12/05/2025
🦶 The History Of Foot-binding 🦶
🦶 Foot-binding was said to have been inspired by a beautiful tenth-century court dancer, named Yao Niang.
Yao Niang had bound her feet into the shape of a new moon.
Yao Niang danced on her toes, inside a six-foot golden lotus, festooned with ribbons and precious stones.
Yao Niang's beauty, and graceful dancing delighted and mesmerised the then Emperor, Li Yu.
🦶 Some early evidence for foot-binding comes from the tomb of Lady Huang Sheng, who died in 1243.
When archaeologists opened her tomb, they discovered tiny, misshapen feet.
Her feet had been wrapped in gauze and placed inside specially shaped 'lotus shoes.'
🦶 A small foot in China, is basically no different from the desire for a tiny waist in Victorian England.
From the start, foot-binding was imbued with erotic overtones.
In addition to altering the shape of the foot, foot-binding also produced a particular sort of posture, that relied on the thigh and buttock muscles for support.
Firm thighs and buttocks were a desirable bonus!
Gradually, court ladies with money and time, took up foot-binding, making it a status symbol among the elite.
🦶 For families with marriageable daughters, foot size was important.
The most desirable bride possessed a three-inch foot - known as a 'Golden Lotus.'
It was still quite acceptable to have four-inch feet, called a 'Silver Lotus'.
Feet that were five inches or longer, were dismissed as an 'Iron Lotus'.
Unfortunately, marriage prospects for a girl with iron lotus feet, were very dim indeed.....
🦶 Foot-binding became a rite of passage for young girls.
It was believed to prepare them for puberty, menstruation, and childbirth.
Foot-binding also held the popular belief that it increased fertility - because the blood would flow up the legs and hips, and into the 'reproduction areas'.
🦶 Foot-binding began in childhood, when the girl was five or six years old.
This age was preferable, as the bones in the feet were still soft and malleable.
Mothers, grandmothers, and older female relatives, would carry out the process from start to finish.
🦶 First, the feet were washed in hot water, and the toenails clipped short.
The feet were then massaged and oiled before all the toes, except the big toes, were broken and bound flat against the sole, making a triangle shape.
Next, the arch was strained, as the foot was bent double.
Finally, the feet were bound in place using a silk strip measuring ten feet long, and two inches wide.
These wrappings were briefly removed every two days to prevent blood and pus from infecting the foot.
🦶 Sometimes excess flesh was cut away, or encouraged to rot.
The girls would walk long distances, in order to hasten the breaking of their arches.
Over time the wrappings became tighter and the shoes smaller, as the heel and sole were pushed together.
After two years the process was complete, creating a deep crease in the sole of the foot.
Once a foot had been crushed and bound, the shape could not be reversed without a woman undergoing the same pain all over again.
🦶 The practice of foot-binding had survived for a thousand years, but is rejected in China now.
The last shoe factory making lotus shoes closed in 1999.
A symbolism of beauty and fertility, and despite the pain, millions of Chinese women stood firm in their devotion to the tradition of foot-binding - and wearing their pretty little Lotus shoes...
Our Group
The Tudor Intruders (and more)
🦶 Source - smithsonianmag/why-footbinding-persisted-in-china
Amanda Foreman 2015
