When do China women bind their feet? When did you start to let go of foot binding?

There are different opinions about the origin of foot binding. Some say it began in the Sui Dynasty, some say it began in the Tang Dynasty, and some say it began in the Five Dynasties. Some people even said that Yu's wife and da ji in Xia and Shang Dynasties were little feet. It can be said that there are different opinions and no one can agree.

There are traces of this in ancient myths and legends in China. Legend has it that when Dayu was in charge of water conservancy, he married Tu Shanshi's daughter and had children. The Tu Shanshi woman is a fox spirit, and her feet are small; He also said that da ji, the concubine of Zhou Wang in the late Yin Dynasty, was also a fox, or a pheasant, but her feet didn't get better, so she wrapped them in cloth. Because of da ji's favor, women in the palace followed her example and wrapped their feet. Of course, these are just folk myths and legends, and they contain more attached elements of romance, which is not enough to be the proof of women's foot-binding at that time.

Foot-binding started in Sui Dynasty and also originated from folklore. According to legend, when Emperor Yangdi traveled to Jiangdu, he recruited hundreds of beautiful women to pull the fiber for him. A woman named Wu Yueniang was chosen. She hated Yang-ti's tyranny, so she asked her father, who was a blacksmith, to make a lotus-petal knife three inches long and one inch wide, and wrapped it under her feet with a long cloth, and at the same time wrapped her feet as small as possible. Then a lotus flower was carved on the sole, and a beautiful lotus flower was printed in one step when walking. Emperor Yangdi was delighted when he saw the queen, so he called her close and wanted to enjoy her little feet. Wu Yueniang slowly untied the foot-binding cloth, suddenly pulled out a lotus petal knife and stabbed Emperor Yangdi. Emperor Yangdi quickly flashed by, but his arm had been stabbed. Wu Yueniang saw that the assassination failed, so he threw himself into the river. Afterwards, Emperor Yangdi made a decree: No matter how beautiful a woman is, "foot-binding women will not be selected" in future beauty contests. However, in memory of Moon Mother, folk women wrapped their feet in succession. At this point, the wind of women's foot binding is growing.

Foot-binding started in the Five Dynasties, and it originated from the concubines of Li Houzhu in the Southern Tang Dynasty. She was beautiful and versatile, and she was good at singing and dancing. Li Houzhu specially made a six-foot-high golden lotus, decorated it with jewelry and silk ribbons, and ordered her to bind her feet with silk, so that her feet would bend slightly to make a new moon shape, and then she put on plain socks and danced on the lotus stage, thus making the dance more beautiful.

Foot-binding has been recorded in the Song Dynasty

And some scholars have pointed out that foot-binding rose in the Northern Song Dynasty in ancient China, and women in China did not do it before the Five Dynasties. Su Dongpo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote the word "Bodhisattva Man" and lamented foot binding. "Don't cherish the lotus step by step, and worry about going to Ling Bo with socks; I saw the dance returning to the air, and there was no trace of it. Stealing the palace is as stable as it is, and it is double-falling; It should be difficult to say that it is wonderful, and it must be seen from the palm of your hand. " This can also be called the first poem dedicated to foot binding in the history of China's poetry. It should be noted that the writing of foot-binding poems is dependent on the appearance of foot-binding customs, which shows that foot-binding customs did appear in the Song Dynasty. By the Southern Song Dynasty, women's foot-binding had become more common, and even at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, "little feet" had become a general term for women. However, in the Southern Song Dynasty, women's foot-binding was not popular, and foot-binding was mainly confined to the upper class, and the social concept of foot-binding had not yet reached the point where everyone accepted it. At the same time, the custom of foot-binding spread from the north to the south, about the time when the Song Dynasty moved south.

Foot-binding in Song Dynasty is different from the three-inch golden lotus in later generations. According to historical records, foot binding in the Song Dynasty was to wrap the feet "straight" but not bent, which was called "getting on the horse" at that time. The shoes used are called "wrong in the end", and their soles are sharp and composed of two colors. At present, this kind of foot-binding shoes has been found in archaeology. From the archaeological findings, it is speculated that the feet wrapped in these shoes are bigger than those later.

After the Mongolian aristocrats entered the Zhongyuan Jianyuan, they didn't bind their feet originally, but they didn't object to the habit of binding their feet by the Han people. On the contrary, they held an appreciative attitude. In this way, the trend of foot-binding continued to develop in the Yuan Dynasty, and even the concept of not being ashamed of foot-binding appeared at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In Yuan Dynasty, women's foot-binding continued to develop in a slim direction, but there were still many people who didn't, especially in southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Lingnan areas. In the Ming Dynasty, the trend of women's foot-binding entered a prosperous period and developed rapidly in various places. When Zhang Xianzhong invaded Sichuan in the late Ming Dynasty, women's feet were so small that they piled up into mountains, which were called Jinlianfeng. This shows that women's foot-binding in Sichuan is flourishing. During this period, there were certain requirements for the shape of foot-binding. Women's feet should not only be small, but also be shrunk to three inches, and they should be bowed and wrapped in the shape of corn.

After the Manchu rulers entered the Central Plains, they strongly opposed the custom of foot-binding of Han people at first, and repeatedly ordered women to ban foot-binding. But at this time, the wind of foot-binding was hard to stop, and it had to be banned in the seventh year of Kangxi (1668). This incident was once rendered as "the male refused to accept the female"-the Qing soldiers entered the customs, and there was a "haircut order". Under the pressure of force, the Han men finally had to give in, so the man's haircut was regarded as a symbol of surrender to the Qing court. At the same time, although women's foot-binding was also ordered by the Qing court to stop, it did not achieve the purpose of prohibition, so there is a saying that "men drop women." This shows that the wind of foot binding is deeply rooted. It is precisely because of this that women's foot-binding reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty, and women from all walks of life, rich or poor, bound their feet one after another. Even some ethnic minorities in the northwest and southwest are infected with the custom of foot binding. At the same time, women's feet have received unprecedented worship and attention. During this period, the shape and size of feet became an important criterion to judge the beauty and ugliness of women. As a woman, whether or not to bind feet and how it is bound will directly affect her personal lifelong events. At that time, people from all walks of life were ashamed of women's big feet and proud of their small feet when they married. The theory of "three-inch golden lotus" is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and even it is wrapped less than three inches. As a result, there was a woman who had to be hugged by others because her feet were too small to move around, and such a woman was quite popular at that time.

why are feet called "golden lotus"

when it comes to "three-inch golden lotus", people can't help asking why women's feet wrapped around them are called "golden lotus"? How is the "Golden Lotus" associated with Little Foot? For a long time, people are also interested in this question, but there is no satisfactory answer.

According to one theory, the Golden Lotus is named after the story that Pan Fei, who was in a daze in the Eastern Qi Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, gave birth to lotus flowers step by step. Dong Hunhou cut it into the shape of a lotus with gold foil, spread it on the ground, and let Pan Fei walk barefoot on it, thus forming a wonderful scene of "Lotus Step by Step". But the "golden lotus" here does not refer to Pan Fei's feet. There is also a saying that the golden lotus is named after the story of the five generations of mothers dancing on the lotus platform. But the golden lotus here refers to the shape of the stage, not Niang's feet.

In this regard, some scholars believe that the reason why Xiaojiao is called Jinlian should be investigated from the aspect of lotus in Buddhist culture. Lotus comes out of the mud without being stained, which is regarded as a symbol of purity and purity in Buddhism. After Buddhism was introduced into China, Lotus, as a symbol of beauty, purity, preciousness and auspiciousness, was also introduced into China and accepted by China people. In the auspicious words and patterns of China people, the lotus occupies a considerable position, which also illustrates this point. Therefore, there is no doubt that it is a good name to call women's feet lotus. In addition, in Buddhist art, bodhisattvas mostly stand barefoot on the lotus, which may also be an important reason for linking the lotus with women's feet. Why do you want to add a word "gold" before "lotus"? This is because of the traditional language habits of China people. China people like to decorate precious or beautiful things with "gold", such as "golden mouth", "golden eyes" and "golden hall". In the era of foot-binding, adding the word "gold" next to the word "lotus" to become "golden lotus" is also a kind of laudatory name to express preciousness. Therefore, later foot fans often subdivide the noble, the humble, the beautiful and the ugly according to their size. Those within three inches are golden lotus, those within four inches are silver lotus, and those above four inches are iron lotus. So when it comes to the golden lotus, it is bound to be three inches, which is the so-called three-inch golden lotus. Later, Jinlian was also used to refer to foot-binding shoes, and Jinlian became synonymous with feet.