Needless to say, there must have been some sick children in the ruling class at that time. With the flattery of officials at all levels, as long as the emperor likes it, the people naturally like it, which eventually forms a change in the aesthetic standards of the public and causes the tragic history of women's long-term mental and physical persecution.
So what? Where did foot binding first appear? Put forward in those days? Wrap your feet? Can sick children with wrong aesthetics still be found out?
In fact, for so many years, archaeologists have been studying China? Wrap your feet? How did the custom rise? But I can't find the only standard answer. But what is certain is that this? Wrap your feet? Aesthetics must have spread from the court to the people.
Statement 1: In ancient times.
In ancient myths and legends, there was a saying of foot binding. Legend has it that during the flood-fighting period, Dayu married a woman who painted rocks. The woman who painted rocks was a fox with small feet. It is also said that Shang Zhouwang married da ji and da ji was also a fox. Because her feet didn't get better, she wrapped them in cloth all day, and the women in the palace began to imitate them, forming the custom of foot binding.
However, most of these myths and legends are compiled by later generations, and there is no historical data to test, which is unconvincing.
Statement 2: Sui Dynasty
According to legend, when Yang Di traveled eastward, he chose a woman named Wu Yueniang, but Wu Yueniang hated Yang Di very much. So, she asked her father to make a lotus petal knife three inches long and one inch wide and wrap it around the soles of her feet. When Emperor Yang Di admired her little feet, Wu Yueniang tore open the wrapped cloth and took out a knife to kill her. Since then, Emperor Yang Di has ordered that women who bind their feet should not take part in beauty contests in the future, so the folk custom of binding their feet is widely circulated.
In addition to the above two legends, there are stories about the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms introduced by ethnic minorities, and some stories about the rise of the Tang Dynasty. However, these statements have not been confirmed by reliable historical data.
What is really traceable is the Song Dynasty!
In China's history textbook, it is pointed out that? Wrap your feet? It originated from some upper-class literati in the Song Dynasty, spread to the people and even became popular.
For example, Su Dongpo once lamented the beauty of little feet in Bodhisattva Man? Tu Youyou didn't cherish Lian's step, but worried about going to Ling Bo with socks for a long time; 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's hard to say exquisite, but it must be seen from the palm of your hand. ? This poem by Su Shi fully shows that in the Northern Song Dynasty, foot binding has been accepted and appreciated by these literati.
The custom of foot-binding in the Northern Song Dynasty may have taken root. By the Southern Song Dynasty, this phenomenon had become very common. Including the later establishment of the Yuan Dynasty by the Mongols and the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang, the custom of foot-binding was not banned, but was once appreciated and supported by the rulers.
It was not until the Qing dynasty entered the customs that it was ordered? In China, men shave their heads and women are forbidden to bind their feet? .
Of course, this ban is not to save these women, let men shave their heads, and prohibit women from binding their feet. It mainly represents obedience. However, despite the strict prohibition of the Qing court, the wind of foot binding has not improved, but has become more rampant. Because it was rumored at the time? Big feet are ashamed, but small feet are proud? Morality, whether it's the top officials or the bottom people, is it? Feet? As an important criterion for judging beauty and ugliness. A woman can't get married without binding her feet.
It was not until the 20th century that the custom of foot-binding was abolished. It is hard to imagine that such a distorted aesthetic has persecuted women in China for more than a thousand years.