This kind of shoe is more difficult than high heels, why did the qing dynasty concubines wear it? For the convenience of the emperor?
In recent years, the TV and the Internet have been filled with the "endless" Qing Dynasty palace fighting dramas, and the favor of a theme has brought about the emergence of the whole theme like mushrooms after the rain ~ ~ such as "Yanxi Raiders", "Step by Step", "Zhen Huan", "Ruyi Chuan", "Gong Suo Xin Yu" and so on. When we turn on the TV, we will see a group of harem concubines, wearing various hairstyles "soft winged" or "shelf head", holding handkerchiefs in their hands, and as they walk, their hands swing sharply on the sides of the body, and the handkerchiefs in their hands have been dangling in the TV screen, so that we have to notice the shoes worn on the feet of these harem beauties, which look more difficult than high heels.
''Flowerpot bottom'' as the name suggests, that is, the sole is like a high-up flowerpot frame, this style is exquisite and often shows exquisite patterns of the '''flowerpot bottom'' shoes, can be regarded as the "'flag shoes'" at that time, embroidered flag-bottomed wooden shoes, commonly known as ''high-soled shoes',' or ''pot bottom', ''pot bottom', 'horseshoe sole'' shoes. The height of this kind of shoe is different, generally speaking, people think that with the age of the noble women wearing this shoe, the height of the sole is correspondingly reduced, roughly its wooden heel is generally about 5-10 cm high, some can reach 14-16 cm, the highest can reach about 25 cm, this kind of shoe can be said to be very similar to the high heels worn by modern women.
But modern high heels high heels behind the foot, the entire sole can still touch the ground, although the walking time will hurt, but overall it is still stable, but this kind of '''flower pot bottom'' embroidered flag shoes are the entire sole in the middle of the high erection, walking up the foot can not touch the ground, so buy not the toes can not feel the grip, so it is extremely unstable. So this inevitably causes us to think, why do the flag people and noble women wear such shoes that are not easy to walk?
For this reason, historians have always been divided into opinions. One of the more credible views is that the formation of this shoe-wearing fashion has a lot to do with the tradition of women's foot binding and aesthetics. The fashion of foot binding originated in the Tang Dynasty, but Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, a concubine around him, deliberately wrapped his feet into the shape of a crescent moon in order to gain favor, and Li Yu saw that these small feet were certainly loved, and this matter came out of the palace, which immediately caused the trend of foot binding, which has been handed down. The later rulers of the Qing Dynasty were Manchus, whose ancestors were Jurchen tribes, and had always belonged to the nomadic people before they really stepped onto the stage of history, but they had always been full of yearning for the civilization of the Central Plains. This can be seen after the Manchus seized power, but they were quickly assimilated by Han culture.
Love of beauty everyone has, especially women, nomadic period, do not love red clothes love armed, that is the living conditions forced, now life is stable, how can not want to show their original appearance of women, and the behavior of wrapping small feet brings about women's mobility inconvenience needs to be supported, this is not liked by Manchu women, so they began to wrap their feet, but the Manchus are nomadic, the rulers rely on horses to win the world, so they are afraid of degeneration and laziness is their own loss of the world, so later the official order banned Manchu women to wrap their feet, Therefore, it is impossible to have this kind of foot binding in the middle of the palace, but there is a sick feminine beauty that likes the weak willow wind after the Feet of Han women, so they invented this kind of walking unsteadily and also need to be supported by someone to support the "flower pot bottom" shoes.
There is also a saying that when the Manchu soldiers fought on the battlefield again, the marching army needed to pass through a quagmire, but the soldiers did not want to dirty their boots, but they could not retreat, so the general had a clever move, ordered the soldiers to break the branches and step on the feet of the march through the quagmire, and later this expedition won a great victory, so the later rulers ordered the popularity of this "flower pot bottom" in order to commemorate this "'feat'", but this statement, the credibility is extremely low, and the men lead the troops to fight. Finally, let the woman commemorate this action, this matter itself is very doubtful, let alone become a fashion, and even if it is to commemorate why go to great lengths to create such a shoe? Why not create in the original form of surviving the quagmire? And how to think of this way is to step on stilts, ah, this is the commemoration of this march! As a memorial, why make a way that generations do not know what to commemorate?
There is also the most ridiculous version, in order to make it easier for the emperor to distinguish the identity of the beautiful woman. It is said that the emperor's harem is three thousand, but the emperor himself certainly cannot identify them all, and some may not even know what kind of identity is, so the concubines wear shoes of "flower pot bottom" to indicate their identity, which is convenient for the emperor to identify. But this statement is even more untenable, even absurd! The harem beauty is strictly hierarchical, and the clothing accessories of different grades cannot be trespassed, so why should the identity be identified by relying on two soles, do you want the emperor to walk and walk to open the corner of the female dependents' clothes?
The reason for the creation of the shoe has not been conclusive in the academic community, and all of them are just speculations from the literature. I hope that with the deepening of research in the future, this mystery can be solved!