Historical and cultural customs are also a very important part of Chinese culture, such as dragon boat racing in the Dragon Boat Festival, eating rice dumplings, mid-autumn festival moon and moon cake, etc., these are the cultural essence left to us by the ancestors, the reason why the Chinese nation is great, can not be separated from the precipitation of culture, but not all cultural customs are good, culture also needs to take its essence, to remove its dross, many backward ideas and customs need to be eliminated, such as foot binding today, also called foot binding, it is a bad habit in ancient China. It did not last until modern times when it was abolished.
The origin of the custom of foot binding is still unclear, there are "ancient sayings", "Sui and Tang sayings", "five generations of theory", etc., in the famous poet Bai Juyi's poems have appeared foot binding: "small head shoes narrow clothes, Tianbao in the last years of the world makeup." "Regardless of the controversy in the historical community about the origin of foot binding, one thing is certain, foot binding has a very long history in China.
According to records, foot binding is to wrap a woman's feet with cloth to make it into a small and pointed "three-inch golden lotus" (in ancient times, it was a term to praise the beauty of women's feet), and from ancient times to modern times, "three-inch golden lotus" once became an important condition for women's aesthetics. The "small-headed shoes" written in Bai Juyi's poem are a kind of shoes (bow shoes) worn by women with feet wrapped at that time, because the shoes are too small, so they are also called "golden lotus", and because there is Luo Qi embroidered, it is also called "embroidery Luo bow". (Within four inches is called "silver lotus", larger than four inches is called "iron lotus")
Foot binding during the Republic of China period also caused great controversy, some people strongly opposed foot binding, some people supported, foot binding aesthetic view in the minds of many people has been deeply rooted. From 1906 to 1929, the National Government continued to issue documents prohibiting foot binding, which was finally implemented in 1929, but in the process of implementation, it encountered relatively large resistance, and there were many places where the tradition of foot binding was continued.
In the last batch of "small-footed women" in the Republic of China, there was a person named Liu Niang, who married a large local family with the "three-inch golden lotus" at the age of fifteen, and some readers may wonder why it is based on the "three-inch golden lotus", rather than the appearance, or family background, in fact, at that time, the "three-inch golden lotus" was the smallest of the foot bindings, and it was also the most beautiful one that people thought was the most beautiful at that time. Looking at the society at that time from the perspective of today's people, there will definitely be some "strange" places.
Since entering the patriarchal society, the status of women has gradually declined, the status of women in ancient times is almost relatively low, not only to accept three from four virtues, but also to endure foot binding, women at the age of four or five years old to begin to wrap their feet, until the adult skeleton is stereotyped to unravel the shroud, there is a lifelong wrapping, I have to say that the aesthetic of foot binding does make people feel that it is a deformed development of ideological concepts, but we can not criticize the development of ancient culture with modern civilization, after all, there is a process.
Liu Niang was born in the Republic of China period, although the society at that time strongly opposed foot binding, but she still did not escape the fate of being wrapped feet, in the eyes of the people at that time, if a woman did not have a "three-inch golden lotus" it was like disfigurement, with small feet as beautiful, even if she looked beautiful, but without a pair of good feet, it would be difficult to find a good in-law. Liu Niang's parents wrapped her feet when she was very young, and later there was a pair of "envious" "three-inch golden lotus", which attracted many good people to propose to her, and finally under the choice of her parents, Liu Niang married a large local family (Li family).
Since entering the Li family, Liu Niang has lived a life that everyone envies, and her usual food, clothing, housing, and transportation are specially taken care of, according to her recollections, she has never done heavy work, and the most is just sweeping the floor. Because of the "three-inch golden lotus", Liu Niang rarely travels, every time she goes out, she will take a palanquin, and she has never been out of the door in her life. Liu Niang gave birth to 6 children for her husband, 2 of whom died prematurely.
Except for the Spring Festival every year, Liu Niang almost does not wash her feet (similar to lifelong foot binding), so her "three-inch golden lotus" has only been seen by her husband, and at that time, people looked at it, the feet were like a woman's second face, and it was much more private, showing her feet to outsiders was a manifestation of infidelity.
Foot binding not only seriously affects the normal development of women's feet, but also makes people form a deformed aesthetic psychology, in the old days, women who wrapped their feet even became a problem with normal walking, and they had to support the wall, on crutches, and people with conditions and maids supported, ordinary people could only endure pain. With the development of the times, the bad habit of foot binding has been eliminated by the times, and the society of equality between men and women has no concept of taking the foot as an aesthetic point, and now appearance is the key to aesthetics, and the mind is also one of the important factors, and external beauty is as important as inner beauty.