Foot binding is a decorative habit unique to Chinese feudal society. The specific method was to use a long and narrow cloth bag to tightly tie the women's ankles, thereby causing the muscles and bones to become abnormal and the feet to be slim and flexed to conform to the aesthetics of the time. During the foot-binding era, most women began to have their feet bound at the age of four or five until they reached adulthood, when their bones were set and the cloth could be untied. Some women had their feet bound for life, until they died of old age. The specific method
The old lady Wu Yang from Liuyi Village in Yunnan recalled her foot-binding experience this way: her mother used the "shooting needle" on the loom to place it horizontally under the waist of her feet. The waist of the ankle is raised. Then, they tied her up and forced her to walk. Slowly, the waist of the ankle was broken by the "shoot through". As a result, she was unable to get out of bed and walk for more than a month. Although her ankle was broken, her feet were still bloated and ugly. Her mother said again: How come your man’s feet are not rotten? Her grandma also said: It’s so difficult, it’s time to take action. So, her mother, under the guidance of her grandmother, found half a porcelain bowl, smashed it into pieces, placed it on the soles, waist, and top of her feet, then wrapped it with a foot binding cloth, put on small shoes, and let her get down to the ground. . Her feet were scratched, and blood seeped out of the foot-binding cloth, turning black, fishy, ??and smelly. She often turned pale in pain, was in a daze, and lost a lot of weight.
Foot binding changes the shape of the foot through external force, seriously affecting the normal development of the foot and causing soft tissue contracture. This painful process cannot be described in words. For more than a thousand years, thousands of women in China have experienced this kind of pain since childhood, and have reluctantly endured this kind of psychological and physical torture.
Are the little feet resulting from foot binding really so beautiful? So much so that men regard it as the most important criterion when marrying a wife, while women regard it as a major transformation that they must make to their bodies in life. In fact, this is not the case. The following is a true description of small feet, which makes people very emotional. From our current aesthetic point of view, we may even feel that our ancestors are so unreasonable. Generally speaking, when viewed from the front, a small foot looks like a fleshy lump that has been peeled off after being injured by a fire, revealing a deformed and disfigured flesh. There was only one raised toe, and the nails on it were vaguely distinguishable. The rest showed a hateful blurry outline. Viewed from the side, the toes and heels have been broken off, and the two parts are close together. With the support of soft flesh, they form a curve standing at both ends. The heels are bloated, the soles of the feet disappear, and the instep is bulging. The total length of the foot is less than half of its natural length, and the entire foot resembles an irregular triangle. The scariest thing is looking at the soles of the feet from the front. It was an absurd pattern that completely eliminated the original image of the human foot. Except for the deformed heel, there is no smooth foot. The four toes of different lengths turn outwards and surround the sole of the foot with the big toe as the axis. The front of the toes therefore becomes the center of the sole of the foot, completely twisted and pressed under the sole of the foot.
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Items that need to be prepared before foot binding
1. Six blue wrappings. It should be about eight feet to more than ten feet, and the wrapping cloth should be longer than ordinary and well-starched so that it can be wrapped around the feet without getting wrinkled.
2． Five pairs of flat shoes. The shape of the shoe should be slightly pointed, and the size and width of the shoe should be such that it can be slowly sewed smaller and slimmer during the foot binding process.
3． Two or three pairs of sleeping shoes. Wear it while sleeping to prevent the wrap from coming loose.
4. sewing. After the wrapping cloth is wrapped properly, sew the seams of the wrapping cloth and the head of the wrapping cloth tightly.
5. cotton. When binding the feet, the protruding parts of the foot bones should be padded with cotton when wearing shoes to prevent the feet from being worn out and causing corns.
6． Footbath and hot water. Wash your feet with warm water before binding them.
7. Small scissors, for trimming toenails and corns.
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The process of foot binding
Try binding:
While binding the feet, let the girl sit on a low stool and soak in the heat. Put the water in the foot basin, wash your feet clean, and while the feet are still warm, twist the other four toes except the big toe toward the soles of the feet as much as possible. Sprinkle alum powder between the toes to tighten the skin and prevent fungal infection. , then wrap it with cloth, and fix it with needle and thread after wrapping. After wrapping your feet, you will often feel that the soles of your feet are hot. Experienced people will not wrap them hard at the beginning. It is best to wrap them gently at the beginning. Let your feet gradually get used to this restraint, and slowly tighten it again and again. This period can last from a few days to about two months.
Test tightness:
Slowly tighten when wrapping, so that the pressure on the foot skin becomes tighter each time. At this time, it should not be too tight, so that the two feet can bear it. During this period, the toes should be bent and twisted so that the foot is slightly curled downward. When wrapping, wrap the second and fifth toes in advance until they are bent toward the feet, and the third and fourth toes will also be bent toward the feet. The tightness test also takes a few days to about two months. During this period, the foot binding cloth is starched harder, the wrinkles are beaten out, and the feet are wrapped slightly tightly, so that the feet are used to the pressure of the hard foot binding cloth and tight wrapping. , and then you can really wrap it tightly.
Toe wrapping:
When wrapping, wrap the wrapping cloth as tightly as possible and wrap four Wrap the curled toes from the bottom of the sole of the foot to the inside. Every time you wrap the toes, bend the toes and press them more under the sole of the foot. At the same time, move the four curled toes backward one by one from the bottom of the sole of the foot to the heel to make some space between the toes, so as to prevent the toes from being squeezed together and the toes being too thick after the feet are wrapped.
It has to be wrapped until the little toe is pressed under the waist of the foot, and the second toe is pressed under the joint of the big toe. When wrapping the tip, you often have to twist the toe toward the sole of the foot to the point where it is unyielding, and then use the wrapping cloth to tighten it. Tighten it tightly. The toe joint of the second toe and the toe joints of the third, fourth and fifth toes will be greatly deformed when it is tied. Each time it is tied, several sprained joints must be injured again. The pain was excruciating. After wrapping, the wrapping had to be sewn tightly with needle and thread, forced into pointed shoes, and then the girl was asked to move around. When walking, the weight is placed on the eight toes that are bent inward, causing the joints to become more sprained. Because the toes have just been bent in and are not close to the soles of the feet, corns are easy to form on the toe joints when walking. You need to use a needle to remove the corns from time to time. Lose.
My feet hurt so much during the day that I can hardly walk. At night, it not only hurts to put my feet under the quilt, but also feels hot and stuffy. Sometimes it is as painful as burning charcoal. I can only put my feet outside the quilt when sleeping. , it is common to get up in the middle of the night and cry against the feet. Some people are so painful that they go to untie the foot wraps, but when they are discovered, they are beaten severely and then go back. They often stay up all night and touch their feet all night long. Stick it against the wall to get a little coolness. When you wake up the next morning, you have to unwrap it and wrap it tighter. In the end, the third, fourth, and fifth toe joints will be severely sprained or even dislocated. When sprained and dislocated, The feet will be swollen badly and the skin will turn purple, which is extremely painful, but they will still be wrapped tightly day by day. Until the swelling subsides and the toes are wrapped down to the soles of the feet, then the task of wrapping the toes is completed. Can be used for skinny wrapping work.
Thin wrapping (toe wrapping):
When the toes are wrapped, the four toes have been curled back under the soles of the feet, but they may not be able to be pressed against the soles of the feet. The task of thinning is to push the little toe bone (that is, the outer handle bone) downward and inward into the sole of the foot, push the heel of the little toe down toward the inside of the sole of the foot, and then use the wrapping cloth to tighten it and wrap the tip. The second, third, fourth, and fifth toes are only half pressed under the sole of the foot. When wrapping, the outer bones should be wrapped down. Of course, the toes are pressed more into the inside of the sole of the foot, and the toes of the third, fourth, and fifth toes are wrapped until the end. Only when the inner edge of the sole of the foot can be touched can the slimming work be completed.
When you are thinning, the foot-binding cloth is wrapped as tightly as possible, and the entire force is particularly focused on the heel of the little toe. Often due to poor blood circulation, the heel of the little toe, which is the outer handle bone, is pressed. The sores festered. When wrapping, you need to push the little toe bone down hard, and push the four toes along the inner edge of the sole of the foot. Tighten the foot binding tightly. After wrapping, your feet may be so painful that you can't walk for a long time, so you have to struggle hard. , so that you can walk with your heels to avoid pain when you take a step. There are throbbing pains when sitting down, and swelling and pain when sleeping. If the feet are ulcerated and suppurated, the swelling will be even more uncomfortable. You have to use pillows and quilts to prop up your feet, and sometimes you have to put your heels on the bed rails to press them. The numbness of the nerves makes it easier to feel. When the weather is hot, the pain in the feet is even worse when the weather is hot. When the pain is mild
Display of foot binding (15 photos) Even after sleeping, the pain in both feet may still cause spasms, or the pain may wake up frequently throughout the night, and the food and drink are tasteless. After unwrapping the wrapping, the ulcerated area is often tightly adhered to the wrapping. If you forcefully tear it off, you will be left with a bloody mess. It takes almost six months to endure the pain until the toes reach the inner side of the foot. If you can touch your toes from the inner edge of your feet, you will be considered slim. Festering wounds often become more serious if not treated properly, and eventually may even cause the little toe to rot and fall off, forming chronic osteomyelitis that will not heal for many years. It can be seen from this that to bind a pair of small feet, you have to go through a lot of hardships. No wonder the women who have bound feet take better care of their little feet than anything else.
Wrapping (foot wrapping):
After the soles of the feet have been wrapped thin, the next step is to wrap the feet. Wrapping is to wrap a deep depression in the soles of the feet. The deeper the depression, the more severe the arch of the foot, until the sole of the foot is folded into two parts. The front part of the foot and the heel are close to each other. There is a deep slit in the middle sometimes as deep as four or five centimeters. The little toe is caught in the deep slit, and the instep is Because the sole of the foot is bent, it swells upward into a high slope, and some insteps that cannot be wrapped well swell like a ball. After wrapping and bending, the length of the foot will be significantly shortened. The standard small foot is required to be three inches long, which is about 10 centimeters. The bending process relies on pushing the heel forward and pressing the instep down when wrapping. , apply force front and back to tighten, the big toe passes through this bundle, and immediately hangs down, and the sole of the foot slowly becomes concave. Use more force to wrap it up, and the bow will become more severe. In about half a year, the foot can be wrapped into an arch shape. Generally speaking, the pain is slightly lessened when the feet are bound. However, in some places in the South, people do not put much effort into binding the soles of the feet. They only start to bind the soles of the feet when they are in their teens, and the binding is required to be very short. At this time, the pain is very severe. , and even rolled over on the bed in pain. If there is not enough time to wrap the feet to make them thin, just wrap the feet to bend them. Often, after wrapping, the feet will become hooked and bent inward, resulting in an unsightly banana-like foot shape. The feet are bent from straight to an arch shape, then to a horseshoe shape, until the toes and heels are close together and the arches of the feet can no longer be shrunk, then they are considered to be wrapped into a pair of standard feet. The process of foot binding is simply to curl up the outer four toes and bend the outer longitudinal arch on the sole of the foot when wrapping the toes. When thinning, the transverse arch of the foot bends downward, and further bends the outer longitudinal arch. When bending, bend the inner longitudinal arch of the foot, and further bend the outer longitudinal arch more completely. After the feet are wrapped, the arches on the soles of the feet used to cushion the impact force disappear, and the knee joints and ankle joints have to be used as buffers when walking.
Because the sole of the foot is so thin that only the big toe is left, the force of the sole of the foot to push forward is very small when walking. Most of the time, the heel is placed on the ground and the power of the thigh is used to move. The muscles of the calf are atrophied and underdeveloped, so the calf becomes thinner after the foot is bound. , the thighs become thicker on the contrary, and some people use the ball of the big toe and the heel to walk together, so that the walking becomes a splayed walk, which is also a common walking pattern with small feet.
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Special binding method
The process of foot binding mainly involves twisting the joints and twisting the horizontal and vertical arches of the feet to The standard method of binding feet is to wrap and twist them with strips of cloth, bending the joints to the limit. Sprains and dislocations are almost inevitable. When the joints are twisted, the feet will naturally curl up and become smaller. This is a normal method of binding feet. However, in some cases, young girls start binding their feet late, or they do not understand the correct method of binding their feet, or some require extremely small feet to be wrapped. At this time, in addition to wrapping their feet with cloth, many other methods are used.
Bamboo binding:
This is a more common method in the north. Foot binding in the north is heavier and slimmer. Therefore, after the slimming is done, the toes are all curled up to the soles of the feet, and the inner and outer edges of the soles of the feet are Although it is slim, there are a few convex joints. If you want to wrap it more thinly, use two pieces of bamboo, clamp it on the left and right sides of the soles of the feet, and wrap it tightly with the wrapping cloth. When wrapping, the stiff bamboo pieces will stick closely to the bones of the feet. On the joints, pain can be seen, often in the raised parts of the joints, which can cause ulcers and suppuration due to friction. Even so, there are still many people in the north, especially in Shanxi Province, who use bamboo slices to wrap their legs. In addition to wrapping their feet to make them extra slim, they can also wrap their big toes to make them pointed and their heels to be thin and narrow. The whole foot was narrow and straight, as slender as a willow leaf, and pitifully thin. Therefore, although the girl was often heartbroken and cried day and night when being wrapped, she still swallowed her tears and endured the pain for a pair of thin, upright, arrogant little feet. A wrapping method similar to that of bamboo sheets. Some people use bamboo sheets about three centimeters wide and wrap them with cloth to pad the sides and back of the heel to help tighten the heel. Others use a copper plate or a concave piece of wood to press it on the foot. The inner and outer ankles are wrapped. Some people are afraid that when the feet are bent, the tops of the feet will protrude too much and form goose heads, so they use a copper coin to press on the top of the feet and wrap them. These methods are all about forcibly binding the feet with hard things. To transform the unsatisfactory shape of small feet, regardless of the effect, the unforgettable pain that the girl experienced during the binding process is really an extremely uncivilized and inhumane practice for modern people.
Slate oppression:
In the old days, many household appliances were made of stone. Stone mills or chopping boards for washing clothes were the easiest heavy objects for women to get, so their feet were bound. When the result is unsatisfactory, someone will use a slate to press the foot. The slate presser is most often used when the foot is crooked or turned inward. Normally, when the foot is bound and bent, it will bend directly downward, but the outer longitudinal bow has not yet been bent. , that is, if you bend it before it is thin, the big toe will bend inward. At this time, the whole foot will bend inward like a sickle. The way to correct it is to take off your arch shoes and sit cross-legged so that the soles of the feet face each other. , place both feet on a hard board, and use heavy stone slabs to put pressure on them. As soon as they are pressed on, the crooked soles of the feet are compressed, which is of course very painful. After an hour of being pressed, both feet are numb from the knees down. Sometimes I am afraid of the weight of the stone slabs. If it is not enough, you have to press your hands on the stone slab to increase the weight to correct the inverted soles of the feet. Usually, it takes one or two months of continuous pressure every day to show the effect. After the foot is compressed in this way, in addition to the improvement of the inward curvature of the soles of the feet, It becomes slimmer, the toes are curled to an ideal degree, and the feet become straight and straight on both sides.
My legs become numb after being pressed by a stone slab. Some people think that the numbness is due to poor blood circulation. They are afraid that poor blood circulation in the feet will cause necrosis of the feet. Therefore, after the pressure is numb, the girl will often be asked to get up and walk or do some cleaning. Although I have to work hard to walk with numb feet, sometimes I have to be supported by two people to move around to stimulate blood circulation. The stone slab is usually pressed while sitting. Some people apply pressure while lying down, wearing sleeping shoes on their feet, placing them on the wooden board, and then pressing the stone slab. The purpose of pressing the stone slab is to improve the crooked foot shape, and some people just do it for the purpose of pressing the stone slab. He bound his feet thinly and pressed them with stone slabs.
Wrapped in broken porcelain:
This is made of worn-out cups, bottles, dishes and other porcelain, broken into sharp particles, and used to pad the soles of the feet when binding the feet, usually on the The girl was wrapped with foot wraps under the inflexed toes and soles of the feet, and then forced to walk. The sharp porcelain pieces were inserted into the toes and soles of the feet to cut the feet. After the feet were cut, blood seeped out and wrapped. The cloth sticks tightly, and when re-wrapped, the foot-wrapped cloth often cannot be untied. It needs to be soaked in foot-washing water and torn off with force. Often blood clots are torn with the skin. Even if the broken pieces are taken out carefully, blood will inevitably ooze again, and the legs will be damaged. The wound on the foot was immersed in hot water. After a few times, it immediately became inflamed and swollen. The foot-wrapped cloth stuck even tighter. When the foot-wrapped cloth was torn open, the skin and flesh were torn off, leaving pus and blood dripping. This wrapping method is really bloody and cruel, unbelievable. The sharp porcelain fragments pricked my feet. I was forced to move around, and the porcelain fragments pricked deeper.
The toes are the most sensitive parts of the nerves, and there is no soft tissue on the back of the toes. There are bones under the skin. Walking with sharp porcelain pads on them is really like being tortured. The custom of binding feet is already cruel and cruel. , but some people actually derived such a foot-binding technique. This kind of foot-binding technique is not a special case of one place, one person and one time. As far as the author knows, foot-binding has been practiced in Shanxi, Taiwan, Henan, Gansu, Hebei and other places where the custom of foot-binding is relatively popular. The purpose of this wrapping method is to inflame the muscles on the soles of the toes. After they become swollen, they are then wrapped further and pricked with broken porcelain. The original red and swollen tissue will fester and turn into pus and blood. Not only will the feet become extremely slim, but the joints and ligaments will also become deformed. It is easy to twist and bend, so there is a saying that "the feet smell, and if they are mature, they will quickly shrink". When the feet are ulcerated and suppurative, the smell is very strong, and the unpleasant smell of rot and necrosis makes people afraid. Close, this is called smelling.
In addition to wrapping porcelain shards under the soles of the feet, some people also use large pieces of broken porcelain to cut the skin and muscles on the feet, causing them to fester and fall off early. Some people also break the broken porcelain into porcelain slag, soak the foot-binding cloth first, and then apply a layer of porcelain slag on it, and wrap it with such a foot-binding cloth covered with porcelain layers. Corns often appear on the feet when feet are bound. According to experience, when corns appear, they should be removed with a large needle as soon as they are still small. Some mothers even deliberately use needles to remove the corns from their daughters’ feet after helping them remove them. The feet are stabbed all over the place and penetrated into thousands of holes. This method has the same purpose as wrapping the feet with broken porcelain pieces. They are both deliberately intended to make the feet injured, fester and fester, so that the feet can be wrapped easily. It is really unbelievable to have broken porcelain caught in a wrapping. You can imagine the cruelty and pain of wrapping. Generally, it is difficult for a mother to make such a cruel move, so the few examples I collected are from adopted daughters, stepmothers or mothers-in-law, It happens in the relationship between child brides. Of course, there are also older girls who resent the fact that their feet are not too small, and they are determined to use this method to make their feet smaller.
Bang and hammer:
When the feet are bound, girls who are afraid of the pain will often take off the bindings secretly, or they will cry and dodge and refuse to be bound. Mothers often refuse to listen to the advice, and often He picked up a whip and whipped the cane everywhere in anger, and sometimes he was so angry that he deliberately beat her feet. This was a punishment to force the girl to bind her feet, and most of them used only long and thin wooden strips. But in the old days of foot binding, some people would use a thick wooden stick to beat the toes so hard that the toes would be fractured and dislocated. They would easily bend and become thin. The wooden sticks used were like hammers used to beat cloth when washing or starching clothes. , a rolling pin is also useful. First, the feet are tightly wrapped, and then they are beaten hard with a hammer until the toes are dislocated and fractured. Not only are the feet easily wrapped up, they will also be very soft and boneless. This example is used by brothel madams to dress their young. There are also methods used by stepmothers to treat their daughters like this. It can be said to be even more cruel than torture. It is already painful enough for the girl to have her toes bent when her feet are bound. She then has to beat and beat her toes with a hammer as if she has committed something. Heinous crimes are treated like torture.
The binding method of bamboo slices, stone slabs, broken porcelain, and sticks and hammers is not the method commonly used for foot binding. It can be said to be a special case, but it is indeed too special. Derived from customs, some practices are unbelievable, but each method can find several records with different backgrounds, and can also tell some truth, which is unbelievable. In addition to these special binding methods, there are also more absurd and cruel practices. Looking at these foot binding techniques, one cannot help but wonder what the difference is between foot binding and abuse.