Foot binding, also known as foot wrapping, also often called wrapping small feet, is an ancient Chinese approach to women from childhood to wrap their feet tightly with cloth, so that the foot bones are deformed, the tip of the foot is small, and walking can only be barely walked with the heel. This kind of ugly custom not only caused the ancient women to be seriously persecuted physically and mentally, but also led to this bad atmosphere lasting for nearly a thousand years in ancient times, which hindered the development of Chinese civilization to a certain extent.
When and where foot binding originated, why it is prevalent, and why it is abolished, it is worth exploring.
There are many theories about the beginning of foot binding, some people say that it began in Southern Qi, some people say that it began with the Golden Lotus Dance code choreographed by Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the dancers and officials wrapped their feet to dance, the dance style was graceful and colorful, and the palace women followed suit. Explicit accounts of foot binding date back to the Song Dynasty, when foot binding was first popular among prostitutes and then gradually affected upper-middle-class women. By the Ming Dynasty, foot binding was gradually popularized among women of the general class, and women in all parts of the Han nationality almost had the custom of foot binding, and some ethnic minorities were also influenced by the Han customs and foot binding.
After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the custom of foot binding reached its peak, although successive emperors have ordered that people are not allowed to tie their feet, but this custom has far-reaching influence and has not achieved much success. Especially in Shandong, Zhili, Henan, Shanxi and several other northern provinces that are most heavily bound by feudal etiquette, the concept of foot binding is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, whether it is men or women, they regard foot binding as one of the signs of women's beauty. In addition, foot binding is also one of the important manifestations of the sexual oppression of women in feudal society, which has a lot to do with sexual desire and satisfying men's sexual interests. According to historical records, if the women at that time had bad feet, they would be disliked by their husbands, and even hughed back to their families.
Generally speaking, girls at the age of 5 to 8 years old, they have to start foot binding, foot binding work, mostly by the mother or female servants familiar with the way of foot binding. Before wrapping the feet, prepare several strips of cloth for wrapping the feet, as well as shoes of different shapes, cotton, needle and thread, ointment, sharp scissors and knives. When preparing to wrap the feet, first let the girl soak her feet with hot water mixed with ointment, the purpose is to make the feet soft, and when the residual temperature on the feet has not yet dissipated, quickly take a cloth to dry the feet, and then pull back and forth the four toes except the big toes, and press them down to the bottom of the feet, so that the four toes are bent to the inside of the soles of the feet. Then, on a red cloth with a talc that can be painted to outline the small foot outline, and then the alum that converges on the skin and prevents inflammation and infection is applied between the toes and the gap, wrapped in a cloth strip, sewn with needles and threads, which completes the first step of foot binding - try tightening.
After three days, the toes had deformed, and then the foot needed to be powdered again, and the foot was re-wrapped with more force than before. After wrapping up, you must also walk around repeatedly to achieve the effect of shaping, and pay attention to posture when walking, otherwise you will be laughed at by others in the future. In a few days, the shroud was unwrapped again, and then the blood on the back of the girl's feet and the corns on the toes were washed, broken, and then cut off with a knife, repeatedly scrubbed in hot water with ointment, washed off the pus and dried, and then re-wrapped, and tighter and tighter, just to make the flesh rotten, bone damage, wrapped in a delicate three-inch golden lotus.
After a few months, the girl's feet were completely deformed, the bent toes became flat and flat, the instep was bent and raised, and there was only a gap between the heel and the forefoot. After half a year, the instep of the foot can bulge into a bow, and the gap between the forefoot and the heel is almost gone.
From the beginning to the final molding, the foot binding basically takes two years, and the length of the final foot should be controlled at about two inches and eight or nine, that is, it cannot exceed 10 centimeters, and at that time, people also pursued the ultimate small foot, thinking that the smaller the foot, the more beautiful, not only small, but also thin, and finally the feet became crescent-shaped, which was qualified.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were also women who did not tie their feet, and some of them were the Manchu Mongol bannermen, the ruling class at that time, who entered the Central Plains from the frontier, were not bound by etiquette, and could not accept women's foot binding. Moreover, at that time, it was explicitly forbidden for flag women to tie their feet, and violators would punish their families and territorial officials. The other part is Hakka women, the Hakka living environment and work style does not allow women to idle at home, in order not to reduce the labor force, so Hakka women also refuse to tie their feet.
Since 1875, there have been missionaries and people of insight at that time who have publicly preached "abstaining from foot binding", and they have urged women not to wrap their feet through the establishment of relevant organizations and articles in influential newspapers and periodicals, and they know the harm of foot binding to the human body, but they have little effect. Until 1902, the Qing government issued an edict to discourage foot binding; the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and the Hubei military government issued a notice on women's feet; After Sun Yat-sen became the interim president and issued an order to persuade the whole country to ban foot binding, the non-foot binding movement was popularized throughout the country, and the public generally realized that this was a means of suppression of women, and this ugly custom gradually disappeared.