Why did ancient women in China bind their feet? The feudal social system that men were superior to women led to the fact that ancient China was a feudal society influenced by Confucianism. Confucianism in Song Dynasty developed into Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng, which advocated women's "three obedience and four virtues", which provided a theoretical basis for feudal society to control women.
According to Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, encouraging women to bind their feet can limit women's personal freedom, make them "stay at home", better "teach their husbands and children" and "marry their husbands", and obey and attach themselves to men all their lives, which is in line with the needs of feudal society where men are superior to women and is more conducive to social stability.
For example, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the size of a woman's feet was linked to marriage. If the feet can't reach the standard of "three-inch golden lotus", it is difficult to marry a good family. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, married "Ma Dajiao" Ma Huanghou, because his family was too poor to open the pot.
The Proposition of Literati and Poet Ancient literati in China occupied a dominant position in society. In many poems handed down from generation to generation, it is reflected that scholars like little feet and praise them.
For example, Su Shi, one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, just likes women's "little feet". In a poem "Bodhisattva Man", I wrote
"It should be difficult to say it in one second, but it must be seen from the palm of your hand." In other words, the beauty of a woman is hard to say, but it depends on her feet.
Xin Qiji's Bodhisattva Man also wrote
"Yellow bow-shaped shoes are small, and the waist is afraid of the wind blowing down?" Depicting a woman's little feet is a kind of delicate beauty. Therefore, because men like "feet", a poetic culture of "discussing feet" and "writing feet" has emerged.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a scholar named Fang Xuan, named "Dr. Xiang Lian". He wrote an article "Made in Xiang Lian", which divided the little feet into five types, nine types and eighteen types. such as
"Slim, small, sharp, curved, fragrant, soft and upright" are the seven criteria for the beauty of small feet. "Form, quality, talent, spirit, fat, softness and beauty" are the "seven beauties" of little feet. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of bureaucrats and literati in the upper class, female foot-binding has also arisen.
Men's Aesthetics In China's ancient feudal society, women, like clothes, were attached to men. Many royalty and upper-class people think that women with small feet are more beautiful, so some women also wrap their feet to please men. At that time, in order to let their daughters marry rich people, ordinary people had a good backer for the rest of their lives, and wrapped their girls' feet in three-inch golden lotus.
The benefits of foot binding are beneficial to fertility. Because the weight of the whole body is in the heel, the intensity of hip exercise becomes greater. In the long run, women's waist and buttocks will become developed, and the pelvis will inevitably be affected, which is conducive to women's smooth delivery. Although the purpose of foot binding is not to carry on the family line, it is helpful to bear children.
Women who cultivate "three obedience and four virtues" and bind their feet are generally confined at home and need support to act, so there will be no affair, which is more in line with the requirements of men. Therefore, foot-binding for women is also the need of feudal society with male supremacy. In this way, women's ideological and personal freedom is imprisoned.
The disadvantages of foot-binding outweigh the advantages of damaging the girl's body. Because foot binding is to change the shape of the foot bone through external force, and then change the overall shape of the foot, the age of ancient women's foot binding is generally seven or eight years old. Ancient women used cloth to wrap their feet and wear small shoes since childhood, which restricted their physical development and the pain was imaginable.
Women who restrict women's personal freedom to bind their feet are inconvenient to walk and unable to move freely in society. They can only take care of their husbands, children and parents-in-law, and become subservient to men and a tool to carry on the family line, which is difficult to reflect women's social value.
A woman baptized by the spirit of feudal ethics will only be "obedient and virtuous" at home and have no personality of her own. More bound by feudal ideas. Therefore, after the establishment of the Republic of China in the Revolution of 1911, Sun Yat-sen abolished the bad habit of women's foot binding.