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)
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
This is what the feet looked like properly wrapped up and with the women wearing their special shoes.
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 the 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 (Ebrey, )
Here is an account of the footbinding process from someone who endured the process:
"Born into an old-fashioned family at P'ing-hsi,
I was inflicted with the pain of footbinding when I
was was seven years old . . . I wept and hid in a neighbor's
home, but mother found me, scolded me, and
dragged me home. She shut the bedroom door, boiled
water, and from a box withdrew binding, shoes, knife,
needle, and thread . . . She washed and placed alum
on my feet and cut the toenails. She then bent my
toes toward the plantar with a binding cloth ten
feet long and two inches wide, doing the right foot
first and then the left. She finished binding and
ordered me to walk, but when I did the pain proved
unbearable.
That night, mother wouldn't let me remove the
shoes. My feet felt on fire and I couldn't sleep;
mother struck me for crying . . . The feet were
washed and rebound after three or four days, with
alum added. After several months, all toes but the
big one were pressed against the inner surface . . .
Mother would remove the bindings and wipe the blood
and pus which dripped from my feet. She told me
that only with removal of the flesh could my feet
become slender. If I mistakenly punctured a sore,
the blood gushed like a stream.
Every two weeks, I changed to new shoes. Each
new pair was one- to two-tenths of an inch smaller
than the previous one . . . After changing more than
ten pairs of shoes, my feet were reduced to a little
over four inches . . . Four of the toes were curled
in like so many dead caterpillars; no outsider
would ever have believed that they belonged to a
human being. It took two years to achieve the
three-inch model . . ." (Greenhalgh, 9)
By reading an account of the process from someone who actually endured it, makes it a little easier to understand what women went through.
Care of Bound
Once a week, women would soak their bandaged feet in hot water. They would then remove the bandages, and any dead skin or calluses would be rubbed and cut off. Women also had to perfume their feet in order to hide the smell. The feet were then kneaded into the desired shape, dusted with alum, and rebound quickly in order to preserve the shape.
Embroidered shoes with one or two inch wooden heels were worn. The shoes were shaped in order to help women walk with their now mishaped feet. The heels helped balance and support the body. Women usually had more than one pair of shoes, if they could afford them, including a pair for special occasions.
the ankles of women with bound feet were affected the footbinding process. Ankles were swollen and deformed, and in order to hide this women wore leggings which were fastened above the calf and hung down far enough just to show the tiny foot in its embroidered shoes.
Role in Marriage
End of Footbinding
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.
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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.
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