourth and fifth toes will not be pressed under the sole of the foot when wrapping the toes, but should be wrapped thin.

When wrapped thin, the foot wrap is tightly wrapped, and the whole strength is especially concentrated in the heel of the little toe. Often due to poor blood circulation, the heel of the little toe, that is, the position of the external bone, festers. When winding, push the little toe down, then push the four toes to the inner edge of the sole, and wrap the foot cover tightly. After winding, your feet may hurt for a long time and you can't walk. You have to struggle to walk with your heels. It hurts when you walk. It hurts when you sit down, but it hurts when you sleep. If your feet fester, the situation will get worse. You have to put a pillow and quilt on the mat, and sometimes you have to put your heel on the railing of the bed to suppress your nerves to feel better. When the weather is hot, it hurts more when the feet are hot. Sleep when the pain is light, your feet still twitch with pain, or wake up frequently all night, and your diet is tasteless. Untie the wrapping cloth, often the festering part is tightly attached to the wrapping cloth, and when it is barely torn off, it is already bloody. It takes almost six months to endure the pain until the toes are copied to the inside of the foot and the toes can be touched from the inner edge of the foot, which is considered as thin as a house. If the ulcerated wound is not handled properly, it will often become more and more serious. In the end, it will even lead to the decay and shedding of the little toe to form chronic osteomyelitis, which will not heal for many years. Therefore, it takes a lot of hardships to tie a pair of feet. No wonder women who bind their feet care for their feet more than anything else.

Bending (foot wrap surface):

After the sole of the foot is wrapped thin, the work of wrapping and bending is carried out. The deeper the indentation, the more serious the arch of the sole. The sole of the foot is folded into two parts, and the front of the sole is close to the heel. The middle seam is sometimes as deep as four or five centimeters, and the little toe is caught in the deep seam. Because of the bending of the sole of the foot, the instep bulges upward into a high slope shape, and some poorly wrapped instep bulges upward like a ball. After wrapping, the length of the foot is obviously shortened. The standard foot is required to be three inches long, which is about 10 cm. The process of wrapping is to push the heel forward, press the instep down, and then tighten the toes back and forth. After this bundle, the big toe hangs down immediately, and the foot center is slowly concave. Then, it's very difficult. The more you bend the bow, the more you can wrap your feet in about half a year. Generally speaking, when the feet are bound and bent, the pain is slightly relieved, but in some places in the south, the soles of the feet are not very hard. I didn't wrap my feet until I was a teenager, and I was very short. At this time, the pain was so severe that I even rolled on the bed with pain. If you don't have enough time to wrap your feet thin, you can wrap them directly. Often after you wrap it, your feet will turn inward and bend inward, and the foot shape like a banana is ugly. Feet bend from straight to arch bridge, and then into horseshoe shape, until the toes and heels are close together, and the arch can no longer be shrunk, which is considered as a pair of standard feet.

The process of foot binding is simply that when wrapping the tip, the outer four toes curl and the outer longitudinal arch of the sole bends. When the package is thin, the lateral arch of the foot bends downward and further bends the lateral longitudinal arch. The medial longitudinal arch of the foot flexes only when wrapped, and the lateral longitudinal arch flexes more thoroughly. After the foot is wrapped, the arch on the sole of the foot to cushion the impact force disappears, and the knee joint and ankle joint are used as buffers when walking. Because the sole of the foot is so thin that only the big toe is left, the force of pushing the sole forward when walking is very small, and most of them follow the ground with their feet, using the strength of the thighs to move, and the calf muscles are underdeveloped. Therefore, after the feet are tied, the calves become thinner, while the thighs become thicker. Some people use the big toe ball and heel to work together when walking, so walking becomes an external eight-character walk, which is also a common form of walking with small feet.

Third, special wrapping methods.

The process of foot binding is mainly to twist the joints, twisting the horizontal and vertical arches on the feet to the maximum, so the standard method of foot binding is to twist the joints to the maximum, and sprain and dislocation are almost inevitable. When the joints are twisted, the feet naturally curl up in a small bow, which is a normal method of foot binding. However, there are also some cases where young girls start foot binding late, or they don't understand the correct method of foot binding, or some requirements are foot binding.

Sandwich bamboo chips:

This is a common method in the north. Foot binding in the north is heavier and thinner. So after being wrapped thin, all toes are upturned to the soles of the feet. Although the inner and outer edges of the soles of the feet are slender, there are several positions protruding from the joints. If you want to wrap it thinly, use two bamboos, put them around the soles of your feet and wrap them tightly with wrapping cloth. If you wrap it tightly, the hard bamboo will cling to the joints of your feet. It is very painful to know that the protruding parts of the joints often fester because of friction. Even so, many people in the north, especially in Shanxi Province, still wrap their feet in rows with bamboo clips. The purpose is not only to wrap the foot very thin, but also to wrap the big toe very thin and narrow, and the heel can also be wrapped very thin and narrow, so that the whole foot is wrapped narrow and straight, as thin as a willow leaf. Therefore, although girls often cry day and night when they are wrapped, they still swallow their tears for a pair of thin, tall and proud feet. Similar to the wrapping method of bamboo, some people use bamboo with a width of about 3 cm to wrap the heel on both sides and the back, which helps to make the heel smaller. Others use copper plates or concave wooden blocks to wrap the inside and outside ankles of the feet. Others are afraid that the foot will protrude too much to form a goose head when bending, so they wrap it on the foot with copper coins. All these methods are to bind the feet with hard objects and transform the dissatisfied feet.

Slate oppression:

In the past, many electrical appliances at home were made of stone, and the chopping board for grinding stones or washing clothes was the easiest thing for women to get. So when the feet were not wrapped satisfactorily, someone took a slate to press their feet. Slate presser foot is most commonly used when the foot tilts inward and rotates inward. Under normal circumstances, when the foot is wrapped and bent, it bends down directly, but the outer longitudinal arch is not wrapped, that is, when it is not wrapped thin, the big toe will bend inward. The way to correct this problem is to take off the bow shoe tray and sit with your feet facing each other. Put your feet on a hardwood board and press them with a heavy slate. When you just press them, your bent feet will be oppressed. Of course it will be painful. After pressing it for an hour, your feet will be paralyzed from below the knee. Sometimes you have to press them on the slate by hand to increase the weight, so that your feet can be corrected. Usually, you can press it for a month or two every day, and you can see the effect.

My legs are numb after the slate is pressed. Some people think that numbness is due to poor blood circulation, and they are afraid that poor blood circulation in the feet will lead to foot necrosis. Therefore, after the stress is numb, many girls will be asked to get up and walk or do sweeping work. However, how to walk when your feet are numb, sometimes it takes two people to support the blood circulation around you. Slate pressing generally adopts the method of sitting pressure. Some people put on sleeping shoes when they sleep, put them on the board, and then press the slate. The purpose of slate foot pressing is to improve the shape of crooked feet. Some people just use slate to press their feet thin.

Wrapped in broken porcelain:

This is broken into sharp particles with cups, bottles, bowls, dishes and other worn-out porcelain. When binding feet, put them on the soles of the feet, usually on the back of toes and under the soles of feet, wrap them with foot binding cloth, and then force the girl to walk, so that sharp porcelain pieces pierce the toes and soles of feet and cut her feet. After the foot was cut, blood oozed and the bandage cloth stuck tightly. When repainting, the binding cloth often can't be untied and needs to be torn with foot washing water. Although the broken porcelain pieces were carefully taken out, blood was inevitably oozing again. The wound on both feet will be soaked in hot water, and it will be red and swollen after several times, and the foot wrap will stick more tightly. When the package is torn off, it will be torn off along with the skin and blood. This way of wrapping is really bloody and cruel, incredible. Sharp porcelain sticks to your feet, and you have to walk around. Broken porcelain sticks deeper. Toe is the most sensitive part of nerve, and there is no soft tissue on the back of toe. It is a bone under the skin. Walking on sharp tiles is really like being tortured. The custom of foot-binding is cruel enough, but some people even derive such foot-binding technique. This method of foot binding is not a special case of one person in one place. As far as I know, in Shanxi, Taiwan Province, Henan, Gansu, Hebei and other places where foot binding is popular, the purpose is to inflame the muscles of toes and soles, and then further wrap them with broken porcelain pieces to cut thorns. The original inflamed tissue festers into pus and blood, and the feet are not only particularly slender, but also the joints and ligaments become easily twisted and bent. Therefore, there is a saying that "feet will soon become smaller when they are cooked." When the feet fester, the smell is very heavy, and the unpleasant smell of decay and necrosis makes people inaccessible. This is called hair.

Some people not only wrap tiles under their feet, but also cut large pieces of broken tiles on your feet, cutting the skin and muscles on your feet, causing them to fester, fester and fall off early. Some people smashed broken porcelain into porcelain slag, soaked the foot-binding cloth first, and then applied a layer of porcelain slag on it, and wrapped it with such a layer of foot-binding cloth full of porcelain. When wrapping feet, corns often grow on them. According to experience, when corns are still very small, they should be quickly picked out with a big needle. Some mothers help their daughters take off their corns from their feet, and then deliberately stab them everywhere with needles, making thousands of holes. This practice has the same purpose as wrapping them with broken porcelain. It is to make their feet hurt, fester and fester on purpose, so that one foot can be wrapped. Broken porcelain is tangled, which is really incredible. The cruel pain of entanglement can be imagined. It's hard for mothers to settle down like this. Therefore, the examples I collected all happened under the relationship of adopted daughter, stepmother or mother-in-law and child bride. Of course, there are also older girls who resent their big feet and are determined to get angry and wrap their feet in this way.

Rod hammer:

When tying feet, girls often steal cloth for fear of pain, or cry and dodge and refuse to wrap it. Mother often doesn't listen, often picks up whips and vines and gets angry everywhere. Sometimes I am so angry that I beat my feet on purpose. This is a punishment for forcing girls to bind their feet with slender sticks. However, in the old society, when people bound their feet, they actually beat their toes with a wooden stick about an inch thick, which made them break and dislocate, easily bending and winding thin. The wooden sticks used include hammers and rolling pins that beat the cloth when washing clothes and sizing. Wrap your feet tightly first, and then hammer them with a club until your toes are dislocated and broken. In this way, your feet are not only easy to wrap thin and small, but also very soft and soft, leaving your feet boneless. This example is a means used by brothel madam to decorate young girls, and some stepmothers treat their daughters like this. It can be said that it is more cruel than torture. It is painful enough for girls to bend their toes when they wrap their feet, and they have to beat their toes with a club hammer.

Wrapping bamboo chips, slates, broken porcelain chips and hammers is not a common method for foot binding. It can be said to be a special case, but it is really special. It originated from the custom of foot binding. Some practices are incredible, but each method can find several records with different backgrounds, and can tell some truth and make people believe. In addition to these special ways of wrapping, there are even more absurd and cruel practices. Looking at these ways of foot binding, people can't help wondering where the difference between foot binding and abuse is.

Fourth, the maintenance of Jinlian.

It is hot and humid in the south and cold and dry in the north, so southerners often wash their feet, while northerners can wash their feet every few days. Usually southern women have to wash their feet once every one to three days, while northern women have to wash their feet once every seven to ten days. Washing feet is a very simple thing for ordinary people, but it is a very important and time-consuming thing for women who bind their feet. After they wrap their feet, they are most afraid of being seen, so when they wash their feet. Boil a pot of hot water, prepare polished stone, dry cloth, scissors, alum powder, wrapping cloth and fragrant powder for foot washing, then sit in a small chair and untie the leg straps, decorative pants, bow shoes and cloth socks on your feet layer by layer. When you untie the cloth, blood will rush into your feet with the cloth. The numbness is abnormal, so you need to untie it slowly, especially in the last layer, because of sweating. The hotter the foot washing water, the better, which can promote blood circulation and increase the softness of feet. Some people add fragrant flowers and spices to the water and rub their feet with their hands after hot soaking. Feet that have been wrapped for a long time have a special stickiness. Wash off the sticky layer slowly by hand and clean the deformed toes one by one. The broken soles of the feet and the little toes hidden in the soles of the feet are the most difficult parts to wash, and then the toes are ground off with a light stone. To pick it off with a long needle or trim it off with a small scissors, the toes curl in the center of the feet, and the toe ends are often trapped in the folds of the soles. As soon as the toenails grow out, they will stab into the meat, so you have to pull out the deformed toes one by one, trim them short and put them in the same pit. In order to wrap the big toe sharp and vivid, there is great pressure on both sides and it is easy to be punctured by toenails, so the toenails of the big toe should be cut short. Some people press their hands before wrapping Trollius chinensis, press them several times in the direction of their ideal feet, and sprinkle alum powder on their feet, especially at the joints of their toes, which can remove moisture and make their feet not rot easily. Some people sprinkle powder on their feet to increase the fragrance of their feet, so that they can be wrapped in washed wrapping cloth. When wrapping, each layer should be cut tightly so that the feet will not be washed more and more. You have to raise your feet for a few hours, then untie several layers of foot wraps and tie them again. When your feet are wrapped, you can wear socks and shoes. Because the decorations on the feet are made according to their own size, they are very close to the feet, so it takes a lot of time to wear socks and shoes, and it often takes an hour or two to wash your feet at a time.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) An overview of foot types in different regions

China has a vast territory, and the methods, ages, requirements and order of foot binding vary from place to place, which also leads to the unique lotus shape in different places. Generally speaking, northerners are taller, and the script is longer than that of southerners, so it will be wrapped longer than that of southerners. However, due to the cold weather in the north, their feet are not easy to fester and tinea for a long time, and they don't need to wash their feet often, so they are easier to wrap up than southern women, and shoes in the north are more powerful.

It's hot in the south, and the cloth or shoes are too thick for my feet. When wrapping, there is no thick layer of protection under the toes, which is not convenient for walking. Therefore, southern women's foot binding focuses on bending, and the purpose of being short can be achieved by using the shorter foot shape and arch of southerners. In Taiwan Province Province or Dongguan, Shunde, Guangdong Province, there are often foot-binding as small as two inches, as short as the north.

The characteristics of northerners' feet are pointed and thin, because they are tightly wrapped and generally softer than southerners. This is a general distribution, and the actual situation varies from place to place. In the Qing Dynasty, several regions in China were famous for their feet, and each region had its own characteristics:

Jiangsu Yangzhou feet-slender and straight

The foot of Ningbo, Zhejiang-short and long back, round like a horseshoe.

Yiyang feet in Hunan-thin and short, straight instep.

Guangdong Shunde jiao-short and sharp

Shanxi Datong Foot-the most famous foot in China, can combine the laws of "thin, small, sharp, curved, fragrant, soft and upright".

Small feet in Fujian and Taiwan-short thick heel and convex back

Suzhou feet-the tip is slightly upturned and the feet are fat and soft.