There are four common sayings about the origin of foot binding:

1, which began in the legendary era.

China ancient myths and legends do have such traces. Legend has it that Dayu married Tu Shanshi's daughter and gave birth to a child when he was in charge of water control. Tu Shan barren woman is a fox spirit with small feet; He also said that da ji, the concubine of the late Yin Dynasty, was also a fox, or a pheasant, but her feet didn't get better, so she wrapped them in cloth. Because of da ji's love, all the women in the palace followed her example and held back. Of course, these are just folk myths and legends, which contain more romantic elements and are not enough to prove that women bound their feet at that time.

2. It started from Sui theory.

Foot-binding began in Sui Dynasty and originated from folklore. According to legend, when Yang Di went to Jiangdu, he recruited hundreds of beautiful women to pull fibers for him. A woman named Wu Yueniang was chosen. She hated Yang-ti's tyranny, so she asked her father, who was a blacksmith, to make a lotus petal knife three inches long and one inch wide, and wrap it under her feet with a long cloth, and at the same time, the smaller the foot, the better.

3. Starting from the Five Dynasties Theory

Foot-binding began in the Five Dynasties and originated from concubines in Li Houzhu in the Southern Tang Dynasty. They are beautiful and versatile, and are good at singing and dancing. Li Houzhu specially made a six-foot-tall golden lotus, decorated with jewels and ribbons, and ordered her to tie her feet with silk, so that her feet were slightly bent to make the shape of a crescent moon, and then put on plain socks and danced on the lotus stage, so that the dance was more beautiful.

4. It started in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Modern scholars have pointed out that China ancient women's foot-binding rose in the Northern Song Dynasty, and China women did not bind their feet five generations ago. Su Dongpo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote the word "Bodhisattva Man" and lamented foot binding. "Don't cherish step by step lotus, worry about wearing socks to Ling Bo; I saw the dance in the air without a trace. Stealing the palace is as stable as Mount Tai, and it is a double drop; It should be hard to say that it is wonderful. It must be seen from the palm of your hand. " It can also be called the first poem dedicated to foot binding in the history of China's poetry.

It should be noted that the writing of foot-binding poems depends on the appearance of foot-binding customs, which shows that foot-binding customs did appear in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, women's foot-binding became more common. Even at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, "little feet" had become a general term for women. However, in the Southern Song Dynasty, women's foot-binding was not popular, and it was mainly confined to the upper class, and the social concept of foot-binding was not accepted by everyone. At the same time, the custom of foot-binding spread from the north to the south, about the time when the Song Dynasty moved south.

Foot-binding in Song Dynasty is different from the three-inch golden lotus in later generations. According to historical records, foot binding in the Song Dynasty was to "straighten" your feet without bending, which was called "getting on the horse" at that time. The shoes used are called "Wrong in the End", and the soles are very sharp and consist of two colors. This kind of foot-binding shoes has been found in archaeology. From the archaeological findings, it is speculated that the feet wrapped by these shoes are bigger than those later.