The jade leaks in Xuanwu Lake, and the chicken chirps and embroiders back.
Who said that Qiong Shu was going to see him, not as fast as Jin Lian.
- Tang Li Shangyin, "Southern Dynasty"
In ancient feudal dynasties, there were many special products, eunuchs were one of them, in addition, the most puzzling is the "foot binding" custom.
In the eyes of posterity, "foot binding" was born at the beginning of the feudal dynasty, but according to archaeological findings, more than 1,000 years ago, women's foot bones have already appeared "foot binding" disability.
The Yuan Dynasty literary scholar Tao Zongyi recorded in the "Nancun Quit Farming Record":
Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was obsessed with "bow shoes" and invented the unique "bow shoes and socks", that is, using long cloth to wrap his feet instead of real socks.
Li Yu not only studied, but also let the concubines dress like this to satisfy their deformed aesthetics, and since then, the way women's feet are wrapped has been inherited, and even become a "sign of the times".
The famous modern writer Lin Yutang once wrote in "Chinese Foot Binding":
Watching a small-footed woman walk is like watching an actor walking a tightrope, making you feel your heart for her every moment.
From this sentence, it can be seen that it is very difficult for women to walk with "foot binding", because tightrope walkers have to be careful all the time, and if they are not careful, they will fall, while small-footed women should walk more carefully, and if they are not careful, they will reveal their "three-inch golden lotus".
What is "foot binding"?
The time of the beginning of foot binding is xia yu, shang dynasty, spring and autumn warring states, Sui, five generations, Song and other theories. Scholar Gao Hongxing's professional work "History of Foot Binding" examines that foot binding began in the late Northern Song Dynasty and arose in the Southern Song Dynasty.
At the age of four or five, the girl begins to wrap her feet, wrapping the girl's feet tightly with cloth to make it deformed and smaller, until the adult skeleton is fixed and the cloth belt is untied, and there are also lifelong wrappers.
In the process of foot binding, the strength of the parents will gradually become greater, and the pain caused by it will continue, and this custom also belongs to an indelible shadow of a woman's life.
After the foot wrapping is completed, women must change the shroud on time until the muscles on the feet gradually atrophy and the nerves on the feet do not feel the pain. This is what we call the "three-inch golden lotus." ”
Satisfy the morbid aesthetic of men
In ancient feudal dynasties, "men are respected", women are only accessories, for example, in the Ming Dynasty, the standard for men to choose wives is that women's feet should be small enough, because they think that such women are attractive.
In addition, no matter how good the woman looks and is in good shape, if there is no pair of "three-inch golden lotus", she will also become the object of everyone's ridicule, and she will not be able to marry out for a lifetime.
This pathological aesthetic is that "women are pleasing to themselves," and men like and believe that "foot binding" is attractive, and they can only sacrifice health to pursue "beauty".
The most incredible thing is that the ancients deliberately classified women in order to wrap their feet and satisfy men's visual enjoyment:
Three or four inches of small feet, known as "four lotus", four to five inches are called "nishiki lotus", and there are small feet that are as thin and curved as leaves, which are called "single-leaf lotus".
These titles seem beautiful, but they show men's obsession with "little feet" to the fullest, and on the other hand, they can also feel the grief behind women. And women with feet tied do not have to buy shoes for a lifetime, which is also difficult for modern people to accept.
The harm that foot binding brings to women
A foot-wrapper wraps the feet of the young girl who is still in the growth stage, in this case, no matter how the child tears her heart and lungs and cries, the parents can only hold back no matter how painful.
Because at that time, girls could not marry without foot binding, and the earlier the age of the child's foot binding, the pain the child endured would be relatively light, because the faster the bone developed, the more pain the child had to endure if he wanted to wrap his feet.
It can be said that this kind of foot binding not only causes the girl's body to suffer, but also a kind of mental torture. The purpose is to please the husband.
And after the foot binding, their travel became a big problem, so they could only stay in the boudoir for the rest of their lives, becoming a tool of male domination.
Fortunately, after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, the foot binding order was completely banned, the chinese women's continued bad habits of thousands of years were completely abolished, and women were completely liberated.
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