One Thousand Years Of Chinese Footbinding: Its Origins, Popularity And Demise

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a
three- to five-year old girl's feet with binding so as to bend the toes
under, break the bones and force the back of the foot together. Its purpose
was to produce a tiny foot, the "golden lotus", which was three inches long
and thought to be both lovely and alluring.[4] It is believed that the
origin of the term "golden lotus" emerged in the Southern Tang dynasty
around 920 A.D., where the emperor Li Yu ordered his favorite concubine,
Fragrant Girl, to bind her feet with silk bands and dance on a golden lotus
platform encrusted with pearls and gems. Thereafter, women inside and
outside the court began taking up strips of cloth and binding their feet,
thinking them beautiful and distinguished, dainty and elegant. It gradually
became the prevailing style and "golden lotus" became a synonym for bound
feet.[5]
One notable personality who aided in the spread of footbinding was
the famed writer and scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200 A.D.), whose commentaries on
the Confucian ...

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these exceptions, however,
footbinding was more commonly practiced than not.
Imperial acceptance aside, the question that remains is why did
Chinese women bind their feet for approximately one thousand years, until
forcibly prohibited by the government? It is important to consider the
practice without criticism in order to understand the symbolic and personal
meanings of footbinding, which embraced a number of purposes. Its origins
may be perceived as a means of enforcing the imperial male's exclusive
sexual access to his female consorts, ensuring their chastity and fidelity,
but its impact extended far beyond these boundaries.[10] Since the family
was the most important ...

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