When many people think of foot binding, they will think of the three-inch golden lotus, and they will think of Pan Jinlian, who poisoned Wu Dalang. From a modern perspective, foot binding is a bad habit, which not only causes the foot to become deformed and inconvenient to walk, but also the sins suffered in the process of foot binding can be known by imagination alone, but why does foot binding still flourish? Obviously, foot binding will suffer a lot, why do women still flock to it? Wen Shijun today will lead you to see the story behind the ancient women's foot binding.
First, the indiscriminate pursuit of foot binding
In ancient China, women did not tie their feet at first, and in the Han and Tang Dynasties, women not only had to handle household chores, but also had to go to the fields to do farm work, of course, they did not tie their feet. Lü Hou first married Liu Bang, the family conditions were not good, he still had to take his children to the field to work, where would he tie his feet? Some scholars have researched that female foot binding only flourished in the Song Dynasty, but its initiator was Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty. That's right, it was the one who stood on a small building and looked out over the southern Tang Dynasty, leaving behind the words and phrases that we are familiar with: "How sad can you ask the king?" It is exactly like a river of spring water flowing eastward", and li hou lord was poisoned by Song Taizong.
Li Yu was born in the imperial family, quite literary, in today's words, is a rich second generation, not only talented, but also rich, but also a talented man. Since he is rich and idle, the self-proclaimed Li Hou Lord is naturally keen on pleasure and sings night and night.
Li Yu was very fond of singing and dancing, and one of his concubines, Lady Miao, was particularly good at singing and dancing. Once, he saw the lotus dancing lady, the lotus flower, swaying, more delicate than usual, and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. Looking at it again, it turned out that Lady Miao's feet were wrapped in a crescent moon shape and arched upwards. Li Yu thought of the affair between Xiao Baojuan, the deposed emperor of the Southern Dynasty, and his beloved concubine Pan Yunu, and remembered Pan Yunu's springing little feet, and the story of Xiao Baojuan building three gorgeous palaces for her. Li Yu then followed xiao Baojuan's example and built a very high lotus platform for Hernum, decorated with jeweled ribbons, which were very luxurious, for her to dance on it. This dance posture is more graceful, with a Lingbo posture, and Li Yu is even more fond of it.
Li Yu had many concubines, and when the other concubines heard about this, their hearts were indignant, after all, what court woman did not want to be favored by the emperor? Since the concubines could get the emperor's favor by dancing with their feet wrapped around their feet, they also had to wrap their feet and wrap around the heart of the king, so that he could stay overnight. Many women scrambled to join the foot-binding team. As soon as they came and went, foot binding became a fashion in the palace.
Second, the popularity of foot binding
After the Song Dynasty, foot binding flourished, and Su Shi's "Bodhisattva Man Yong Foot" was the first poem in Chinese history with the title of female foot binding, and its cloud: "Tu Xiang Mo Xi Lian took the step, and the long sorrow Luo socks went to the pond." When I saw the dance wind, there was nowhere to go. Stealing through the palace like stability, and standing double trapped. It should be difficult to say that it should be difficult, and it should be seen from the palm of your hand. "Roughly speaking, the beauty's feet walking on the road are fragrant, and wearing soft silk stockings seems to be walking on the waves of water. The beautiful woman dances lightly, leaves no trace, stealing court-style shoes makes it difficult to walk, and her feet are slender and wonderful, and she can play with them in her hands.
From the words between the lines, we can not only see Su Shi's love for foot binding, but also infer that the Song Dynasty folk have begun to wrap their feet, after all, the writing of foot binding poetry is premised on the appearance of a large number of foot binding customs. In addition to Su Shi, other song dynasty lyricists praised the dancers who wrapped their feet with their feet, and Zhao Lingxi, a lyricist at the turn of the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties, set the feet as the first criterion for judging dancers, and he praised the dancers in "Huanxi Sha": "Feet are absolute, songs are absolute, pianos are absolute, and dances are absolute." Even more, playing with small feet, or drinking wine in bow shoes worn by women with their feet wrapped around their feet, is obviously a psychopathic behavior. However, it cannot stand the atmosphere of fanatical pursuit in society, and the more people who praise the foot, the more verses that praise the foot, the more popular the foot binding culture, and the more women who wrap the foot. By the late Northern Song Dynasty, even princesses had to wrap their feet.
In the process of communicating with the Han nationality, ethnic minorities also began to have a foot-binding habit. During the Jin Dynasty's war against the Northern Song Dynasty, it took a large number of captives, and only young unblemished women were left behind, and everyone else was slaughtered. The Mongols who established the Yuan Dynasty did not tie their feet at first, and after entering the Central Plains, they also praised Han women's foot binding, and even appeared to chant women's foot binding poems. In the Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous dramas, the depiction of female small feet increased significantly. In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, the concept of not tying one's feet appeared in society. Of course, women in the upper echelons of society did not tie their feet during this period.
By the Ming and Qing dynasties, women's foot binding entered its heyday. Women's foot binding must be three inches also began in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to some other requirements, such as the feet should not only be small, but also bow, but also wrapped in the shape of a horn. Whether a woman has her feet tied or not is a sign of an individual's social status. Foot binding in the court of the Ming Dynasty became a common practice, and the foot binding method in the palace was also different from that of the people, "don't be like a palace". The emperor liked concubines with small feet, and the Chongzhen Emperor favored Tian Guifei more, one of the reasons was that her feet were small. Empress Ma was born poor and did not have her feet tied, but she accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world, and later became an empress, and was not disliked by Zhu Yuanzhang because of her big feet.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was forbidden for women to tie their feet, but because the concept was deeply rooted, it was finally not resolved. Female foot binding became more prevalent in the Qing Dynasty, and in some areas, the shape and size of the feet became the only criterion for evaluating women's beauty and ugliness, directly affecting their marriages, mainly because men of all classes were proud to marry women with small feet. In the Qing Dynasty, the "three-inch golden lotus" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and on this basis, more and more pursuit of small feet, some women wrapped their feet less than three inches, some can stand on small plates. These small-footed women could not move around at all every day, and they had to be held in and out by people, commonly known as "hugging misses", but such women were praised at that time.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, with the introduction of Western civilization, the call against women's foot binding was getting louder and louder, and women's feet were gradually free. After the victory of the War of Resistance, few women would wrap their feet, and today women with feet are rarely seen.
3. The cause of foot binding
There are many reasons why women's feet are wrapped, one of which is people's aesthetic concepts. The concept of yin and yang was extremely popular in ancient China, with males being yang and females being yin. According to this concept, men are beautiful for the strong and beautiful for the weak. Women should be petite and weak, and the feet should be slender, weak and boneless, and the literati and inkers should not hesitate to praise the slender feet. Over time, the concept of small feet for beauty has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even the saying that "small feet can cover up three points of ugliness" has appeared.
Etiquette also promotes women's foot binding. Etiquette preaches the inferiority of men and women, the three from the four virtues, and "the male lord is outside, and the female lord is inside." Only when women wrap their feet, they are more likely to be imprisoned in the family, otherwise, women may pretend to be men, have the opportunity to go out, and even support themselves, which is of course not conducive to maintaining etiquette and maintaining the status of men. Some people have openly said that women must wrap their feet, denying that "those who are husbands cannot be subdued." Since men in society like women's small feet, women cannot rely on themselves, so they can only marry chickens and dogs with dogs, and torture their feet according to their husbands' preferences to please them.
In the late period of ancient society, women's low status was regarded as men's property, and in order to ensure the safety of property, of course, it was the most reassuring to be locked up at home and hidden in the boudoir. Moreover, female chastity is an important part of etiquette. After women wrap their feet, it is inconvenient to walk and easy to control, which reduces the possibility of eloping with people. As for whether it really works, that's a different matter. But in general, etiquette is closely related to the custom of women's foot binding, and since the emergence of Zhu Lixue in the Song Dynasty, the phenomenon of female foot binding has become more and more prosperous.
Wen Shijun said:
Foot binding, a tangible custom that has been passed down for hundreds of years, has long been abolished, but have the invisible shackles on women been lifted? Obviously, no, nowadays, women's appearance anxiety, body anxiety is everywhere, beauty salons, cosmetics, clothes, jewelry, jewelry are mainly consumed by women, women's high heels are not another kind of "foot binding"? There are thousands of kinds of beauty, and women's beauty should not be simply defined, and every woman should bloom her own brilliance. Modern women should not blindly pursue beauty, destroy their spirit and body, and step into a new circle of foot binding like ancient women.
bibliography
1. Gao Hongxing: The History of Foot Binding, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2007.
2. Qiu Zhicheng, State, Body, Society: A Study of the Body History of the Song Dynasty, Science Press, 2018.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Henan Normal University Spring and Autumn Society)
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