1. What is a three-inch golden lotus?
Three-inch golden lotus refers to the ancient girl who broke four toes except the big toe with long strips of cloth and bent them to the soles of her feet under the pressure of her mother or elders, forming a "bamboo shoot"-shaped "three-inch golden lotus". Four inches are called "silver lotus", and those larger than four inches are called "iron lotus". A woman who doesn't bind her feet is called "Tianzu". For example, Ma Dajiao, the empress of Zhu Yuanzhang, is Tianzu.
2. When did "Three-inch Golden Lotus" become popular?
A great deal of historical evidence proves that women in China did not bind their feet before the Song Dynasty. The custom of foot-binding began in the Northern Song Dynasty and rose in the Southern Song Dynasty. Foot-binding is a spontaneous behavior of the people, which is established by convention and has no strict scale. Most people regard three inches as beauty. In fact, it is useless to be less than three inches. If you can't stand, what beauty can you talk about?
Why is the three-inch golden lotus popular for so long?
Foot binding began in the Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty. After Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, during the Republic of China, including the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was completely banned, but it was not completely eliminated. Why?
To tell the truth, foot-binding is an act of artificially disabling girls and a stupid act of artificially creating so-called beauty. Because of the ignorance of mothers or elders, it has been popular for a long time. They think that girls can find a good husband's family by wrapping their feet. At the same time, I think a good family should be bound feet. Only lay people don't bind their feet.
There are also literati who try their best to render the beauty of foot binding. For example, the literati even summed up the "four beauties" (shape, quality, posture and spirit) and "three beauties" (fat, softness and beauty) of the foot. "。 In the classic "Jin Ping Mei", there is a saying that "a sock is bent, and the golden lotus is three inches, which is a shovel and hoe that breaks ground when building a pit".
Then there is the spontaneous folk foot-binding competition. For example, in some places, June 6th is a "race", and girls show their feet on this day. Excellent people will also be rewarded. Is this a "judgment"?
All this undoubtedly encourages the wind of foot-binding, and strengthens the motivation of mothers or grandmothers to fulfill their responsibilities regardless of their children's tears and cries. This is why foot binding has been popular for so long. This cruel torture, Chunqiu Jun can't bear to match the picture, I don't know where the three-inch golden lotus is?
In the eyes of modern people, the three-inch golden lotus is not beautiful, and it is cruel and horrible! It took more than 800 years from the appearance of recorded foot-binding in Xining period of Northern Song Dynasty to the complete disappearance of foot-binding custom in 1940!
Why are there foot binding? Sick aesthetics from the literati class. In the Song Dynasty, the literati class in China rose rapidly. As the upper-middle class of bureaucrats and nobles, their aesthetics lead the fashion trend.
Where is the beauty of three-inch golden lotus? In fact, if you take off your socks, your feet will not be beautiful. What looks "beautiful" is the posture of walking. Because of the abnormal foot development caused by foot binding, women must walk carefully, which makes women's bodies look fragile, shaky and pathetic.
However, the literati appreciated this morbid beauty very much and even began to admire and praise it. As a result, folk foot-binding began to appear to cater to this morbid aesthetic.
Why did foot binding begin in Song Dynasty? Although there is no definite evidence, according to historical records, it can be seen that foot-binding appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty and was popular in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Before the Song Dynasty, the overall social atmosphere was relatively open, especially in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, after the Song Dynasty, one was the rise of the literati class, and the other was the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng.
In Wei and Jin Dynasties, China had metaphysical thoughts, and in Tang Dynasty, he advocated Buddhism and Taoism. It was not until the Song Dynasty that Neo-Confucianism flourished. Neo-Confucianism began to make women more conservative. At that time, the concept of "starvation is small, dishonor is big" was already in existence, and women began to be bound by feudal ethics.
It is inconvenient to move after foot binding, which coincides with conservative thinking. And then it got out of hand.
The dispute between foot-binding and "not foot-binding" began in the Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty continued to develop and the Ming Dynasty reached a prosperous stage. In the Qing dynasty, the rulers began to ban foot binding.
From Huang taiji to Shunzhi and Kangxi to Guangxu, the Qing court often issued orders that folk foot-binding was not allowed. However, due to the lax enforcement of the law and the abnormal aesthetics of the upper and middle classes in society at that time, the wind of foot binding became more and more fierce. In previous dynasties, there were still many women who did not bind their feet. In the Qing dynasty, women from all walks of life, rich or poor, almost everyone bound their feet under the ban of foot binding.
During the period of the Republic of China, the National Government also issued several bans on foot binding, and even sent commissioners to supervise it.
It was not until 1940 that this custom almost completely disappeared. For more than 800 years, many women have suffered from it. Although it is called "Three-inch Golden Lotus", it is really unattractive and cruel now.
Tell a story.
When I mentioned the three-inch golden lotus, I remembered a story about it.
Once upon a time there was a woman whose golden lotus was so big that she thought it was a scandal.
I met a poet by chance and recited a poem:
A girl in Lu Yu You Yue,
Trollius is two inches long,
Why is it so short,
Horizontal quantity.
The woman listened and said, What's the matter with you? And take the poet to court.
The poet was fined 40 boards, and the poet said, stop fighting, and there is another poem:
Write a 17-character poem,
Just play forty boards,
If you are thousands of books,
beat to death
The judge scolded: You haven't changed. Send him to the border.
On the way, I met the poet's uncle. The poet said no, and there is a poem:
Lu Yu, my uncle,
Crying,
They all shed tears,
Three lines.
Why? Because his uncle is a cyclops.
Because men like it. As the saying goes, the king of Chu had a thin waist and starved to death in his palace. King Chu likes people with small waists, so for several kilometers, in order to get the king's favor, he tried his best to go on a diet and died of malnutrition. Women, especially unmarried women, were not complete people in the strict sense in ancient times. They are just a commodity, so there is a saying that brothers are like brothers and women are like clothes. If you become a mother, there is a saying that a mother depends on her children, that is another matter.
Therefore, in ancient times, women were subjected to double standards, one was to obey men, and the other was to preside over family education and children's education.
It is said that at the earliest time, from the time of Li Yu, there was a dancer who danced beautifully, wrapped her feet in a three-inch golden lotus and then stood on a platform to dance. It's really beautiful. Let's go to see modern ballet.
Good things in the world will be effective in the afterlife. Therefore, from the Tang Dynasty, foot-binding became popular among nobles, and in the Song Dynasty, it also became popular among ordinary people.
Will make women unable to walk. Some abnormal men have foot fetishes, and so do some celebrities. It also means that because women have small feet and walk unsteadily, the pelvic cavity will become bigger and it is easier to have children. And some perverts who drink with three-inch golden lotus prostitutes.
In a word, this is a great insult and harm to women, but women are happy, so the status of ancient women can't be lower.
Three-inch golden lotus feet are the formation of foot binding in ancient society. It originated in the Song Dynasty. There were countless bandits in the Song Dynasty and countless heroes in the water margin. People often feel scared when walking on the road, fearing that there will be several people with knives in the next moment.
In the early Song Dynasty, many women met bandits when they went out, which naturally caused many disasters and countless people were raped. So in order to solve this serious problem, the rulers of the Song Dynasty came up with a solution. Isn't it because women are away from home that they lose face? Now I've figured out a way to keep you from going far, haven't I?
Then came the deformed product of foot binding. After foot binding, women often feel pain after a few steps because of their deformed feet, so fewer people go out of the city, and even accuse women of running away from home. Zhu Cheng's Confucianism also played a key role in this matter, but the root cause was bandits.
Time has passed, and the original intention of women's foot binding is not limited to restricting women's travel. Later, foot binding even evolved into a deformed culture.
People began to be obsessed with the three-inch golden lotus feet caused by foot binding. Ancient scholars often used articles to describe the feet of a woman as white as jade held by Ying Ying. These articles are based on the foot fetish brought by this deformed culture. In addition, of course, many people say that the willow posture brought by the swaying posture of women after foot binding has become the pursuit of ancient people. It is for this reason that foot binding is a bad habit.
Foot-binding persecutes women very much. Many years before the Song Dynasty, women were free. They are free to show up and travel abroad at will. They can see the world they want and the beautiful scenery in this world.
But after the Song Dynasty, it became a luxury, and women completely became a thing in the house. They can no longer show their faces casually and are imprisoned in a small house like a canary in a cage.
I think the original intention of foot binding is equivalent to the Indian view of raping women. Didn't the ancients think that rape wouldn't happen if women didn't go far? Isn't this view exactly the same as that of Indians now? Aren't you going out? You don't wear revealing clothes? You are not good-looking? How can a man value you and hurt you? These two ideas are all the same, and both are abnormal views of society on unfair treatment of women.
Although we often complain about our society and our country, if you think about the ancient society and India next to us, you will know how lucky we are to live in such a society and country. This is an era when you can create brilliance as long as you have the ability, and you can get rich as long as you have the ability.
For thousands of years, society has been changing. But the traditional society in the past was still an open and civilized modern society, and women were actually under some kind of pressure. This kind of pressure constantly strengthens women's "vassal" role, making women suffer different forms of destruction unconsciously, and what's more, making women "enjoy it". I think the three-inch golden lotus and modern female plastic surgery are actually caused by this social culture.
The origin of China's foot-binding can't be found in the official history, but it originated from Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty. She wrote it very well. He likes dancing very much, so he made a six-inch golden lotus platform out of gold, wrapped the maid-in-waiting's feet in a crescent shape with cloth and let her dance on it. Therefore, "golden lotus" has become synonymous with little feet. After that, this custom began to be popular in the court, and spread from the court to the people after the Southern Song Dynasty, becoming a morbid custom. At that time, little feet basically became the object of imitation by urban women at that time. Even in the Qing Dynasty, Manchu women prohibited foot binding, but Manchu women strongly opposed it. It can be seen that although foot-binding has destroyed women's bodies, thousands of women still enjoy it.
As an initial function, foot binding is only a form of dance performance, but no one would have thought that it would become the chief culprit in the future. As for why the three-inch golden lotus has been circulating in ancient times for so long, there are actually the following reasons.
1. Means to promote women's education. Traditional feudal society requires women to "obey three virtues" and stay in boudoir. Three inches of golden lotus can be said to be the best way to promote women's education. In other words, foot-binding is a mental and physical constraint on women after the Song Dynasty.
2. Satisfy male morbid aesthetics. The aesthetics of traditional feudal society is actually a kind of morbid beauty, and the three-inch golden lotus makes women the best expression of poor beauty. Although foot-binding affects women's normal walking, they still enjoy it, and even set standards such as thinness, smallness, pointiness, fragrance and softness.
3. A symbol of social status. In the Ming dynasty, the three-inch golden lotus basically became an important symbol to distinguish social status and rank. Because at that time, only women from aristocratic families had the conditions to have beautiful feet, it was difficult for ordinary people to bind their feet. The smaller the woman's three-inch golden lotus, the higher the corresponding status.
4. An important factor in marriage. Small feet make a better choice for her husband. Therefore, in order to find a good partner for her daughter, the mother will start foot binding at a very young age, which is very painful. Nevertheless, this kind of pain is necessary, because many people with big feet will encounter the misfortune of marriage, or even never get married.
When you are full, you still think about lust. When you are full, a gentleman has nothing to do. He is always thinking about what to study and seeking some sensory stimulation by the way. Men who like feet not only existed in ancient times, but also exist now.
In feudal society, men occupied a dominant position in society, and women took on more auxiliary work and lived by men. Moreover, most men in official families have three wives and four concubines, and women are under great competition pressure and have to try their best to cater to men's preferences.
How did the three-inch golden lotus become fashionable? During the Tang Dynasty, women's social status was still relatively high, which may have a lot to do with the Xianbei lineage of the royal family in Li Tang. However, in the Song Dynasty, the development of Chen Zhuli's theory made women's social status plummet, forming a situation that was suppressed for more than 1000 years.
So where is this turning point? How did feet become fashionable?
Here, I want to mention a famous person, Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Li Yu lived in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and was the last emperor in the Southern Tang Dynasty. This guy is very accomplished in poetry. He was born in the palace, and in the hands of a woman, he was not good at governing the country at all.
At the beginning of Li Yu's accession to the throne, he also wanted to be a hard worker, but his strength did not allow him. He slowly gave up himself and got lost in poetry and songs.
The two or three events after Li Yuhe Week have long been household names, so I won't repeat them here. In his harem, there is another person named Renniang.
There are so many women in the harem, if you want to be superior, you have to show some unique skills. This woman is not good-looking and stands out, but she has a pair of small feet.
And also according to their own characteristics, created a set of golden lotus dance. At the beginning, the dance was like a lotus Ling Bo, which aroused Li Yu's strong interest.
In pursuit of perfection, Li Yu created a golden lotus platform about six feet high, on which Ren Niang danced. Li Yude has appreciated these little feet from different angles.
The concubines do whatever the emperor likes. After the fire, other concubines directly wrapped their feet in brocade to win the favor of the emperor.
Of course, this fashion only stayed in the harem of the Southern Dynasties.
When the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed by the Northern Song Dynasty, some maids and concubines of the former harem were brought to the Song Dynasty, imprisoned in the palace or distributed to some literati's homes.
From the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty, dynasties changed too frequently, and these harem wives and concubines had long been accustomed to it. No matter whose mansion they were assigned to, it was right to compete for favor.
As a result, the wind of little feet was brought to the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was once popular in the circle of scholar-officials and nobles.
How did the Northern Song Dynasty let the wind of Jin Ping Mei ravage the whole country? If this happened in the Tang Dynasty, where the country was founded by martial arts, military commanders might prefer women who could mount horses and settle down on earth. In the Song Dynasty, the country was founded on literature. In order to avoid the tragedy of the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin formulated the basic national policy of valuing literature over martial arts.
In the Song Dynasty, scholars and scholars got along well. So what does this have to do with the prevalence of Jin Ping Mei Feng? To sum up, it is nothing more than the following:
First: Li Yu is a representative of the graceful ci school and enjoys a high reputation in the literary world. Although the emperor didn't do very well, his handwriting was really good. These literati must have a lot of Li Yu's "iron powder". What idols like, fans naturally have to try.
Second: What are literati afraid of? I am afraid that my wife is too strong and I am afraid that I have insufficient control. Scholars are not as fierce as military commanders, and if they really do it, they may not be as fierce as women.
In order to ensure the status of men, scholars have formulated a series of rules and regulations to suppress women. Three obedience and four virtues, chastity is greater than life, including this three-inch golden lotus, have become invisible shackles on women.
Third, the status of women in feudal times was low. In order to win the favor, they took the initiative to join the foot binding. A place where systems and ethos prevail will basically have a specific background as a blessing.
He can't force what a man likes, and one of the reasons why Jin Ping Mei is popular is that women take the initiative to accept it.
In this social atmosphere, the wind of Jin Ping Mei prevails.
The common people also fell in love with the "three-inch golden lotus". As mentioned above, literati or arty, or in order to mix circles, have fallen in love with foot binding, which has promoted the prevalence of foot binding in the upper class.
But why is this foot-binding wind still blowing among the people?
Women in poor families need to work, and timid feet will greatly reduce women's labor productivity. Why do they choose foot binding?
Stupidly, there are two basic reasons for this phenomenon: (1) the heart of comparison; (2) fly to the branches and become the heart of the phoenix;
As mentioned earlier, the wind of foot-binding was first popular among literati, and women in this circle did not need to farm or work. It doesn't really matter if you bind your feet to please your husband.
But after this wind blows, some people who are not literati are even proud of marrying a foot-binding woman. This once led to a shortage of foot-binding women, and many women who have been foot-binding since childhood took this opportunity to marry into a rich family and change their lives.
And those women who don't have foot binding, even if the conditions are superior, can't enter the giants.
Everyone has the psychology to change their living conditions. Therefore, in order to marry a good family, many parents have bound their daughters' feet since childhood.
In this case, the wind of foot-binding is getting worse and worse, and it directly blows to the poor families.
Because men like it, women begin to embarrass women.
The cry of the young lady next door when she bound her feet last year is still in my ears. No matter how scared I am, it's time to come.
Shortly after autumn, my mother bought many odds and ends from the town. Seeing the bamboo chips and white cloth inside, I knew I couldn't hide. /kloc-one day in October, my mother specially invited my aunt next door to help. After staring at me, wash my feet, fix my toes into a pointed prototype with bamboo pieces, and sprinkle with white medicine foam prepared by barefoot doctors. I didn't look at me, crying into tears, and my voice was hoarse. I surrounded the white cloth like a circle, then put on my socks and sewed it with a needle and thread to prevent me from secretly unlocking the lock. After the package was formed, mother held me in her arms, wiped the rolling tears on her cheeks and fed a candy to my sobbing mouth. "Mubai, don't blame mother cruel. My daughter has to put up with this. Mom has been there before. Bear with it. When you get a pair of little golden lotus flowers and hire a fine family, you will know that your mother is doing it for your own good. " I can't hear what my mother and aunt comforted me, and I can't taste the taste of sugar in my mouth. There is only the overwhelming pain, which hurts to the bone.
Every night, my mother would call a pot of hot water filled with herbs, unwrap layers of cloth, squeeze out new purulent blood, soak me in liquid medicine for a while, and then forcefully tighten the pressure according to the original fixed shape, wrapping her bloody feet more pointy and smaller, more like a crescent moon. I've learned that no amount of resistance is meaningful. I sat quietly, letting the tears slide and wet my skirt, and gritted my teeth to get through it. God knows how I spent those days when I was a child. The pain of being bitten by tiptoe bugs and ants never stopped day and night. The sawdust cloth tiger stuffed by grandma on the pillow can't stand repeated ravages and looting, and a pinch of sawdust leaks out every day until there is only a layer of cloth at the end of the bed. When you are a little better, you will go to the fields. Mother said that the wrapped feet would not die. I tiptoed and moved carefully step by step. Even so, the pain is low-paid and my toes are dripping with cold sweat. I just want to end the dance on the tip of this knife and go back to the house!
Slowly, summer is almost over. I sat in the sun on the rattan chair outside the yard. I haven't been out all summer, and my cheeks are sickly pale. Looking at the fool who often hangs out at the entrance of the village from a distance, he came over and jumped up and down, and I don't know why she had so many happy things. She always looks at different people with a twinkle in her eyes and smiles faintly.
"Mom, you see, fools don't bind their feet. She laughs all day and lives happily. "
"Mubai, what are you talking about? If you are a fool, mother will leave you alone. " Mother answered me with a frown.
Many years later, I came back from my hometown to visit my parents. The fool is still wandering at the entrance of the village, or what I remember from my childhood. Nothing has changed much, as if he knew me. He turned twice and ran away with a smile.
It turns out that I am not a fool, so I can't be as carefree as her. ...
The reason why the three-inch golden lotus has been popular in ancient times is that the inheritance of the hereditary "rules" in feudal society has occupied a long period of time in history, and this "rule" of restraining women from being persecuted has become the "consensus" of the patriarchal society: to completely deprive women of their right to participate in and discuss state affairs, women are required to be obedient to men, such as not marrying their fathers and husbands, and being obedient to their sons when they are old. However, it is ridiculous for the rulers to make such "rules": once women participate in politics, it is a disaster, that is, it breaks the rules of dead fools buried in the ground and destroys universal ethics. Women must obey the king, husband and son (old age). If they empathize, or challenge the authority of men, they either have no "female virtue" or are foxes, which will be condemned by society. In order to get back the punishment for women's mistakes, they constantly brainwashed women, set rules for foot binding, praised the so-called three-inch golden lotus that women can't run fast after foot binding deformed, and got back the punishment effortlessly, conveniently and quickly. In fact, this is mainly aimed at the emperor's concubines and maids, while folk families take the palace as an example. I think that many women in modern China are indifferent to the innate weight of men, which should have a subconscious shadow with the slavery and destruction of women in ancient feudal society. For example, the subtext of men's lack of good things, in a sense, should be the feudal legacy brought by the patriarchal society, which makes many women in China lack the overall impression of their men's equal and romantic feelings. In short, in the long-term autocratic feudal patriarchal society, the rulers brainwashed ancient women with the three cardinal principles and five permanents, three obedience and four virtues. In feudal society, kings, fathers and husbands had absolute power over ministers, children and wives, while ministers, children and wives were slaves under the rule. This is a completely unequal relationship, which is maintained by the long-term abnormal' loyalty ethics'.
Three-inch golden lotus is the praise of ancient women for those perfect feet under abnormal aesthetics!
Women's foot binding, also known as foot binding, began in the Northern Song Dynasty and rose in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Ming dynasty, this kind of atmosphere was the most prosperous, and there was a saying of "three inches of golden lotus"! In the Qing dynasty, women from all walks of life were proud of foot binding!
This unhealthy trend can be popular for so long! Mainly ancient patriarchal society and feudal abnormal aesthetics! The reasons are as follows: the first male-dominated society has a strong desire for possession and control of women. After foot-binding, women can't move easily and can't act according to their own will. Everything lives under the guidance of men.
Second, the ancient aesthetics was abnormal. Some scholars said that ancient China foot-binding and western high-heeled shoes had the same aesthetics! After walking like this, the waist looks thinner. Take small steps to highlight the hips and waist of women and highlight the physiological characteristics of women! However, the harm of high heels is not as great as foot binding, so they have not been abolished! In fact, wearing high heels for a long time is very bad for your feet!
In fact, in the patriarchal society, abnormal aesthetics is far more than three inches of golden lotus! During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were also brothels that paid money to buy little girls from poor families, taught them chess, calligraphy and painting, and sold them to wealthy businessmen and corrupt officials for profit when they grew up! What is even more abnormal is that in order to cater to some abnormal aesthetics, girls are deceived at an early age and sold to rich people when they grow up. This is also the possession and control of women in a patriarchal society!