Women’s foot-binding did not start in the Qing Dynasty. It has been pushed back to the Five Dynasties or the early Song Dynasty. Anyway, people in the Tang Dynasty did not bind their feet. The practice of foot binding flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In the Song Dynasty, only noble women bound their feet, while ordinary women did not. Moreover, the requirement for bound feet at that time was only to be straight and straight, and it would not cause severe injuries to the muscles and bones in later generations.
It is said that women in ancient times bound their feet because Li Yu, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, liked to watch women dancing on the "golden lotus". Because the gold lotus was too small, the dancers would wrap their feet in white silk. Standing bent on it, it looks graceful, graceful and graceful when dancing. It was originally a dance costume, and then slowly spread from the harem to the upper class society. Later, folk women followed suit one after another, and gradually became a common social custom and became A morbid aesthetic.
For women, beauty is important. It is an important means and way to achieve a better life. As for whether you can walk, who cares?
Why is foot binding popular in China? There are roughly two reasons. One is the influence of the ruler's will on the people of the world, and the other is the appreciation and praise of cultural people. Foot binding has its origins and is related to rulers. It is said that foot binding originated from Li Yu, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty who sang "When will the spring flowers and autumn moon come?" His concubines tied their feet with cloth into a crescent shape and danced on the lotus made of gold. Empress Li Thinking this was the most beautiful thing, footbinding began in the harem, and later spread to the people. As long as the emperor likes something, it will be popular among the people. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty loved Taoist culture. Later, Empress Li liked women with small feet, so foot binding became popular. There are several theories about the origin of foot binding. Some say it started with Pan Yunu, the deposed imperial concubine of Qi in the Southern Dynasty, some say it started with the late Tang Dynasty, some said it started with Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, etc., but all of them are without exception. Relations with the rulers also explain this reason.
In addition to the will of the ruler, it is the influence of literati on social customs. Women in ancient times paid great attention to their headwear, and then their feet. The idioms "Taking the head and the feet" and "Taking the head and the feet" both mean discussing women's appearance and body. The head and feet have become an important standard of female beauty in the eyes of educated people. Cultural people have many words of praise for small feet, such as "Golden Lotus", "Three-inch Golden Lotus", "Fragrant Hook", etc., are all words of praise given to small feet by cultural people. Su Dongpo's "Bodhisattva Man" has a poem about feet that says: "Slimness is difficult to say, it must be seen from the palm of your hand", and even formulated seven standards for the beauty of small feet: thin, small, pointed, curved, fragrant, soft and straight, and also summarized the "seven beauties" of small feet: shape, quality , talent, god, fatness, softness, beauty, it is really profound and profound.