Foot binding began in the late Northern Song Dynasty and rose in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The reasons for binding small feet:
1. Aesthetics: At that time, both men and women believed that small feet were beautiful. Especially for men, small feet were sexually attractive.
2. The influence of the ruler’s will on the people of the world. Foot binding has its origins and is related to rulers. Foot binding began in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty and rose in the Southern Song Dynasty. The royal family and the upper class of the Song Dynasty were the first to start foot binding.
Because the emperor and officials believed that small feet were beautiful, the ignorant people also regarded small feet as beautiful, and even called them "three-inch golden lotus". In the eyes of people at that time, small feet were a very important aspect of "female beauty".
No matter how good a woman’s appearance and figure are, if she has a pair of natural feet or her feet are not small enough (more than three inches), she will be ridiculed and she will not be able to marry. People completely put aside the damage to the human body and the inconvenience of movement. They think that the bound feet are small, exquisite, exquisite and beautiful, which is pleasing to the eye. Women with small feet stagger when they walk, like willows swaying in the wind, which is really beautiful.
3. It is conducive to confining women in the boudoir and strictly restricting their scope of activities in order to comply with the etiquette of "three obediences and four virtues", thereby achieving the purpose of monopolizing men's chastity according to their desires.
4. The rotten literati added fuel to the flames.
Extended information:
Foot binding not only seriously affects the normal development of women's feet, but also causes people to form a deformed aesthetic psychology.
Foot-binding reduced women’s motivation to engage in dance and sports. For example, the dance art introduced from China by North Korea and Japan has continued to develop. On the contrary, in China, the development of dance art has become increasingly stagnant with the development of foot binding.
Foot binding seriously infringes on women’s rights. Footbinding hinders every move of a woman. Noble ladies from wealthy families have their own maids and servants to take care of them whenever they need it, but ordinary women have to rely on themselves and have no choice but to sweep on their knees and sit on their knees. What's more, it still requires grinding and grinding, transplanting seedlings and cutting rice. The bitterness and bitterness involved cannot be described by those who have experienced it.
The pain of foot binding is heartbreaking and painful, especially in the initial stage of binding. Every time I get tied up, the pain is unbearable, and whimpering and crying are unavoidable. The binding was mostly done in the morning and evening, so the sound of girls crying and wailing in the morning and evening became a tragic scene in Chinese society during the foot-binding era.
Foot binding causes women to suffer torture and pain for no reason. The difficulty in walking hinders the woman's normal participation in social work and hinders her social activities. Women are trapped in the boudoir, ignorant and ignorant, and have lost the ability to make a living. This has fostered women's dependence, arrogance, and inferiority complex, which has also made women's social status even lower.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Footbinding