Footbinding

There is some disagreement about when footbinding began in China. It has been suggested that it began as early as the Shang Dynasty and as late as the Song Dynasty.(Ebrey, 160)

Photo of Chinese woman with bound feet

At the very least though, the custom lasted for well over a thousand years, until well into the 20th Century. These pictures are all of women from the late 19th or early 20th Century

Size comparison: regular size woman's shoe (from WWI era), woman's bound feet & a teacup. Photo by by otisarchives3.Click here for original source.

This is what the feet looked like properly wrapped up and with the women wearing their special shoes.

Mother & daughter- compare the size of their feet

These pictures show only the result of footbinding, not the terrible and excruciatingly painful process by which these result were obtained.

Origins

Even though there are some disagreements about when exactly footbinding began, there is a general time frame for when it likely started. Footbinding possibly originated during the fifty years between the Tang and Song dynasties, roughly 907-959 A.D. During this time it wasfashionable for women to walk slowly and sway. Also,both men and women compressed their feet moderately. Between 750-1100 A.D. footbinding became a female custom and spread to all parts of society. The practice originated in the north, and followed the migration patterns and moved its way south. (Greenhalgh 8-9)

Story of First Footbinding

In Southern Tang Dynasty (961-975 A.D.), the court of the Emperor Li Yu had a large number of courtesans and dancers. Among these dancers, Li Yu had a favorite. Her name was Yao-niang. Li Yu built her a six foot high golden lotus and ordered Yao-niang to bind her feet with strips of white silk, making them small and graceful. Yao-niang was then supposed to dance on this golden lotus. (Greenhalgh 8-9)

After this, the term "golden lotus" became a euphemism for bound feet, because of the resemblance of a bound foot and a lotus. (Greenhalgh, 9)

How to Bind Feet

When a young girl was about 6 years old her feet would be bound for the first time. First, her feet would usually be soaked in a mixture of liquids (the ingredients varied- anything from plain water to animal blood) believed to soften the bones for the work ahead. Then, her toenails were cut and her four smaller toes were folded under the main part of the foot and tightly wrapped. (Often the bones in these toes were broken at this time. If they were not broken now, they would be later.) Then the entire foot was tightly wrapped around both the foot and the ankle, to draw the ball of the foot as close as possible to the heel. As the wrappings dried, the foot would be bound even tighter pulling the ball of the foot even closer to the heel and deforming (sometimes even breaking) the arch of the foot. The young girl would be required to walk on her bound feet, breaking the smaller toes, if not already broken. Eventually, if the procedure did not cost her her life, her feet would heal in the new position. The pain would never entirely go away. Frequently her feet would became infected and sometimes some of the flesh would die and need to be removed. This was considered a good thing because it allowed the foot to be bound even more tightly. All of this so that a mother could give her daughter the smallest possible feet, ideally 3 inches long

End of Footbinding

Chinese woman from Shanghai 1900 shows her bound feet

top view of the feet of the woman from Shanghai unwrapped and shown next to the foot of a typical woman with unbound feet.

Now for a look at the bottom of her feet

close up of typical bound feet.

typical bound foot. The toes have been wrapped so completely under the foot that they are visible on the opposite side

Not just in China. This woman is from Toronto. Click here for original source.

Footbinding wasn't always legal in China. The Qing Dynasty outlawed footbinding, but the law was mostly ignored and women continued to bind their daughter's feet until Chairman Mao outlawed it in the mid twentieth century. As late as the 1950's there were still girls getting their feet bound. Now, most of these women have died and the custom is finally dying too.

Chinese woman with bound feet compared with another woman's unbound feet (she turned one foot so that the side view could be seen

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Walking on these poor feet, was an exercise in pain. After all, the women's toes were now tucked into the sole of her feet. To walk, she either had to walk on her toes, or, learn to walk on just her heels (It is not easy to do.) Walking only on your heals gave these women a certain characteristic walk. Women whose feet were not bound, wanted to be able to walk the same way. So, they created special shoes to help them.

Example of shoes, for women whose feet were not bound, designed to help them walk like women with bound feet.

Classroom Presentation

Media:Footbinding.pptx by Mallory Wilsted

Works Cited

Ebrey, Patrica Buckley. "The Cambridge Illustrated History of China". New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010, 2d ed.

Greenhalgh, Susan. “Bound Feet, Hobbled Lives: Women in Old China.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1977), pp. 7- 21