Essay About Foot Binding

Foot binding is also known as “lotus feet”. This practice was to prevent the feet from growing. This custom originated from upper-court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in Imperial China. As a result, this practice became popular in the Song Dynasty and had spread to all other social classes. Foot binding was a mean to show that you were wealthy. This custom was thought to be beautiful.
The origin of foot binding began when Emperor Li Yu created a six-foot tall golden lotus that was decorated with both pearls and stones. He asked his concubine Yao Niang to bind her feet in white silk into a crescent moon shape and performed a dance ballet-like on the points of her feet on the lotus. Her dance was very graceful so others decided to imitate her. The practice then replicated by upper-class women and spread throughout China. Thus becoming popular in during the Song Dynasty. Children ages four or five years old were made to bind their feet and deal with the intense pain. By the end of the Song dynasty, men would make a “toast to the golden lotus” by drinking a special made shoe containing a small cup in the heel. Some would even drink from the shoe itself during the Yuan dynasty and lasted until the late Qing dynasty. By the 19th century, approximately 40-50% of women had bound feet and 100% of women from
The binding comes tighter when binding and unbinding. The girls going through various sorts of pain and agony in breaking their toes in order to have small feet is not worth it. This all started due to the emperor’s words. This process led many young girls to ruin their lives to trotting in small shoes that they have to always balance themselves. They developed a weird way of walking that affected them sexually. Men in this era have very strange taste in how they want their girl. Although they thought foot binding was a beauty, I do not think so. It just the shoes that they wear that are small, pretty and