"The three-inch bowstring has not existed since ancient times, and Master Guanyin also has his feet. I don't know where the foot binding came from, from the humble husband in the world. "There were many bad habits in ancient feudal society, especially for women, putting forward too many harsh and unreasonable requirements, and the persecution was extremely deep.
For example, a woman must abide by the three virtues and four virtues, must obey the words of her father, husband, and son, and must submit to men all her life; for example, if a woman is not qualified to go to school and cannot study and obtain a meritorious name, after all, "a woman without talent is virtuous." ”
If these are the shackles on the spiritual aspects of women, then foot binding is a physical harm to women. Foot binding requires the girl's foot to be firmly wrapped in a cloth when she is still young, until it is formed and grows into a three-inch golden lotus that is "loved by everyone".
With the development of the times, many bad habits of feudal society have been abandoned early. However, the bad habit of foot binding, until the Republic of China period, there were even families who followed this tradition to wrap girls' feet.
Xu Zhimo's first wife, Zhang Youyi, was almost treated roughly by her mother when she was young, and fortunately she had a good brother of the people, so she finally saved her from pain.
As people get older, their bodies develop, and their feet are no exception. Foot binding is to suppress this process.
When the woman is still young, she scalds her feet with hot water, turns her toes forward until the toes are pressed against the soles of the feet, and then holds them firmly with a cloth.
In this way, the soles of the feet are sunken, the insteps of the feet are arched, and the length of the entire foot is reduced to become a "three-inch golden lotus". This process is done at the expense of bone bending.
In the process of the formation of the "Golden Lotus", women suffer great pain, and the soles of their feet often suppurate and bleed, so that walking is difficult, and they can only crawl for a long time. Even when she grows up, such a deformed foot, it is difficult to walk normally.
Is existence reasonable? Foot binding is so perverted and extremely harmful to women, so why does it last so long in the long river of history? How did it flourish step by step?
In ancient times, it was a society in which men were inferior to women, men occupied an absolute dominant position, and women had no way to realize their own value. To live well, they can only choose to cling to men and please men as much as possible.
Foot binding occurs in such a situation. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there was a concubine named Miao Niang. In order to please Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, he wrapped his feet with a drapery to make it appear straight and not curved, and danced very beautifully, which was deeply favored by Li Yu.
The favor of the lady made some concubines and dancers in the palace begin to follow suit, and at first it only spread in the palace. With the passage of time, this custom spread to the people, and the prostitutes in the Qinglou began to learn from each other, relying on this to attract guests.
This kind of wrapping method is only to make the foot shape look straighter and not to hurt the health of women's feet. Moreover, at this time, foot binding did not spread to the people.
Until the Yuan Dynasty, the Han Chinese were no longer the masters of the land of China. The Mongols invaded the Central Plains and established the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Mongols became rulers, in the eyes of some Han literati, they were still synonymous with rudeness.
In order to distinguish the "difference between barbarians", the Han People encouraged their own women to tie their feet. Unexpectedly, Mongolian women are more enthusiastic about this, and the whole folk have begun this kind of foot-binding custom. Women who do not have foot bindings become "outliers" and are rejected.
After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of foot binding was even worse, and it began to advocate that women's feet were small and beautiful, and the length of the feet should not exceed three inches. The whole society began to respect the "three-inch golden lotus", and under such a social atmosphere, women had to suffer for hundreds of years.
In the Republic of China period, people's minds were gradually liberated, no longer based on the "three-inch golden lotus" as beauty, and women were finally liberated. However, Zhang Youyi's mother still has the idea of the feudal period, believing that girls with small feet are beautiful, and they will not be able to marry out in the future without binding their feet.
Fortunately, she has a good brother Zhang Junjie. Zhang Junjie was not a nameless man, but the leader of the Chinese Democratic Socialist Party and one of the early representatives of Neo-Confucianism.
Zhang Junjie, who was an adult at that time, had already established his own outlook on life and values. For the traditional bad habits of the feudal era, he was deeply disgusted, and naturally did not want his sister to be persecuted by the traditional bad habits.
In his own memoirs, he wrote that one day when he returned home, he heard his sister crying from home. In the turbulent era of the Republic of China, it was common for a girl like her sister, who had no power to tie her hands, to meet bad people.
Worried, he immediately rushed into the room, but saw only his mother and sister. The reason why his sister was crying was precisely because his mother was wrapping her sister's feet with a cloth, and he even stopped her from acting.
In the face of his mother's scolding, he argued with reason, exhorting her to put aside the ideas of feudal society and not to do such a thing again. In the face of her mother's unfounded worries: girls can't get married on their feet. Zhang Junjie patted his chest and said: If you can't marry out, then I will raise it!
The reason why women suffer such unfair treatment is because the idea of "male superiority over female inferiority" in people's minds is at work. Born as a human being, everyone is equally equal, where there is no gender distinction.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the leadership of the party and the government, the concept of equality between men and women has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, people no longer have the idea of preferring sons to women, and women have ushered in real liberation. Unfortunately, not all countries in the world have done this.
In our neighbourIng India, the status of women has so far been very low. This concept, taken for granted in the hearts of Indians, has no intention of waking up at all. What's even more frightening is that as an ordinary person, the police, who are law enforcers, have no objection to this.
On February 10, 2020, in a women's college in New Delhi, India, all the teachers and students were holding a graduation ceremony when suddenly a large number of men climbed over the wall.
They formed groups to surround the female students in the center and bully them, and also damaged the property on campus.
In this activity, the security guards and local police responsible for maintaining order on campus watched this scene happen and did not choose to stop these hooligans, lawbreakers.
The reason for all this is not that in their minds, women's status is so low, what qualifications are eligible for education. In modern civilization, women can still be treated so unfairly, and this is only one of the corners.
There are still many places in the world where women do not receive basic respect and do not enjoy basic rights and interests. The road to equality between men and women is a long way off, and it requires everyone in the world to work together to deeply understand this concept.