Everyone has a heart for beauty, and with the changes of the times, people's definition of beauty is constantly changing. In ancient China, women's standards of beauty were also very different from today's.
In the Tang Dynasty, fat was beautiful, and during the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, women's delicate little feet became a very attractive symbol. What makes women so crazy about cutting off their foot bones in pursuit of this standard of beauty?
In ancient China, there were obvious differences in aesthetic concepts between men and women. Men advocate the image of women as weak and petite, while women believe that a plump, tall, and healthy body is beautiful.
But small feet, as a special aesthetic symbol of women, were very popular among ancient women.
During this period, women had a low social status and were tied to the family and household chores. Small feet, because of the need for prolonged restraint and pain, have become a basic requirement and traditional mark in society.
Although modern people consider small feet to be a cruel and unnecessary aesthetic concept, it is naturally preserved in history and culture. From the popularity of small feet, it can be seen that the change of aesthetic concepts and the improvement of social status will also have a huge impact on the standard of beauty.
Origin
There are many opinions about the origin of foot binding, and it is said that Zhao Feiyan is the originator of foot binding.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were two women who were loved by the emperor, and the two were completely different styles, one was Yang Guifei with a plump physique, and the other was Zhao Feiyan, who was light and slender.
This is also the origin of the idiom "Yan thin ring fat", Yang Guifei should be slightly fat now, it is rumored that Yang Guifei is 165 tall but weighs about 70 kilograms, although it is relatively fat, but people should have meat where there is meat, fat just right belongs to fleshy beauty.
And Zhao Feiyan is completely different, Zhao Feiyan is as light as Yan and tall, and she is a typical tall beauty.
Although Zhao Feiyan came from a humble background, with his excellent looks and wonderful dancing posture, the emperor was stunned at first sight, in order to grasp the emperor's heart more firmly, Zhao Feiyan ruthlessly cut off his toes and wrapped them tightly with cloth.
After putting on the delicate little shoes, she danced like a fairy who turned the emperor into fascination.
So the people of the harem followed suit, and folk women followed suit, unlike directly cutting off, folk women began to wrap their feet from the beginning of walking in order to achieve small feet.
Another theory is that Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, as a monarch, was addicted to singing and dancing all day, and one day he heard that a woman could dance beautifully on the golden lotus, so he became very interested.
The speaker had no intention of listening to the heart, and the lady heard the voice and decided to offer it the dance of the golden lotus, but the golden lotus was so small that she couldn't stand at all, let alone dance, and the lady gritted her teeth in pain, bent and folded the soles of her forefeet, and then wrapped them tightly with cloth.
The rot and festering of the wrapped feet were miserable, but in order to get Li Yu's favor, the lady gritted her teeth and insisted on hard practice and finally practiced deeply to Li Yu's favor, so later generations followed suit.
Small charm
In ancient times, people's perception of beauty was often associated with small. This phenomenon is not unique to China, but also in cultural contexts around the world. Therefore, small and delicate feet are considered by the literati to be the existence of beauty.
First of all, from the perspective of traditional culture, the aesthetic concept of the ancients was deeply influenced by Confucianism. Confucianism emphasizes the "golden mean", believing that "there is the extreme, it is the middle", and "the essence of inaction is indifferent".
In their eyes, small and delicate, simple but elegant, is an aesthetic realm that conforms to the "golden mean". For example, there is a description of "the car is light in the dust, and the horse's foot is light in the breeze", which expresses the elegant mood through short and concise language.
Secondly, the ancient social environment also affected people's aesthetic concepts. In ancient times, poverty often accompanied people's lives. Therefore, people need to decorate their lives and environments with small and delicate things.
For example, the Japanese tea ceremony emphasizes "bun to zaido", and promotes small but delicate tea utensils and ceramics as decoration. At the same time, small and delicate items are also easier to carry and preserve, often used as gifts or souvenirs.
In addition, the aesthetic concept of small and beautiful is also related to the worship of nature by ancient people. In ancient times, people often regarded nature as a god and were in awe of it.
Therefore, they will look to nature for inspiration and express their emotions and thoughts in a natural way. In this case, something small and delicate can better convey their deep emotions.
It also represents people's pursuit and creation of beauty in a specific historical period and social environment. Therefore, delicate and small feet have become the pursuit of many women.
Body
First of all, for people at that time, wrapping small feet could reflect the lightness of the body. In ancient times, light posture was used for beauty, which was closely related to the social environment, economic conditions and cultural background at that time.
In ancient times, the light posture was considered to be the embodiment of elegance and nobility at that time, and due to the limitation of small feet, women's walking posture was more graceful and lighter than that of ordinary people.
At that time, it was generally believed that women should be shy and reserved, and that their appearance should give the impression of being weak and slender, because women were given a very limited social role, their main duty was to marry and have children, and often relied on male members of the family to support themselves.
Wrapping small feet can make women appear more petite and weaker, which is in line with the expectations of society at that time for femininity. The light and weak appearance is also considered to be in line with the "weak" nature of women, and it is easier to be married away by wealthy husbands.
Therefore, in the society at that time, how women showed their body shape was particularly important, and the light body after wrapping small feet became one of the ways for them to show their beauty and became an appropriate way of interpretation.
virtue
In ancient times, small feet were regarded as a feminine virtue, which not only represented the physical and mental beauty of women, but also symbolized women's purity and virtuousness, perseverance and bravery.
Men generally believe that women's small feet are small and delicate, which can highlight women's gentleness, virtuousness and high moral character, and people believe that if a woman does not have small feet, no matter how beautiful and virtuous she is, she will not be valued and respected by others.
So at that time, most women would go through the process of wrapping their feet into small ones to make their small feet more in line with social standards.
For women, foot binding is a very cruel process, requiring women to endure very strong pain and discomfort, and after foot binding, the pain experienced is also quite terrible.
However, they are willing to endure these pains, believing that only by wrapping their small feet can they show their beautiful body and show their femininity. Therefore, women with small feet also became a high evaluation of women in society at that time.
custom
The ancient phenomenon of small feet as beauty is a unique scene in traditional Chinese culture. The ancient phenomenon of small feet as beauty is also inseparable from the social background at that time.
First of all, the ancient beauty of small feet was a typical class symbol, a way of expressing status in aristocratic society.
In ancient times, a woman's family status was often determined by her father or husband, and the size of her feet was considered a symbol of family honor. Therefore, only rich girls are likely to endure such torture, and also bear the pressure of the family.
Secondly, the ancient beauty of small feet is also related to the gender roles of the time. In ancient times, the role of women was strictly limited, their social status was very low, in this case, women had to improve their status through some means.
The emergence of small feet has become one of the ways for women to show themselves. Those men were required to marry wives with small feet, so that they could prove their strength in social status.
Moreover, the beauty of small feet in ancient times is also related to the marriage culture at that time. In the ancient marriage system, the man usually made a choice based on the woman's face, figure, family lineage, etc.
The idea that small feet are considered a symbol of a good family can also affect women's sense of self-worth, and many women will talk about their chastity and beauty in search of a man with a comparable family background.
In general, the phenomenon of small feet as beauty in ancient times deeply reflects the various cultural characteristics of the society at that time, such as class, gender, and marriage. Although this custom has disappeared through the baptism of time, we can still see the social background of the time and the game of naked power and desire.
harm
However, small feet also come with many negative effects.
First of all, small feet have a great harm to health, in order to achieve the goal of small foot beauty, women need to be long-term restraint and squeezing in childhood, it is easy to cause foot deformity and pain, long-term compression will also lead to various diseases in the legs and feet, such as sprains, arthritis, muscle atrophy, etc., bringing great pain to women's lives.
Secondly, small feet can also have a great impact on women's mental health, they have to meet the aesthetic standards of society in this way, if they cannot meet this standard, they will feel inferior and shameful. Even some women will have psychological disorders, such as anorexia and so on.
Finally, small feet also bring a lot of problems to society, because many women need marriage to make a living, so small feet have become an important marriage capital, which will cause many women to be unable to marry because they do not have small feet, thus forming a population burden.
Therefore, over time, people gradually realized the dangers of smallfoot beauty, and this culture gradually declined and was banned after the founding of New China.
summary
With the change and progress of society, people began to gradually reflect on this custom, the formation and continuation of the smallfoot culture represents a unique and complex cultural phenomenon, although smallfoot beauty has historical and cultural value, but it has cruelty and irrationality, its negative impact can not be ignored.
Modern society has abandoned this culture of humiliating women, and we should respect women's free choice and no longer use small feet as a criterion for evaluating women. We should respect everyone's body, not dismantle people's self-confidence and health. Beauty should not come at the expense of good health.