Why did ancient women bind their feet?

In the Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang, China carried forward two "traditions", one was eunuch and the other was foot binding. Everyone is familiar with eunuchs, that is, men whose genitals are castrated. Let's talk about foot binding.

Foot-binding, quaint saying is "three-inch golden lotus", commonly known as "foot-binding". There are different opinions about which dynasty the foot-binding originated from, some say Sui Dynasty, some say Tang Dynasty, some say Five Dynasties, and some say Northern Song Dynasty. But when it comes to the heyday of foot binding, it must be the Ming Dynasty. Before the Ming Dynasty, foot-binding was only a private hobby in aristocratic circles, but in the Ming Dynasty, women from all walks of life, rich and poor, bound their feet one after another, and the "three-inch golden lotus" suddenly became a common practice and swept the country.

In order to strengthen centralization, the Ming dynasty was different from the previous dynasty in many places. For example, the laws of the Qin and Han Dynasties allowed women to elope and widows to remarry. The love between Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun is a typical example, but it changed in the Ming Dynasty. According to Daming Law, elopement is a felony. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang clearly wrote in the "Crown System" promulgated in the sixteenth year of Hongwu: "Maid's crown ornaments bind feet, which makes women inconvenient to move, unable to run, and naturally unable to elope.

Zhu Yuanzhang made women in China lose the ability to run. The reason is a feudal conservative mentality that "fetters women" in order to cultivate women's "maid-in-waiting personality". What is a maid-in-waiting character? To put it simply, "Life is a human doll, and death is a human figurine". A large group of women can be jealous of a man, but they can't have two hearts. This is the "maid-in-waiting character".

Zhu Yuanzhang's idea is not groundless. Zhu Yuanzhang made a medical order before his death and ordered a large number of concubines to be buried with him. This is consistent with the starting point of his "foot binding" policy: women have neither the right to run nor the right to live. If a man is dead, you have to go with him. It's completely a man's accessory.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, women always bound their feet. Only two women didn't: Ma Xiuying, known as Ma Huanghou with Bigfoot, and Qin Liangyu, a famous woman in the late Ming Dynasty. Most of the others are foot binding. This bad habit was not banned until 19 1 1 Xinhai Revolution was successful, that is, more than 300 years later.

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