Some say it began in the Sui Dynasty, some say it began in the Tang Dynasty, and some say it began in the Five Dynasties.

Some people even say that Yu's wife and da ji in Xia and Shang Dynasties were both small feet.

However, this statement has superstitious factors and is not credible.

Foot-binding began in Sui Dynasty and also 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. Then carved a lotus on the sole, and printed a beautiful lotus in one step when walking. Emperor Yang Di was very happy when he saw the queen, so he called her to his side to admire her little feet. Wu Yueniang slowly untied the foot cloth, suddenly pulled out a lotus petal knife and stabbed Yang Di. Emperor Yang Di flashed by quickly, but his arm was stabbed. Wu Yueniang saw that the assassination failed, so he threw himself into the river. Later, Emperor Yang Di issued a decree: No matter how beautiful a woman is, "foot-binding women will not be selected" in future beauty contests. However, in order to commemorate the mother of the moon, folk women have bound their feet. At this point, the wind of women's foot binding has intensified.

Foot-binding began in the Five Dynasties and originated from concubines in Li Houzhu in the Southern Tang Dynasty. She is beautiful and versatile. She is 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 to make them slightly bend into crescent shapes. Then she put on plain socks and danced on the lotus stage to make the dance more beautiful.

However, some scholars have pointed out through research that foot-binding of ancient women in China rose in the Northern Song Dynasty, and women in China did not do it before the Five Dynasties. 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.