According to literature, Chinese people have worn clogs for at least three thousand years.
In 1987, archaeologists discovered two remaining wooden clogs at the late Neolithic site in Cihu, Ningbo, Zhejiang. Both were worn by the left foot. The wooden clogs are flat and slightly foot-shaped, wide at the front and narrow at the back.
One piece of wood has a flat body, with five small holes on it, one hole on the head, two holes in the middle and one on the heel, and a groove dug between the two holes. The width of the groove is the same as the diameter of the hole. It is speculated that its purpose is to embed the rope into the groove after passing it through the small hole to make the surface flat.
When it was unearthed, the rope was rotten and there were no teeth on it (Figure 4).
The other piece is a round-headed square heel with six holes and a groove between the two holes at the heel.
According to research, these two wooden clogs have a history of more than 4,000 years and are Liangzhu cultural relics.
According to "Zhuangzi" records, Duke Wen of Jin, one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, made wooden clogs more than 2,000 years ago.
"Zhuangzi·Yiyuan" says: "Meson pushed the tree and burned it to death, and Jin Wengong cut it down to make clogs." Liu Jingshu's "Yiyuan" of the Southern Song Dynasty mentioned that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jin Gongzi Chong'er was He fled persecution and went into exile abroad. During his exile, he was tired and hungry. He sent his followers everywhere to search for him but could not find anything to eat.
Just when he was almost desperate, Jie Zitui, who was fleeing with Chong'er, cut off a piece of meat from his own thigh and cooked a bowl of broth for Prince Chong'er to drink.
After a bowl of broth, Chong'er gradually regained his energy.
When he discovered that the meat he ate was actually cut off by Jie Zitui, Chong'er was moved to tears.
Nineteen years later, Duke Wen of Jin returned to his country and paid homage to the deceased, letting the sound of the clattering clogs remind him not to make the same mistakes again.
The sound of clogs inspired Zhong Er to work hard to govern, and eventually Jin became one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.
"One step" has also become an honorific for people.
King Fu Chai of Wu received the beauty Xi Shi as a gift from the Yue Kingdom, and ordered people to build a "ring clog corridor", that is, dig a hole under the long corridor of carved beams and painted buildings, bury rows of pottery jars, and then put them on top. A layer of elastic wooden boards is laid, and Xi Shi, wearing a small copper bell, various jade ornaments, and exquisite wooden clogs, dances in the corridor, making the corridor emit a rhythm like a harp and a harp, and the crisp *** and jade pendants. The sound of singing, accompanied by Xi Shi's graceful dancing, made Fu Chai fall in love with her.
Wang Yu of the Song Dynasty said in his poem "Wandering Lingyan Mountain·Xiangcang Corridor":
The name of Xiangcang was left in the empty corridor because Xi Shi walked around the corridor.
Poor five-phase admonishment, who remembers the sound of clogs at that time.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, clogs became increasingly common. It is said that Confucius wore clogs at that time.
Volume 698 of "Taiping Yulan" quotes "Notes on the Hidden Meaning of the Analects of Confucius": "When Confucius arrived at Cai, he stayed in a guest house. At night, someone took one of Confucius's clogs, and the thief put it on the receiver. Robber's house.
Confucius's clogs were one foot and four inches long, different from ordinary people." ⑿ It is said that Confucius traveled around the country and came to the state of Cai to stay in a guest house.
According to the custom at that time, shoes could not be worn indoors and could only be left at the door. Unexpectedly, when I woke up the next day, my clogs were missing. It turned out that they had been stolen in the middle of the night.
Some commentators claim that Confucius’s clogs were stolen because they were “different from ordinary people’s clogs.” This may not be the actual situation. It is estimated that people treasured the clogs he wore as treasures out of respect for Confucius. .
There is a record in "Book of Jin·Five Elements Chronicles", which involves the whereabouts of Confucius' clogs: "In the leap month of Gengyin in the fifth year of Yuankang, Emperor Hui, there was a fire in the arsenal.
Zhang Huayin When there is chaos, the first thing to do is to guard and then to put out the fire.
Therefore, the treasures of King Mangtou, Confucius, the Han Emperor's White Snake-Breaking Sword and two million people's weapons were all wiped out in one moment. Before the fire, Confucius's clogs were regarded as "exotic treasures" and kept in the library.
It was also fashionable for men and women in the Han Dynasty to wear clogs. In Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was also a popular custom: when a bride gets married, clogs must be included in the dowry. The sophisticated ones also put colored paintings on the clogs. Tie with colorful silk ropes.
As stated in "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Five Elements Chronicles" and Ying Shao's "Customs and Customs": "In Yanxi, all the elders in the capital wore wooden clogs.
When women first get married, The lacquer-painted clogs are tied with five colors." This kind of lacquer-painted clogs was unearthed from the tomb of the famous Dongwu general Zhu Ran and his wife and concubines in the suburbs of Ma'anshan, Anhui: the clogs are small and exquisite, with three smaller holes drilled on the wooden flat. The whole body is painted with lacquer, and there are two wooden teeth on the bottom of the sandals, which are believed to be burial items for Zhu Ran's wives and concubines.
"The Legend of Immortals" says: "When I went on a trip later, I asked Ci to walk in front of the horse, intending to assassinate him from behind.
Ci was wearing wooden clogs and holding a green bamboo stick. Walking slowly, often a hundred paces in front of the horse, whipping the horse, using weapons to chase it, but ultimately unable to reach him.
The period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was the period when clogs were popular.
During this period, clogs were not only used for travel, but also for home use. For example, "Shishuo Xinyu·Wangtuan" records that Wang Shu of Jin Dynasty was impatient and used chopsticks to poke eggs during meals. If it breaks, he throws it to the ground angrily, and the egg keeps spinning. Wang Shu then "goes down to the ground and crushes it with the teeth of his clogs." ⒂ This is an example of Jin people wearing clogs at home.
There is also a record of this in "Book of Jin·Biography of Xie An": "(Xie) Xuan and others defeated (Fu) Jian, and there was a message from the post office. (Xie) An Fang played chess against the guests, and after reading the book, he He put it on the bed, no expression of joy, and the chess game was as before.
When the guest asked, Xu replied: "The kid has already broken the thief." My heart is so happy that I don’t realize that my clogs and teeth are broken.
It’s so pretentious and restraining things.” It is said that during the Battle of Feishui, Xie An, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, personally served as the commander-in-chief of the expedition and commanded the war. My nephew Xie Xuan led his troops to meet the enemy, but he was playing chess with others at his residence.
Suddenly a message arrived from the front, reporting the news of his nephew's victory. Xie An remained unmoved and continued to play chess with his friends, showing a prudent and steady demeanor of a general.
Until the chess game was over and I returned to my room, I could no longer contain my excitement. When I crossed the threshold, I forgot to lift my feet, which resulted in the teeth of my clogs breaking.
This is also an example of Jin people wearing clogs at home.
Southern Dynasties Flexible Geared Clogs: This is a pair of flexible geared sandals imitating the shape of Xie Gong's clogs in the Southern Dynasties.
Xie Lingyun, the governor of Yongjia in the Southern Dynasty, was the originator of the landscape poetry school in my country.
He liked mountains and rivers by nature. According to records in "Southern History", he created a kind of living wooden clogs.
In order to maintain the balance of the human body when climbing, this kind of clogs uses tenons, inserts and two movable teeth. The front teeth are removed when going up the mountain, and the back teeth are taken off when going down the mountain. Historically, they are called Xie Gong clogs.
Later, it was imitated by people in the market and became a habit.
Due to the many advantages of this wooden clog, it quickly spread to the south.
The sound of clogs is accompanied by Zhong Er’s sigh of “Sad, step down”, along with the ban on smoking during cold food, the custom of visiting tombs during the Qingming Festival, and the custom of planting trees during the Qingming Festival spread across the country.
Perhaps it was a coincidence of history, or perhaps later generations accepted the lesson of Duke Wen of the Jin Dynasty who had Chong'er and pedaled with wooden clogs, "I will live my life with determination". In short, a few years later, the Battle of Jiexiu decided the fate of the Tang Dynasty. It is held at the foot of Mianshan Mountain.
Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, together with tens of thousands of Turkic troops, fought a decisive battle against Taiyuan Prince Li Shimin.
Li Shimin defended himself against the enemy and chose his opportunities carefully, defeating the many with the few and the strong with the weak.
Li Shimin had another bigger gain in this battle, that is, Corporal Li Xian surrendered a famous general named Wei Chigong who had cut his stock to serve the emperor.
However, among the later vassals of Lingyung Pavilion, Li Shimin was not as forgetful as Jin Wengong. He first rewarded this loyal and famous man, which has been passed down through the ages.
However, in today’s world, the people who wear clogs the most are undoubtedly the Japanese.
In traditional Japanese festivals, weddings, festivals and other ceremonies, Japanese people wear traditional kimonos. It is worth noting that this style of clogs is very similar to the clogs popular among modern Japanese folk, so It is speculated that it had an influence.
In addition to men, women in the Tang Dynasty also had the habit of wearing clogs, especially women in Jiangnan.
In Li Bai's poem "The Girl on the Huansha Stone", there is a chant of "a pair of gold-toothed sandals, two feet as white as frost". Wang Qi of the Qing Dynasty annotated "South Vietnam Chronicles": "Zhao Nu, a woman from Jun'an County, with gold "Box (inlaid) toothed sandals." This shows that the sandals worn by women at that time were of exquisite shape, and the teeth of the sandals were also inlaid.
Another poem by Li Bai, "Ci of Yue Women" also talks about the situation of women wearing clogs. There is a sentence in the poem: "The feet on the clogs are like frost, and there are no crow's head socks." "Girl's socks" are a type of socks used with wooden clogs. When making, the big toe is separated from the other four toes to form a Y-shape to catch the ropes on the clogs.
From Li Bai's poems, we can learn that clogs were worn with either socks or bare feet.
After the Song Dynasty, Han women often wore wooden clogs because they advocated foot binding.
Men still wear them, but they are mostly used as rain boots.
"The Biography of Eminent Monks of the Song Dynasty·Nineteen Fengqian Biography": "However, his cloth jacket is scattered, his face is withered, he uses birch bark as a crown, and he wears big wooden clogs." "Gui'er Collection" by Zhang Ruiyi of the Song Dynasty: " Dongpo was in Dan'er and had no books to read. Li Zi's family had several volumes of Liu inscriptions, which he played and recited all day long. One day when it rained, he borrowed his hat and sandals and returned home.
The dogs in the city are quarreling and barking, so Dongpo says that the laughter is strange and the barking is strange. Dongpo also thinks barking is a common thing, and he sees it as strange and I see it as normal, so he wears wooden clogs with farmers and does not wear hats with Zhang Dun and Lu Huiqing. "Zhang Kui Dongpo wears clogs." "Picture" "Later, there were postscripts and poems by Wei Liaoweng, Feng Zizhen, Deng Xi, and Li Xiaoguang.
Three of them are recorded today.
"Dongpo was in Dan'er and visited him one day. Li Ziyun, it was raining in Zhongtu, so he borrowed bamboo hats and wooden clogs from the farmer's house, put on his shoes and returned.
Women and children are laughing, and dogs are barking.
"The image of Song Dynasty people wearing wooden clogs is depicted in the Song Dynasty painting "Returning to Lai Ci Tu".
"The Biography of Strange Women·Two-Servant Women" says: "I was passing by Shengyefang North Street in the early spring rain on the other day. There was a woman with three servant girls. She was about seventeen or eighteen years old. She was dressed in blue and wearing wooden clogs. It stands under the locust tree on the side of the road.
"
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, wooden clogs were called "mud clogs", also focusing on their uses.
For example, Chapter 25 of "The Story of Awakening Marriage": "Member Di held an umbrella outside, put on mud clogs, said goodbye to Professor Xue and went home. "During the Ming and Qing dynasties when foot binding was prevalent, women in Guangdong and Fujian did not contract this practice and were still bound by natural foot binding.
Because the local climate is relatively hot, women there are the same as men, regardless of whether it is sunny or sunny. On rainy days, it is customary to wear clogs at home, but the decoration of the clogs is slightly more elaborate than those worn by men.
For example, Xie Zhao of the Ming Dynasty wrote in "Wuzazu": "In this world, I am Xinghua, Fujian." In the three counties of Zhangzhou, Zhangzhou and Quan, people wear clogs as leather straps, wash their feet, and wear them with their legs crossed. This applies to both men and women, regardless of whether they are high or low, because many women there do not have their feet bound.
The women's clogs are decorated with colorful paintings, and sometimes they are used as dragon heads. "The image of clogs in this period is also depicted in Wang Qi's "Three Talents Picture Association".
In the Qing Dynasty, most of the clogs worn by men and women at home had no teeth, and those produced in Chaozhou, Guangdong were the top quality. Made of wood wrapped with wood, it contains a slight fragrance, which can remove odor.
There are also clogs that are painted on the surface, or wrapped with embroidered silk or leather.
Such as clogs. Qu Dajun of the Qing Dynasty recorded in "Guangdong Xinyu": "Today in central Guangdong, many maidservants and concubines wear red leather clogs.
Scholars and officials are all still wearing clogs.
When taking a bath and enjoying the coolness, one wears the shoes with loose feet, which is called "scattering clogs". The loose clogs are made of mop leather made in Chaozhou, or they are made of wood wrapped with wood.
…Xinhui wears red lacquered clogs; Dongguan wears flower-embroidered clogs, which consider lightness as the most valuable. "This kind of toothless clogs is close to modern slippers.