Foot bandaging. Traditions of ancient China - deformity of the feet. And for Xi Yin Zhin, foot binding was quite a familiar procedure. From early childhood, her legs were in tight bandages, so they took the form of almost doll shoes.

07.09.2021

History teaches us that people's ideas of beauty sometimes pushed them to terrible deeds. Mothers mutilated their little daughters' legs and forced them to endure childish suffering for years, and cosmetologists poisoned fashionistas with lead, arsenic and mercury.

Today website talk about fashion victims.

lotus feet

For a millennium in China, tiny legs were considered almost the main advantage of a woman. At the age of six or seven, girls began to bandage their feet.

All fingers, except for the big one, pressed tightly against the sole. Then the foot was wrapped lengthwise to bend it in the shape of an arc. Regularly changed shoes, each time smaller than the previous pair. For a child, it was a terrible torture. The legs swelled, bled, oozed with pus, the bones broke.

After two or three years, if the girl survived, the leg was "ready". The length of the foot did not exceed 7-10 cm. A young Chinese woman could walk without assistance with great difficulty. At the same time, the leg was deformed so much that it looked little like a human limb.

Helplessness, on the one hand, testified to a noble origin. This meant that the girl did not know work, and she did not even need to walk - she was carried in the hands of servants. On the other hand, the crippled legs helped control the girl, keep her morals and ensured that she would not go anywhere on a date.

The tiny feet of a woman were compared to a lotus or lily flower, and the procedure itself was called "Golden Lotus". Because of this, making love in China was called "walking among the golden lotuses."

In different regions of China, there was a fashion for different ways leg bandaging. Somewhere a narrower foot was held in high esteem, somewhere a shorter one. There were several dozen varieties - "lotus petal", "young moon", "slender arc", "bamboo shoot" and so on.

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The smaller the girl had a leg, the more her "market value" increased, that is, the chances of a successful marriage. It was believed that the owners of natural, large legs are deprived of the main difference from a man.

At the same time, men were reasonably advised not to remove the bandages from women's legs, being content with their appearance in shoes, otherwise "the aesthetic feeling would be offended." In bed, the Chinese woman did not part with her shoes.

The feet were washed separately from the rest of the body, and never in the presence of a man. In addition to being intimidating, they smelled terrible. After washing, they were covered with alum and perfumes and bandaged again like a mummy.

Swaddling legs threatened with serious health consequences. In the feet, normal blood circulation was disrupted, which often led to gangrene. The nails grew into the skin, the foot was covered with calluses. There was a terrible smell from the feet. Due to the constant load on the hips and buttocks, they swelled, so the men called them "voluptuous". In addition, a woman with crippled legs led a sedentary lifestyle, which also led to problems.

This custom appeared during the Tang Dynasty, in the 9th century, and lasted until the middle of the 20th century, until the communists completely eradicated it. If in ancient times representatives of the upper strata of society began to swaddle their legs, then later this practice spread even among poor peasants, because in China it was not customary for a woman to do agricultural work. And it was in the villages that foot swaddling died out last.

Skull deformity

Many ancient peoples deformed the skull of a child so that later his head would have the desired shape. This has been achieved enough simple ways. The bones of the skull of a newborn are very plastic. Even if you leave it on long time in a hard cradle, the back of his head will become flat.

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For deformation, special caps, bandages, planks were used. In many cases, the infant died or remained imbecile.

In the African tribe Mangbetu, elongated, tower-shaped heads, like those of the Egyptian pharaohs, are considered beautiful. To do this, the heads of newborns are tied with ropes. People with this skull shape are called acrocephals.

Representatives of the Paracas people, who lived on the territory of modern Peru in 700-100 BC, severely deformed their heads. Archaeologists have found the skulls of not only acrocephals, but also trigonocephals (triangular shape), and even some terrible "cephali", whose head was squeezed up and down, forming an incredible shape.

On the territory of the Crimea, the skulls of babies were deformed by the Sarmatians, Goths, Alans and Huns. “Some kind of horror is already printed on the very faces of his children. His squeezed head rises like a round mass,” wrote the Gallo-Roman poet Sidonius Apollinaris about the people of the Huns.

round face fashion Ancient Russia led to the fact that babies were steamed in a bath and acted on the skull, forming a "correct" round shape.

In some regions, the tradition of artificial deformation of the skull comes almost to the present day. In France, back in the 19th century, nannies used massage to make a child's head round. In Turkmenistan, until the 1940s, both girls and boys were put on a skullcap, which was wrapped with deforming bandages.

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Scientists suggest that the main purpose of skull deformation is to emphasize the high social status of a person. There is also a version that by deforming the skull, people tried to develop some parts of the brain and suppress others, thus creating a person of the desired intellectual type.

giraffe neck

Some peoples consider a beautiful woman with a very long neck. So, women of the Padong, or Kayan people, living in Myanmar and Thailand, stretch their necks with metal hoops.

From about the age of five, girls begin to wear copper spirals around their necks. Gradually, the number of rings increases until it reaches a couple of dozen. grown woman can wear four or five kilograms of such rings.

At the same time, the neck itself almost does not lengthen. X-rays showed that the shoulder area is deformed. Under the weight of the rings, the shoulder girdle descends, which is attached to the skeleton with the help of only one joint. Sometimes the spirals are made too high and the woman cannot turn or tilt her head and constantly lifts her chin.

If you remove these rings, then the neck may break, because during the time the jewelry is worn, the muscles atrophy and can no longer support the spine. However, if the height of the spiral was not very large and did not fit snugly against the chin, a woman can remove it without consequences.

Why the Padongs had such a fashion is unknown. Among other tribes, the customs of mutilating women were associated with the desire to keep them within the community, roughly speaking, so that strangers would not covet them. Now the padong women continue to stretch their necks because it attracts tourists and brings in money.

The same custom existed among the South African tribe Amandebele. From the age of 12, girls began to wear brass hoops, stretching their necks up to 40-50 cm. Now this tradition has almost disappeared.

Flat chest

In medieval Europe, it was considered beautiful for a woman to have small breasts. Such a canon of beauty stemmed from the Christian worldview and the cult of the Virgin.

Medieval theology considered the body to be the dungeon of the soul, and this was reflected in the proportions of the female figure. Forms were supposed to be ascetic. Small arms and legs, thin hips, a flat chest, an elegant long neck, a high shaved forehead, an elongated oval face, pale skin, blond hair, thin lips were highly valued. The woman was supposed to resemble a disembodied angel.

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In order for the chest to be flat, it was bandaged or pulled with metal plates. This was done even in small girls so that the mammary glands did not develop.

At the same time, the Middle Ages nurtured the cult of motherhood, the highest ideal of which was the Virgin Mary. Therefore, with all the subtlety, a medieval woman had to have a round belly, which gave the figure an S-shaped outline. To look like pregnant women, the ladies specially enlarged their stomachs by placing special pads.

Toxic cosmetics

Throughout almost the entire history of Europe, a pale face was considered beautiful. The complexion distinguished the nobility from the commoners, whose skin was rough from work and tanned in the sun. To emphasize the pallor, the ladies were smeared with lead and zinc white. The skin quickly withered, and ulcers appeared on it. Poisonous zinc and lead gradually poisoned the fashionista, often leading to death.

For the sake of pale skin, they also made bloodletting and drank vinegar.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, women covered their faces with a particularly thick layer of white. Powdering cabinets appeared - a lady, dressed up and having her hair done, entered such a cabinet and poured powder on herself, which consisted of rice starch, lead, bismuth and arsenic. Rice powder with the addition of lead came from China. Chinese and Japanese women also suffered from poisoning for the sake of beauty.

To make their eyes expressive, Europeans dripped belladonna into them. Her pupils dilated, her eyes seemed black and shiny. This resulted in blindness and hallucinations.

In the 19th century, with the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, it was considered refined to look unhealthy. Ladies not only whitened their faces with toxic lead white, but also painted blue streaks on their skin. Women also deliberately lacked sleep so that dark circles appeared under the eyes. The Victorian pale face remained in vogue until the 1920s.

Ancient lipstick was made from mercury sulfide, or cinnabar. There were also cinnabar blushes. Mercury was also used in hair dyes. Eyebrows and eyelashes were inked with poisonous antimony.

If in Russia of the 17th century, peasant women painted their lips with cherry and beet juice, and their eyebrows with soot, then the noblewomen abused poisonous paints.

“Eyes, neck and hands are painted with different colors, white, red, blue and dark: black eyelashes are made white, white again black or dark and spend them so rudely and thickly that everyone will notice it,” the Swedish diplomat Peter wrote about the Russian boyars Petreus.

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The German traveler Adam Olearius, who had been to Russia more than once, testified to the same thing: “In the cities they all blush and whiten, moreover, so rudely and noticeably that it seems as if someone had rubbed a handful of flour over their face and painted their cheeks red with a brush. paint."

Olearius tells the story of the wife of Prince Cherkassky, who was very pretty and did not want to blush, but the wives of other boyars began to pester her. As a result of this beautiful woman I had to yield and begin to turn white and blush, that is, as the traveler writes, "light a candle on a clear sunny day."

Russian women also blackened their teeth, as in medieval Europe. Rotten teeth testified that their owner constantly regaled himself with sugar, while only wealthy people could afford to drink sweet tea.

nude fashion

The fashion of the second half of the 18th century was inspired by antiquity. Among European women, light dresses made of translucent chiffon and muslin, picked up under the chest, became popular. Ladies wore these dresses with their hair tied in a Greek knot and soft shoes without heels.

A well-known society lady of that time, Teresa Tallien introduced a bold and indecent fashion for a dress made of transparent Indian muslin worn over a naked body. Her lightest outfits weighed only 200 grams. "She looks like she's coming out of a bath and deliberately shows her forms under transparent fabrics", - wrote the newspaper "Mirror of Paris".

Most urban women spent most of their time indoors, and outerwear they had very little, while the men protected themselves from the cold with double pantaloons, a cloth coat, a waistcoat, and ties wrapped around the neck in several layers.

Even in winter, following the "naked fashion", women went out into the street in nothing but weightless dresses, throwing only a thin scarf over their shoulders, at best - a shawl or spencer - a light short bolero jacket.

"Not afraid of the horrors of winter, they were in translucent dresses, which tightly covered the camp and correctly outlined lovely forms," a contemporary wrote.

Moreover, imitating ancient images and trying to achieve the effect of picturesquely flowing draperies, European women moistened their clothes with water.

Therefore, women of fashion massively died from pneumonia. At the then level of medicine, even a mild cold threatened complications and death. It should also be remembered that the Little Ice Age was then ongoing, and the climate in Europe was very severe. For example, in Paris, the winter of 1784 was abnormally cold, 10-degree frosts lasted until April.

A strange custom existed in China for more than a thousand years - the girls bandaged their feet. According to a legend that has survived to this day, the emperor, Li Yu, demanded that the concubine perform the "lotus dance", which involves bandaging the legs with a white silk cloth. The dance of Yao Nyan made a splash, and representatives from high society began to copy the behavior. From that moment on, the concept of “lotus legs” has firmly entered everyday life. Photographer Joe Farrell captured a legendary generation of Chinese women who experienced the ancient tradition firsthand.

The girls' legs were bandaged until the full formation of the foot. A strongly bent foot pressed the fingers into the sole, under the pressure the fingers broke. Next, bandages and bandages were applied tightly.

The size of the legs characterized the lady's belonging to the society of the elite, it was believed that a high-ranking lady should not walk on her own. Consequently, an unusual custom could only allow to know where the weakness of a woman was considered an honor.

The ideal leg should have been only 10 cm long.

The bandaging procedure itself was incredibly painful. The girls practically could not walk on their own, let alone play outdoor games.

For Su Xi Rong, footbinding was the only way to get married. The grandmother herself bandaged Su's legs, and if she tried to remove the bandage, then as a punishment they cut off the skin from her legs.

Unfortunately, the "lotus feet" made it impossible for Su to walk.

And for Xi Yin Zhin, foot binding was quite a familiar procedure. From early childhood, her legs were in tight bandages, so they took the form of almost doll shoes.

And this is the foot of 103-year-old Zhang Yun Yin.

Such a deformity of the feet was supposed to make married life happier, but really only made life harder for the girls.

When the communists came to power in 1949, they managed to achieve a total ban on footbinding.

And before that turning point, women were forced to bandage their legs all their lives and even break them again and again.

At the same time, unbinding the legs was also extremely painful. Pue Hui Yin started bandaging her feet at the age of 7, at the age of 12 she needed to remove the bandages, but she could no longer do this, because without tightening her feet, they began to hurt even more. Therefore, to this day, she tightly tightens her legs.

Guo Ting Yu at the age of 15 began to bandage her feet on her own, trying to achieve the ideal of beauty.

These women are the latest generation to experience the horrors and torments of an ancient Chinese tradition.

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The ancient custom of footbinding originated in ancient China around the tenth century AD, but exact date its appearance is still unknown. Little girls at the age of four or five began to bandage their feet, which led to severe deformation of the bones. In Chinese antiquity, changed feet were considered the main dignity of a woman.

Legends about the origin of the custom

There are several different versions of how the "golden lotuses" appeared. The main ones are:

Dance of the Imperial Concubine. Once the emperor demanded from his concubine that she bandage her feet with white silk - the girl's legs should have become like a crescent moon. After that, the girl performed a special dance, which was called the “lotus dance”. Court women quickly spread the fashion for lotus legs, which was the beginning of this tradition.
The request of the emperor's favorite concubine. Another version tells about the concubine of the emperor, who belonged to the Shang dynasty. The girl suffered from an unpleasant disease - clubfoot. So that her feet would no longer seem ugly to others, she asked the emperor to issue a special decree, according to which the legs of all girls in the country were supposed to be bandaged. The law was passed, and the procedure for applying bandages took root so well that it lasted for almost a thousand years.

Spread of Chinese tradition and form of footbinding

This tradition existed only in China. The most cruel bandaging, which led to a fracture of the bones, was subjected to girls from rich and noble families. In the poorer sections of the population, women participated in the work, they needed to be able to move freely, so when bandages were applied, the bandages were left slightly relaxed.

The tradition of bandaging was most widespread among the Han people, who made up the majority of the Chinese population. Other nationalities were not so fanatical about the shape of women's feet. The Hakka people, who lived in the southeast of the country, did not perform the bandaging ceremony at all. Until the legislative ban, bandaging was practiced by Muslim communities, although there were separate Islamic statements that the custom goes against God.

Bandaging technology

Records of the memoirs of a famous Chinese revolutionary have been preserved, who, seeing the suffering of his sister, who was going through a rite of foot binding, asked his mother to stop the atrocities. But his mother answered him: "If your sister has big feet, she will judge us when she grows up." This tradition has been an integral part of Chinese women's childhood. Bandaging was committed at the age of four or five, sometimes a little older. Most often, bandaging the feet began in winter time years, because pain is easier to bear at low temperatures. The cold also prevented possible infection.

For the leg to reach perfect shape' took about three years. There were four stages of bandaging in total.

First stage. To begin with, a special herbal decoction was prepared, mixed with the blood of animals, in which the girl's feet were washed. The nails were removed as far as possible. After that, the foot was bent until the toes on each leg were maximally bent and broken. Bandages were placed on top. The girl was forced to walk as much as possible so that her leg would take the required size.
Second phase. The bandages tightened harder, they were changed more often, since it was necessary to remove dead tissue. The soles of the feet were massaged and sometimes beaten - this was supposed to give them flexibility. They also used various incense for washing.
Third stage. The front of the leg was pulled to the heel. Often this led to the fact that the girl's bones broke again.
Fourth stage. At the final stage, the leg was bandaged in such a way that a fairly high instep was formed. The stronger the bend of the leg, the more attractive the girl was considered.

Gradually, the pain from deformity of the feet decreased. But to save a leg, Chinese women were required to apply bandages throughout their lives.

real torture

“A pair of bandaged feet is worth a bath of tears,” says an ancient Chinese proverb. Bandaged legs brought suffering not only during the formation of the “ideal foot”, but throughout life. Girls who previously lived full life and those who played outdoor games were forever deprived of this. Many have lost the ability to move independently forever.

Due to the fact that the procedure brought unbearable pain to the child, bandaging was rarely entrusted to the mother - a loving mother could not see what suffering her daughter was experiencing. But there were also exceptions. Thus, one Chinese woman recalled her passage through an ancient custom: “Mother did not allow me to change the bandages and wipe the festering leg, because she believed that by getting rid of excess meat, my leg would acquire grace.”

Many photos have been preserved, testifying to the terrible injuries that accompany the achievement of the “perfect leg”.

Health implications

Such a procedure not only brought the girl monstrous suffering, but also had a number of serious health consequences:

Blood poisoning. The rite led to a slowdown in blood circulation, so tissue necrosis was almost inevitable. Sometimes the infection affected the bones, because of which the girl's fingers died and fell off. If the foot was wider than usual, then necrosis could be provoked on purpose - for this, glasses were stuck into the foot. Blood poisoning sometimes led to death.
Nails. Often they grew into the leg. Because of this, inflammation occurred, the girl experienced severe pain. Ingrown toenails needed to be completely removed.
Brittleness of the bones. Broken bones began to grow together after a few years, but all their lives they were prone to injury and easily broke.
Difficulty in movement. Any movement for a woman was difficult. The hardest part was standing and getting up from a sitting position. Those girls who had the smallest feet (usually they were representatives of the nobility) were unable to move without someone else's help until their death - they were carried by servants.
Health problems. A frequent consequence was the development of osteoporosis. Also, due to the incorrect distribution of the gravity of the body, the hips swelled. This puffiness was considered desirable and attractive in men.

Perception by men

For many centuries, the leg of the "Golden Lotus" has been a symbol of the sexual attractiveness of a woman among the Chinese. The smaller the girl's foot, the higher the chances of finding a good husband.

Although seeing a foot without shoes was the dream of many men, rarely did anyone. A naked leg was considered an extremely indecent spectacle. A warning for men from a Chinese author has survived: "If you take off your shoes and untie the bandage, then your enjoyment of the aesthetics of the legs will be forever destroyed."

Due to the fact that the bandaged legs made it difficult to move, the girl became defenseless and dependent on her husband. The small female leg was treated like art - there was a certain set of aesthetic rules about how the owner of the Golden Lotus should move. If a woman stood confidently on her feet, she was considered unattractive.

Perception by women

Since the size of the foot played a key role in concluding a successful marriage, Chinese women were patient with the ancient custom.

Here are a few reasons why the girls went through these torments:

in choosing a bride, the key role was played by how small the size of her legs was;
if a Chinese woman's legs were not deformed, she became a general object of ridicule. Her chances of finding a good husband were almost zero;
there was an opinion among women that small, bandaged legs were the key to the health of both the woman and her unborn children.

Lotus shoes

For Chinese women's feet, shoes were produced, which were called "lotus shoes". Their size was so small that the shoe fit on the palm of your hand. As planned, the shape of this shoe should resemble an unopened lotus bud.

The toes of these shoes were pointed, often with a small heel to further visually reduce the foot. Shoes were made of cotton or silk, sometimes embroidered with floral patterns. Many women were engaged in the manufacture of lotus shoes on their own.

At night, it was also necessary to wear special shoes. They were smaller than day shoes, but their soles were slightly softer. Erotic pictures were often embroidered on such shoes.

The industrial production of lotus shoes ceased in 1999, so it is not possible to find lotus shoes marked "Made in China" in modern stores. You can look at these shoes today only in ethnographic museums China, as well as on numerous surviving photos.

Influence on fashion

In the 18th century in France, a sudden fashion for Chinese style arose. This fashion has also spread to Chinese feet - a craze begins for small shoes resembling lotus shoes. The new shoes were called "mules". They were uncomfortable to wear, and at first they were used only in the home wardrobe. Gradually, mules became shoes for celebrations and important events. Not only women wore these uncomfortable shoes - fashion touched men too.

love philosophy

For many centuries, lotus feet in China have been an erotic symbol, sung in many areas of art. It was believed that any touch on the leg gives a woman a truly incredible pleasure. But in order for a girl with deformed legs to always remain desirable, she had to follow special rules of etiquette:

do not raise your fingertips while walking;
never loosen the heels when moving;
do not move the hem of the skirt;
during rest, the legs must remain motionless.

These and many other rules turned a woman with lotus legs into a work of art and an object of male worship.

Criticism of custom and its disappearance

At different times, people appeared who expressed their protest against the ancient custom of the Proteus. But the first ban on the crippling rite was issued by the emperor only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was associated both with the growth of dissatisfaction with the tradition among the population of the country, and with the attitude of the Europeans, who considered the rite to be barbaric.

Finally, the "golden lotuses" were banned after the communist party came to power.

Despite the fact that Chinese culture had a huge impact on Japan, the custom hardly affected this country. Japanese girls wore very uncomfortable wooden shoes, which made it very difficult to move around. But such shoes, although they caused significant discomfort, did not bring significant harm to health and did not lead to deformation of the feet.

Modernity

Today in the world there are only a few women who have "golden lotuses". All of them are over 90 years old. Here is what one of them recalls about how girls' legs were bandaged in China: “In the old days, the appearance of a woman did not play a role if she had bandaged legs. The legs were the most important thing, so we all went through this torture.”

After the legislative ban, the ceremony was no longer carried out even in the most remote provinces of China, so the tradition is completely a thing of the past.

Conclusion

It is estimated that more than a billion Chinese women have passed through this rite during its existence. The Chinese lotus is one of the most terrible sacrifices that girls made in order to achieve the ideal of beauty.

The origins of Chinese "footbinding", as well as the traditions of Chinese culture in general, date back to hoary antiquity, to the 10th century. In old China, girls began to have their feet bandaged from the age of 4-5 (babies still could not endure the pain of tight bandages that crippled their feet). As a result of these torments, by about the age of 10, the girls formed an approximately 10-centimeter "lotus leg". After that, they began to learn the correct "adult" gait. And after another two or three years, they were already ready-made girls "for marriageable age." Because of this, making love in China was called "walking among the golden lotuses."

The size of the lotus foot has become an important condition for marriages. Brides with big feet were ridiculed and humiliated because they looked like common women who worked in the fields and could not afford the luxury of foot binding.

1. The institution of footbinding was regarded as necessary and excellent, having been practiced for ten centuries. True, rare attempts to “liberate” the feet were nevertheless made, but those who opposed the rite were white crows.

2. Footbinding has become part of general psychology and popular culture. In preparation for the marriage, the groom's parents first asked about the bride's foot, and only then about her face.

3. The foot was considered her main human quality.

During the bandaging process, mothers comforted their daughters by offering them the dazzling prospects of a marriage that depended on the beauty of the bandaged leg.

4. Later, one essayist, apparently a great connoisseur of this custom, described 58 varieties of legs of the "lotus woman", each grading on a 9-point scale. For example:

Types: lotus petal, young moon, slender arc, bamboo shoot, Chinese chestnut.
Special characteristics: plumpness, softness, grace.
Classifications:
Divine (A-1): Extremely plump, soft and graceful.
Divnaya (A-2): weak and refined…
Incorrect: Ape-like large heel, giving the ability to climb.

5. Even the owner of the "Golden Lotus" (A-1) could not rest on her laurels: she had to constantly and scrupulously follow the etiquette that imposed whole line taboos and restrictions:

1) do not walk with raised fingertips;
2) do not walk with at least temporarily weakened heels;
3) do not move the skirt while sitting;
4) do not move your legs while resting.

6. The same essayist concludes his treatise with the most reasonable (of course, for men) advice: “Do not remove bandages to look at a woman’s bare legs, be satisfied appearance. Your aesthetic sense will be offended if you break this rule.”

7. Although it is difficult to imagine for Europeans, the "lotus leg" was not only the pride of women, but also the subject of the highest aesthetic and sexual desires of Chinese men. It is known that even a fleeting sight of a lotus leg could cause a strong attack of sexual arousal in men.

8. "Undressing" such a leg was the height of the sexual fantasies of ancient Chinese men. Judging by the literary canons, the ideal lotus feet were necessarily small, thin, pointed, curved, soft, symmetrical and… fragrant.

9. Footbinding also violated the natural contours of the female body. This process led to a constant load on the hips and buttocks - they swelled, became plump (and were called "voluptuous" by men).

10. Chinese women paid a very high price for beauty and sex appeal.

11. The owners of perfect legs were doomed to lifelong physical suffering and inconvenience.

12. The diminutiveness of the foot was achieved due to its severe injury.

13. Some women of fashion, who wanted to minimize the size of their legs, reached in their efforts to bone-breaking. As a result, they lost the ability to walk and stand normally.

14. The appearance of a unique custom of bandaging women's legs is attributed to the Chinese Middle Ages, although the exact time of its origin is unknown.

15. According to legend, one court lady named Yu was famous for her great grace and was an excellent dancer. Once she made herself shoes in the form of golden lotus flowers, only a couple of inches in size.

16. To fit into these shoes, Yu bandaged her legs with pieces of silk fabric and danced. Her small steps and wiggles became legendary and started a centuries-old tradition.

17. A creature with a delicate build, thin long fingers and soft palms, delicate skin and a pale face with a high forehead, small ears, thin eyebrows and a small rounded mouth - this is a portrait of a classical Chinese beauty.

18. Ladies from good families shaved part of the hair on the forehead to lengthen the oval of the face, and achieved the perfect outline of the lips by applying lipstick in a circle.

19. Custom prescribed that female figure“shone with the harmony of straight lines,” and for this, at the age of 10-14, the girl’s chest was pulled together with a canvas bandage, a special bodice or a special vest. The development of the mammary glands was suspended, the mobility of the chest and the supply of oxygen to the body were sharply limited.

20. This usually had a detrimental effect on the woman's health, but she looked "graceful." A thin waist and small legs were considered a sign of a girl's grace, and this ensured her the attention of suitors.

21. Sometimes the wives and daughters of wealthy Chinese have their legs so disfigured that they almost couldn't walk on their own. They said about such women: "They are like reeds that sway in the wind."

22. Women with such legs were carried on carts, carried in palanquins, or strong maids carried them on their shoulders, like small children. If they tried to move on their own, they were supported from both sides.

23. In 1934, an elderly Chinese woman recalled her childhood experiences:

24. “I was born into a conservative family in Ping Xi and had to deal with the pain of bandaging my feet at the age of seven. I was mobile then cheerful child, loved to jump, but after that everything disappeared.

25. The older sister endured the whole process from 6 to 8 years old (meaning it took two years for her foot size to become smaller than 8 cm). It was the first lunar month of my seventh year of life when they pierced my ears and put on gold earrings.

26. I was told that a girl has to suffer twice: when her ears are pierced and the second time when her feet are bandaged. The latter began on the second lunar month; mother was consulted by directories about the most suitable day.

27. I ran away and hid in a neighbor's house, but my mother found me, scolded me and dragged me home. She slammed the bedroom door behind us, boiled water, and took bandages, shoes, a knife, and needle and thread from a drawer. I begged to postpone it at least for a day, but the mother said: “Today is an auspicious day. If you bandage today, then you will not be hurt, and if tomorrow, you will be terribly sick.”

28. She washed my feet and applied alum, and then trimmed my nails. Then she bent her fingers and tied them with cloth three meters long and five centimeters wide - first the right leg, then the left. After it was over, she ordered me to walk, but when I tried to do it, the pain seemed unbearable.

29. That night my mother forbade me to take off my shoes. It seemed to me that my legs were on fire, and naturally I could not sleep. I started crying and my mother started beating me.

30. In the following days I tried to hide, but I was forced to walk again. For resistance, my mother beat me on the arms and legs. Beatings and swearing followed the secret removal of bandages. After three or four days the feet were washed and alum was added. A few months later, all my fingers, except for the big one, were bent, and when I ate meat or fish, my legs swelled and festered.

31. Mother scolded me for putting emphasis on the heel when walking, arguing that my leg would never acquire beautiful outlines. She never allowed me to change the bandages or wipe up the blood and pus, believing that when all the meat was gone from my foot, it would become graceful. If I mistakenly ripped off the wound, then the blood flowed in a stream. My big toes, once strong, flexible and plump, were now wrapped in small pieces of cloth and stretched out to form the shape of a young moon.

32. Every two weeks I changed shoes, and the new pair had to be 3-4 millimeters smaller than the previous one. The boots were stubborn and it took a lot of effort to get into them. When I wanted to sit quietly by the stove, my mother made me walk. After I changed more than 10 pairs of shoes, my foot was reduced to 10 cm. I had been wearing bandages for a month when the same rite was performed with my younger sister. When no one was around, we could cry together.

33. In summer, my legs smelled terribly because of blood and pus, in winter they froze due to insufficient blood circulation, and when I sat near the stove, they hurt from the warm air. The four toes on each foot curled up like dead caterpillars; hardly any stranger could imagine that they belong to a person. It took me two years to reach the eight-centimeter leg size.

34. Toenails grown into the skin. The strongly bent sole could not be scratched. If she was sick, it was difficult to reach the right place even just to pet him. My shins were weak, my feet were twisted, ugly, and smelled bad. How I envied girls who had natural legs!

35. “The stepmother or aunt, when bandaging the legs, showed much more rigidity than her own mother. There is a description of an old man who took pleasure in hearing his daughters crying while bandaging...

36. Everyone in the house had to go through this ceremony. The first wife and concubines had the right to indulgence, and for them it was not such a terrible event. They bandaged once in the morning, once in the evening, and again before bed. The husband and first wife strictly checked the tightness of the bandage, and those who loosened it were beaten.

37. Sleeping shoes were so small that the women asked the owner of the house to rub their feet so that it would bring at least some relief. Another rich man was famous for whipping his concubines on their tiny feet until blood appeared.

38. The sexuality of the bandaged leg was based on its concealment from view and on the mystique surrounding its development and care. When the bandages were removed, the feet were washed in the boudoir in the strictest confidence. The frequency of ablutions ranged from once a week to once a year. After that, alum and perfumes with various aromas were used, corns and nails were processed.

39. The process of washing contributed to the restoration of blood circulation. Figuratively speaking, the mummy was unwrapped, conjured over it and wrapped again, adding even more preservatives.

40. The rest of the body was never washed at the same time as the feet for fear of turning into a pig in the next life. Well-bred women could die of shame if the process of washing the feet was seen by men. This is understandable: the stinking decaying flesh of the foot would be an unpleasant discovery for a man who suddenly appeared and would offend his aesthetic sense.

41. In the 18th century, Parisian women copied "lotus shoes", they were in drawings on Chinese porcelain, furniture and other trinkets of the fashionable "chinoiserie" style.

42. Strikingly, but true - Parisian designers of the new time, who came up with a pointed women's shoes high heels, referred to them only as "Chinese shoes".

43. To at least approximately feel what it is:

Instructions:
1. Take a piece of cloth about three meters long and five centimeters wide.
2. Take a pair of baby shoes.
3. Bend your toes, except for the big one, inside the foot. Wrap the fabric first on the toes and then on the heel. Bring your heel and toes as close together as possible. Wrap the rest of the fabric tightly around the foot.
4. Put your foot in baby shoes.
5. Try walking.
6. Imagine that you are five years old ...
7. …and that you will have to walk this way for the rest of your life.

Post Views: 48

Original taken from nathoncharova in An Unusual Custom or Footbinding in China

The custom of bandaging the legs of Chinese girls, similar to the methods of comprachicos, seems to many like this: a child's leg is bandaged and it simply does not grow, remaining the same size and the same shape. This is not so - there were special methods and the foot was deformed in special specific ways.
The ideal beauty in ancient China had to have legs like lotuses, a mincing gait and a figure swaying like a willow.

In old China, girls began to have their feet bandaged from the age of 4-5 (babies still could not endure the pain of tight bandages that crippled their feet). As a result of these torments, by about the age of 10, the girls formed an approximately 10-centimeter “lotus leg”. After that, they began to learn the correct "adult" gait. And after 2-3 years they were already ready-made girls "for marriageable age".
The size of the "lotus foot" has become an important condition for marriages. Brides with big feet were ridiculed and humiliated because they looked like common women who worked in the fields and could not afford the luxury of foot binding.

In different areas of China, different forms of "lotus feet" were fashionable. In some places, narrower legs were preferred, while in others, shorter and smaller ones. The shape, materials, as well as ornamental plots and styles of "lotus shoes" were different.
As an intimate but ostentatious part of women's attire, these shoes were a measure of the status, wealth and personal taste of their owners. Today, the custom of footbinding seems like a wild relic of the past and a way to discriminate against women. But, in fact, most women in old China were proud of their "lotus feet".

The origins of Chinese "foot binding", as well as the traditions of Chinese culture in general, date back to hoary antiquity, from the 10th century.
The institution of "footbinding" was regarded as necessary and beautiful and was practiced for ten centuries. True, rare attempts to “liberate” the feet were still made, however, those who opposed the rite were “white crows”. "Bandaging of the feet" has become part of general psychology and popular culture.
In preparation for the marriage, the groom's parents first asked about the bride's foot, and only then about her face. The foot was considered her main human quality. During the bandaging process, mothers comforted their daughters by offering them the dazzling prospects of a marriage that depended on the beauty of the bandaged leg.

Later, an essayist, apparently a great connoisseur of this custom, described 58 varieties of the feet of the “lotus woman”, grading each on a 9-point scale. For example:
Types: lotus petal, young moon, slender arc, bamboo shoot, Chinese chestnut.
Special characteristics: plumpness, softness, grace.
Classifications:
Divine (A-1): Extremely plump, soft and graceful.
Divnaya (A-2): weak and refined…
Incorrect: Ape-like large heel, giving the ability to climb.
Although footbinding was dangerous - improperly applying or changing the pressure of bandages had a lot of unpleasant consequences - all the same, none of the girls could survive the accusations of a "big-legged demon" and the shame of remaining unmarried.

Even the owner of the Golden Lotus (A-1) could not rest on her laurels: she had to constantly and scrupulously follow the etiquette that imposed a number of taboos and restrictions:
1) do not walk with raised fingertips;
2) do not walk with at least temporarily weakened heels;
3) do not move the skirt while sitting;
4) do not move your legs while resting.

The same essayist concludes his treatise with the most reasonable (of course, for men) advice; “Do not remove bandages to look at a woman's naked legs, be satisfied with the appearance. Your aesthetic sense will be offended if you break this rule."

Although it is difficult for Europeans to imagine, the "lotus leg" was not only the pride of women, but also the subject of the highest aesthetic and sexual desires of Chinese men. It is known that even a fleeting sight of a “lotus leg” could cause a strong attack of sexual arousal in Chinese men. “Undressing” such a leg was the height of the sexual fantasies of ancient Chinese men. Judging by the literary canons, the ideal "lotus feet" were necessarily small, thin, pointed, curved, soft, symmetrical and... fragrant.

Chinese women paid a high price for beauty and sex appeal. The owners of perfect legs were doomed to lifelong physical suffering and inconvenience. The diminutiveness of the foot was achieved due to its severe mutilation. Some women of fashion, who wanted to minimize the size of their legs, reached the point of bone-breaking in their efforts. As a result, they lost the ability to walk normally, stand normally.

This Chinese woman is 86 years old today. Her legs are crippled by caring parents who wish their daughter a successful marriage. Although Chinese women have not bandaged their feet for almost a hundred years (bandaging was officially banned in 1912), it turned out that traditions in China are more stable than anywhere else.

The emergence of a unique custom of bandaging women's legs is attributed to the Chinese Middle Ages, although the exact time of its origin is unknown.
According to legend, one court lady, by the name of Yu, was famous for her great grace and was an excellent dancer. Once she made herself shoes in the form of golden lotus flowers, only a couple of inches in size. To fit into these shoes, Yu bandaged her legs with pieces of silk fabric and danced. Her small steps and wiggles became legendary and started a centuries-old tradition.

The vitality of this strange and specific custom is explained by the special stability of Chinese civilization, which has maintained its foundations over the past thousand years.
It is estimated that in the millennium since the inception of the custom, about a billion Chinese women have gone through "footbinding". In general, this terrible process looked like this. The girl's feet were bandaged with strips of cloth until four small fingers were pressed close to the sole of the foot. The legs were then wrapped in strips of cloth horizontally to arch the foot like a bow.

Over time, the foot no longer grew in length, but instead bulged up and took on the form of a triangle. She did not give a solid support and forced women to sway like a lyrically sung willow. Sometimes walking was so difficult that the owners of miniature legs could only move with the help of strangers.

The Russian physician V. V. Korsakov gave the following impression of this custom: “The ideal of a Chinese woman is to have such small legs so as not to be able to stand firmly on her feet and fall when the breeze blows. It is unpleasant and annoying to see these Chinese women, even simple ones, who hardly move from house to house, legs wide apart and balancing with their hands. The shoes on the feet are always colored and often made of red material. Chinese women always bandage their legs and put a stocking on the bandaged leg. In terms of their size, the legs of Chinese women remain, as it were, at the age of a girl up to 6-8 years, and only one thumb is developed; the entire metatarsal part and the foot are extremely compressed, and on the foot one can see depressed, completely flat, as if white plates, lifeless outlines of the fingers.

The custom prescribed that the female figure "shine with the harmony of straight lines", and for this, at the age of 10-14 years, the girl's chest was pulled together with a linen bandage, a special bodice or a special vest. The development of the mammary glands was suspended, the mobility of the chest and the supply of oxygen to the body were sharply limited. Usually this was detrimental to the woman's health, but she looked "graceful." A thin waist and small legs were considered a sign of a girl's grace and this ensured her the attention of suitors.

The woman actually had to walk on the outside of the fingers bent under the foot. The heel and inner arch of the foot resembled the sole and heel of a high-heeled shoe.

Fossilized calluses formed; nails grew into the skin; the foot was bleeding and oozing; blood circulation practically stopped. Such a woman limped when walking, leaned on a stick or moved with the help of servants. To keep from falling, she had to take small steps. In fact, each step was a fall, which the woman kept from only hastily taking the next step. The walk required tremendous effort.
Although Chinese women have not bandaged their feet for almost a hundred years (bandaging was officially banned in 1912), the age-old stereotypes associated with this custom have proved extremely tenacious.

Today, real “lotus shoes” are no longer shoes, but a valuable collectible. A well-known Taiwanese enthusiast, doctor Guo Zhi-sheng, has collected more than 1,200 pairs of shoes and 3,000 accessories for feet, shins and other worthy decorations on bandaged female legs in 35 years.

Sometimes the wives and daughters of wealthy Chinese had their feet so disfigured that they could hardly walk on their own. It was said about such women and people: "They are like reeds that sway in the wind." Women with such legs were carried on carts, carried in palanquins, or strong maids carried them on their shoulders, like small children. If they tried to move on their own, they were supported from both sides.

In 1934, an elderly Chinese woman recalled her childhood experiences:

“I was born into a conservative family in Ping Xi and had to deal with the pain of footbinding at the age of seven. I was then a mobile and cheerful child, I loved to jump, but after that everything disappeared. The older sister endured the whole process from 6 to 8 years old (meaning it took two years for her feet to become smaller than 8 cm). It was the first lunar month of my seventh year of life when they pierced my ears and put on gold earrings.
I was told that the girl had to suffer twice: when her ears were pierced, and a second time when she was "bandaged." The latter began on the second lunar month; mother was consulted by directories about the most suitable day. I ran away and hid in a neighbor's house, but my mother found me, scolded me and dragged me home. She slammed the bedroom door behind us, boiled water, and took bandages, shoes, a knife, and needle and thread from a drawer. I begged to postpone it at least for a day, but the mother said as she snapped: “Today is an auspicious day. If you bandage today, then you will not be hurt, but if tomorrow, it will hurt terribly. She washed my feet and applied alum and then trimmed my nails. Then she bent her fingers and tied them with cloth three meters long and five centimeters wide - first the right leg, then the left. After it was over, she ordered me to walk, but when I tried to do it, the pain seemed unbearable.

That night, my mother forbade me to take off my shoes. It seemed to me that my legs were on fire, and naturally I could not sleep. I started crying and my mother started beating me. In the following days, I tried to hide, but I was forced to walk again.
For resistance, my mother beat me on the arms and legs. Beatings and swearing followed the secret removal of bandages. After three or four days the feet were washed and alum was added. After a few months, all my fingers except the big one were bent, and when I ate meat or fish, my legs swelled and festered. My mother scolded me for putting emphasis on the heel when walking, arguing that my leg would never acquire beautiful outlines. She never allowed me to change the bandages or wipe up the blood and pus, believing that when all the meat was gone from my foot, it would become graceful. If I mistakenly ripped off the wound, then the blood flowed in a stream. My big toes, once strong, flexible and plump, were now wrapped in small pieces of cloth and stretched out to form the shape of a young moon.

Every two weeks I changed shoes, and the new pair had to be 3-4 millimeters smaller than the previous one. The boots were stubborn and it took a lot of effort to get into them.

When I wanted to sit quietly by the stove, my mother made me walk. After I changed more than 10 pairs of shoes, my foot was reduced to 10 cm. I had been wearing bandages for a month when the same rite was performed with my younger sister—when no one was around, we could cry together. In summer, my feet smelled awful because of blood and pus, in winter they were cold because of insufficient circulation, and when I sat near the stove, they hurt from the warm air. The four toes on each foot curled up like dead caterpillars; hardly any stranger could imagine that they belong to a person. It took me two years to reach the eight-centimeter leg size. The toenails have grown into the skin. The strongly bent sole could not be scratched. If she was sick, it was difficult to reach the right place even just to pet him. My shins were weak, my feet became twisted, ugly and smelled bad - how I envied girls who had a natural shape of legs.

At holidays, where the owners of tiny legs demonstrated their virtues, concubines were selected for the emperor's harem. The women sat in rows on the benches with their legs stretched out, while the judges and spectators walked along the aisles and commented on the size, shape and decoration of the legs and shoes; no one, however, had the right to touch the "exhibits". Women were looking forward to these holidays, because on these days they were allowed to leave the house.
Sexual aesthetics (literally "the art of love") in China was extremely complex and directly related to the tradition of "foot binding".

The sexuality of the "bandaged leg" was based on its concealment from view and on the mystique surrounding its development and care. When the bandages were removed, the feet were washed in the boudoir in the strictest confidence. The frequency of ablutions ranged from 1 per week to 1 per year. After that, alum and perfumes with various aromas were used, corns and nails were processed. The washing process helped to restore blood circulation. Figuratively speaking, the mummy was unwrapped, conjured over it and wrapped again, adding even more preservatives. The rest of the body was never washed at the same time as the feet for fear of turning into a pig in the next life. Well-bred women were supposed to ‘die of shame if the process of washing the feet was seen by men. This is understandable: the stinking decaying flesh of the foot would be an unpleasant discovery for a man who suddenly appeared and would offend his aesthetic sense.

Bandaged feet mattered most - personality or talent didn't matter. A woman with big legs was left without a husband, so we all went through this torture. Zhao Jiying's mother died when she was a little girl, so she bandaged her legs herself: “It was terrible, I can tell for three days and three nights how I suffered. The bones were broken, the flesh around them rotten. But even then I put a brick on top - to be sure that the feet would be small. I didn't go for a year... Her daughter also has bandaged feet.

Just to get a feel for what it is:
Instructions:
1. Take a piece of cloth about three meters long and five centimeters wide.
2. Take a pair of baby shoes.
3. Bend your toes, except for the big one, inside the foot. Wrap the fabric first on the toes and then on the heel. Bring your heel and toes as close together as possible. Wrap the rest of the fabric tightly around the foot.
4. put your foot in baby shoes,
5. Try walking.
6. Imagine that you are five years old ...
7. ... And that you will have to walk this way all your life ...