According to the Smithsonian, it started mildly enough: with a soak in hot water, a pedicure, and a massage. Foot binding essentially forces a person to walk not on their whole foot but on only the heel bone and the big toe, which changes gait and posture. This legend states that the emperor Li Yu had a concubine named Yao Niang. The key to a successful foot binding was to start the process early, before the bones in the foot had a chance to fully develop. the practice of foot binding began to shift from a symbol of beauty to one of torture, oppression and control. That's a lot of wiggle room and just goes to show how fuzzy history can get sometimes. It was also a form of deformation. Zhu Xi was (via the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) one of the most important philosophers of the Southern Song, and in terms of influence, he was second only to Confucius himself. Even as the practice started spreading through the countryside, teachers of Ruism spoke out against it. The fact that it … By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the upper classes were lauding the beauty of court dancers, who were known for their little feet and the tiny shoes they could wear. I can't dance, I can't move properly. This was a practice where a young girl’s feet were tightly wrapped. "When the inspectors came, we fooled them into thinking I had big feet." “It was a strong tradition passed from … She said (via The Telegraph): "They were proud of what they achieved. Foot binding, or 'lotus feet', stands as a symbol of a bygone China. Ancient History says that bandages also needed to be removed to treat regularly-occurring skin ulcers. Foot binding originated in the tenth or eleventh century by dancers and courtesans. Origins of Foot Binding Various myths and folktales relate to the origin of foot-binding in China. The motivations behind foot binding haven't always been 100 percent clear, says The Wall Street Journal. While it was being done, the bandages would come off every two days so the foot could be cleaned, and any buildup of pus or blood could be removed (via the Smithsonian). He found other problems, too: Women with bound feet tended to have a lower bone density in their spines and hips, more trouble getting up and down from a seated position, and severe difficulties when it came to managing things like a cane at the same time as, say, a shopping bag. The unfortunate Chinese tradition of foot binding was one that, however severe and painful, was present for much of the country's history. Researchers have found (via The Atlantic) another motivation: economic gain. The major reason is that many men found bound feet to be highly erotic. However, writing says that foot binding began at … Then, at night, we would bind them again.". This is the horrifying tradition of foot binding that lasted in China for over 1,000 years and Chinese women swore by it. Foot-binding, which started out as a fashionable impulse, became an expression of Han identity after the Mongols invaded China in 1279. Under Communism, women with bound feet — who usually couldn't go outdoor work or walk as fast as others — were shamed. While it's long been accepted that an attempt at becoming more attractive to the opposite sex and enhancing a girl's likelihood to marry well is part of it, that's the thing — it's just part of the story. Foot binding was first reported during the Five Dynasties and Ten States period in the tenth and eleventh century. Fordham University says that while historical evidence is lacking, there's textual evidence that small feet were prized as a standard of beauty as far back as the Han Dynasty — between 202 and 220. After first assuming it was rare, he saw more and more study participants with bound feet and realized there was something else at work. This proverb became a way of life (via the Hong Kong Medical Journal): "If you love your daughter, bind her feet; if you love your son, let him study.". It's sort of understandable as a status symbol, for women who have the luxury of having others do all their work for them. Why did foot binding start? There are a few different versions of just how foot binding started, and NPR says one of the oldest dates back to the Shang dynasty. But when British photographer Jo Farrell started interviewing some of the last women to have it done, she found that wasn't always the case. Still, The Guardian says that for many who did finally unbind their feet, they found the damage was permanent. … Researchers say (via LiveScience) that at first, many women were trying to create a narrower foot by wrapping it, and these early attempts didn't do too much to distort or damage the actual bone structure of the foot. When he investigated further, he found that women with bound feet were much more likely to have fallen than those without, but at the same time, Chinese women overall had a lower rate for fractures for one simple reason: They rarely left the house. Whatever the reason, Chinese foot binding probably persisted for more than 1,000 years, a reminder of how much society can sometimes expect women to suffer for beauty. It's still disputed as to just why it became so widespread, and one part is that it was believed to increase a woman's marriage prospects and the likelihood of a sort of Cinderella story. And that may have been the goal, as a girl who had her feet bound was more likely to stay at home and engage in the sort of work that would have made a major economic contribution to the family, like making crafts, processing tea, and spinning cotton. They're so named, says The Wall Street Journal, because in the most extreme form of foot binding, the final shape of the foot was said to resemble a lotus bulb. Foot binding was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change the shape and size of their feet; during the time it was practiced, bound feet were considered a status symbol and a mark of beauty. Her famous golden lotus went on to give its name to the most desirable of feet: the very tiniest of them all. Perhaps. It all started when palace dancers performed with bound feet and the practice spread slowly through China! Bindings were regularly tightened, and the foot would eventually heal into a form that — ideally — crushed the toes and the heel together and formed a deep cleft along the sole. In addition to the breaking of the bones and the reshaping that was done with the bindings, those bindings had another purpose: They were wrapped so tightly that they restricted the amount a foot would grow. It is said that the practice of foot binding originated among court dancers in the early Song Dynasty (960-1279). Do you find in the evidence […] Foot binding – a widespread custom in China that lasted for more than a 1,000 years – involved incredibly tight cloth bindings being applied to the feet of young girls to stifle growth. She continued: "I regret binding my feet. While photographer and historian Jo Farrell found (via The Guardian) that some of the women who had the procedure done got around perfectly fine, others suffered "debilitating, lifelong physical effects." For this assignment, we will complete the “Thinking Like an Historian” section “When and Why Did Foot Binding Begin?” Read the excerpts about foot-binding and answer the following questions. Foot binding started in China somewhere in the 12 th century, during the Song Dynasty. She would bind her feet to symbolize the shape of a new moon and performed a "lotus dance" which brought her to become the emperors favorite. Presented by: Alexa R. Tatiana G. Maria C. and Karla E. Create your own unique website with customizable templates. Body modification has an incredibly long history — as soon as we were aware of the way we look, we were trying to change that for one reason or another. The practice of Chinese foot binding began during the rule of Li Yu when the emperor became attracted to a concubine who had bound her feet tightly for a dance routine. Respecting them meant not harming this gift that they gave us, and that meant not breaking, binding, and reshaping feet. A: The origin of female foot-binding had nothing to do with Ruism . Su Xi Rong was 75 years old in 2008 and told photographer Jo Farrell (via The Guardian) that she had tried to unbind her feet. By the 1600s, there was a difference in the preferred style in the north and the south of China. The process of foot binding was one that took years and involved a significant amount of excruciating pain that resulted in a permanent deformity of the feet in order for them to appear smaller. During the process, young girls either couldn't support the pain or they usually were infected. Some Chinese legends say people started binding women's feet as early as the Shang dynasty (1700–1027 BCE). According to The Atlantic, there's long been a massive gap in our knowledge of foot binding, and that's the long-term consequences. Others would have their foot bent and compressed lengthwise as well, and that served to make the foot even less stable. That makes him a pretty big deal, so when he started writing that foot binding would prevent women from going on and partaking in all kinds of "unchaste" and "immoral" behavior, people listened. When the Qing Dynasty came to an end in 1912 and the Nationalists established their republic, The Wall Street Journal says they also outlawed the practice. When the Communist government took over in 1949, they added a stigma to foot binding and pressured families to stop the practice and even reverse it. The practice of foot binding does not have an actual date of when it started; however there are many legends as to when the practice began and why. Infection — and sometimes, the onset of gangrene — wasn't uncommon, and that's not entirely surprising, considering that sometimes, skin deemed "excess" was cut off, and further rot was actually encouraged. When The Wall Street Journal spoke with Wu Liuying about foot binding in 2009, the then 90-year-old explained: "When the Nationalists came here we would undo our feet in the daytime. Foot binding lasted over 1,000 years in China and crippled an estimated one to two billion women. The Smithsonian says that a silver lotus — a foot that was just four inches long — was still respected, but anything longer than five inches was deemed an iron lotus, and then? The pain of the foot binding process is unfathomable, and if it was going to be done, it would be started when a girl was just five or six years old. Last living women in China with bound feet – Feet binding started in the Song dynasty and fell out of fashion in the early 20th century when it was banned by the government. What did the process of foot binding entail? So, why do it? No one knows for certain how or why foot binding came about. Which of the written sources (Sources 1–5) is most relevant in judging how common foot binding was? But what does that mean as a woman ages? It's easy to see the women who went through foot binding in an excruciating process as victims of social and cultural norms, as beholden to beauty. Foot binding is an old Chinese custom of wrapping girls' feet with cloth in order to stop them from growing with age. The one of the most common health problem relating to foot binding was infection. Her mother refused to bind her feet, so when she was 15 years old, she did it herself. They say that some estimates suggest about ten percent of the girls who went through the process didn't survive. The Wall Street Journal says that with the "cucumber" foot, the four toes were folded under and broken, while the big toes were left straight — which was popular in the south. Binding the feet continued for the rest of the girl’s life. Well, a good marriage was pretty much out of the question, and girls who protested — or tried to unbind their feet — would be reminded of that. NPR dates the origins of foot binding to 961, while other stories put it somewhere around 1700 BC. The numbers are almost unthinkable: In the 19th century, nearly 100 percent of upper-class women had bound their feet, and half of women overall had gone through the agonizing, crippling procedure. Some girls dealt with punishment in addition to the bindings. Q: When did the practice of foot-binding start? Fordham University questioned why women in poor or rural communities were willing to go through the pain of foot binding and risk disability and death. The exact origin of the practice is unknown. Girls typically had their feet bound before they were nine years old, but it was seen as better to start when they were younger, often as young as four. They had watched their mothers binding their own and copied.". And this is where it gets a little strange. According to the Huffington Post, the practice was widespread by the 12th century. Young girls, between the age of 5-7, had their toes tucked under their feet, and then had their feet wrapped in long pieces of cloth to hold their toes in place. Feet altered by foot binding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were known as lotus shoes. Legend says that foot binding began in Shang times. It allowed her to dance on her toes inside of a golden lotus, and the Emperor fell in love with her. Binding your feet was very dangerous. Most agree that it began because of male erotic fascination with the shape and point of court dancers’ feet while dancing. This usually caused the bones to break, thus causing extreme pain. During 10th or 11th century, the practice of foot binding was started by the upper-class court dancers. NPR spoke to some women who — with the help of their mothers — went out of their way to trick government inspectors into thinking that they were complying with the law. When the young girls had foot binding, they would experience a painful feeling during the process. It makes sense, then, that the process was also about economics — and not just beauty. Estimates suggest that as many as two billion women have had it done ... so what is it, how did it start, and why on earth would they go through something so painful and permanently life-changing? They also taught that it was a matter of respect: Everything we are, we got from our parents. Foot binding was outlawed in 1911 because it was causing many deaths. It turns out that it's a little more complicated than that. The start of the practice can be traced back to 700 AD, and was not legally banned until 1911. There was no one way to do it, or a single, idealized way to re-form the shape of the foot. Explain your answer. The tradition, known as foot binding, eventually came to symbolize China's backwardness, a relic from the country's distant past. Card 1: Foot Binding By: Roana Yousefzai Other Forms of Body Mutilation that are Popular to Make Woman Look Beautiful Bibliography Other forms of body mutilation that are popular to make woman look beautiful are the following: tattoos piercings surgical changes of the body The tiny shoes worn by some women with bound feet are called lotus shoes. Some (like Che Ruoshui) wondered why anyone would want to "torture" their daughter "with so much pain," while others said it was a vanity that made a woman incapable of working to her full potential. Foot binding, says Fordham University, was not a standardized practice. "The way these women avoided injury," he wrote, "was by not doing anything.". The idea was to speed up the process of breaking the arch of the foot so it could be bent even farther. All the bending and breaking of the foot interfered with a girl's circulation, and skin ulcers, Healthline says, are open sores that develop because of poor circulation. Supposedly a concubine named Daji who was said to have had clubfoot, asked an emperor to make foot binding mandatory for all females so that her feet would be the only custom of beauty. Painful Memories for China's Footbinding Survivors Millions of Chinese women bound their feet, a status symbol that allowed them to marry into … It was practiced by a large section of the population and crossed all socio-economic lines. Widely used as a method to distinguish girls of the upper class from everyone else, and later as a way for the lower classes to improve their social prospects, the practice of foot-binding would c… Foot binding would normally occur in a ritualistic ceremony accompanied by other traditions intending to ward off bad luck. He wanted to find out why Chinese women had fewer hip fractures than their similarly aged American counterparts, and the second study participant was the first woman he had ever met with bound feet. Guo Ting Yu — who was 83 in 2010 — was one of those women (via The Guardian). "Some women bound their own feet as their mothers and grandmothers would refuse, and they wanted to fit in with those in their village. There are various theories as to why foot binding was continually practiced in China for 1000 years. It was originally confined to the imperial court, but later spread to cities and villages. The Shang Empress Taki had a clubfoot (deformed foot that is twisted so the sole can't be Once the process was done, the ideal was the golden lotus: a foot just three inches long that showed in a very physical way that a girl had desirable characteristics, like "obedience and restraint." The practice of female foot-binding in China originated in the mid-900s, after Emperor Li Yu was tantalized by a dancer who “bound her feet into the shape of a new moon.” Within a couple hundred years, it had become customary for girls to begin having their feet … But John Vollmer, an expert on Asian fashion and museum curator, says "Almost every class of woman had some kind of foot-binding." There are legend and historical reasons as to why foot binding started. That story suggests that it was a Shang empress who had a clubfoot and ordered everyone to bind their feet in solidarity that started the practice, but that's not the only tale. According to a well-accepted view among historians, foot-binding began in the period of Wu Dai (907-979 C.E), which was more than one … It was such a nasty thing to do. Then, the arch of her foot was bent as far as possible and also bound tightly with long strips of cloth. How Did Girls End Up With Bound Feet? There are a few different versions of just how foot binding started, and NPR says one of the oldest dates back to the Shang dynasty. In another version, it was the emperor who ordered her — his favorite concubine — to bind her feet and dance. And that means it's a tradition that's been changing women's lives for at least a thousand years. And poor communities, they say, "could not afford the luxury of helpless women." Supposedly, the corrupt last emperor of the Shang, King Zhou, had a favorite concubine named Daji who was born with clubfoot. In one version, the practice goes back to the earliest documented dynasty, the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BCE–1046 BCE). Decades later, all her toes remained folded under her feet, but she hasn't reduced the length of her foot — the ultimate goal. Most will show the size of their feet and explain that they used to be smaller. Binding Feet to Gain the Emperor's Favor in the 10th Century The first recorded foot binding started from the Five Dynasties and Ten States in the 10th century and it became prevalent in the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Even into the 1960s and 1970s, The Telegraph says government officials would inspect women's feet — if they were found to be wearing bindings, they'd take them off and hang them in the windows as a mark of shame. Bounded Feet were now considered a symbol of high-class and beauty as well as elegance. But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you.". I mean, come on! Consequences, he found, were lifelong. Decorative shoes and leggings were worn over the bandages and could differ with the time of day and occasion. We do know that it wasn't until 1874 that a British priest started the first anti-foot binding society, and while it wasn't outlawed for almost another 35 years, the practice continued long beyond that. One of the most drastic forms is foot binding, a Chinese practice that Ancient History says started during China's Tang Dynasty (which began in 618). Considered an attractive quality, the effects of the process were painful and permanent. The practice officially was sanctioned in 1902. She got married when she was just 15 years old, and while her husband originally told her that he liked her beautiful, tiny feet, he later encouraged her to unbind them. And why did they do it? When she was caught, her grandmother cut some of the skin off her toes. They were the most beautiful in their village because of their small feet. Whenever it started, it was a barbaric practice. If you want to know more the history of foot binding, you can check the below post: Facts about Chinese Foot Binding 1: the origin of foot binding. When and where did foot binding start and end? On the other hand, another story dates foot binding during during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 BC). 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