At the end of Song dynasty, foot binding custom had been very popular and it became a shame for a woman if she had big feet. When Qing dynasty (1644 - 1912 BC) was established, the custom had been 600, 700 years old and had become very strong. But the governers of Qing dynasty, who were Man minority of China, didn't like the custom which was practiced only in Han folk, the majority of Chinese, and tried to forbid it. In 1648, the first emperor of Qing dynasty gave order to ban foot binding, but the order didn't work. In 1651, emperor Sunzhi claimed "forbid women to fast up their hair and bind their feet", and stipulated that if a women bound feet, her husband or father would be hit 80 times by stock and exiled 1500 km far away from home. But this stipulation didn't work either. In 1664, emperor Kangxi reclaimed the prohibit, but he had to also give up three years later, because the custom was too solid. Since then, even women of Man minority started to follow the custom and bind their feet.
At the end of Qing dynasty, China was invaded by several foreign nations. Many Chinese scholars thought that foot binding was the reason that China was invaded, because it made Chinese women weak and affected strength of the whole country. They promoted actively to ban the custom. Later the leders of reformisters Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao established Nature Foot Organization, the influence of the organisation spread fast in whole country. On the 13th, march of 1912, the interim president of China, Sun Zhongshan, issued announcement to urge Chinese cleaning up foot binding custom, locale governments overall China developed correspondently pratical measurements to forbid foot binding. Thereafter, the custom disappeared from Chinese cities and were significantly weaken in the countryside. In 1940 foot binding almost completely disappeared from China. However, until 1950's few villages in China still kept the custom, although it was illegal. Until June of 2015, there were still 8 women in China having bound feet, the youngest was 73 years old and the oldest was 95 years old.
Totally, foot binding custom was held in China for about 1000 years, and Chinese majority Han folk was the only one folk group practicing this custom in the world. What is the reason behind of this? Historians think there are several reasons which worked together and caused the phenomenon. The first reason is that slim and weak was the Chinese traditional beauty standard for women, when women had bound feet, she looked like "a willow branch in slight wind" when she walked, which was extremely sexy and beautiful in eyes of Chinese men. It was a strange aesthetic standard and similar with that some nations like their girls having long necks, or are fat. Another reason is Li ideology developed to a extreme degree in Song dynasty. The ideology emphasized that people must behave with strict principles. That women should keep themselves as virgin before they marry and that people in different gender should not contact with each other are two of the principles. In practice foot binding limited women's mobility and reduced significantly the chances they went out home and contacted with men out of the family. The third reason is that foot binding increased sexual pleasure men got. Because after women bound feet, the feet became an very private part of the body and nobody besides the husband could see it, the feet became an additional body part stimulating men's sexual fantasy. Even more, after women bound feet, their virginal channel became tighter caused by that they had to walk with a special way. This increases also sexual pleasure to men. In Song dynasty, drinking wine from socks of prostitute became a popular sexual game, and during all the years when the foot binding custom was popular, countless articles and poets were created to describe and prize how beautiful and sexy bound feet were. There were even books to teach men how to systematically enjoy bound feet in sexual live. Obviously, bound feet was an very important sexual element at that time.
Foot binding started from aristocrats. It was a common phenomenon in the world that people in other classes liked to imitate living style of aristocrats, because their living style were thought to be noble and elegant. That the custom started from aristocrats is another reason that foot binding became popular in China.
In the old China, people said often "a pair of bound feet, a vat of tear". It revealed well how painful it was for women to bind feet. However, without bound feet it would be difficult for a woman to get married with a good man. So foot binding was a shackles patriarchal power put on Chinese women. In the custom women's personal values was overseen and women were treated as sex toys. This shows how low status of Chinese women was in the old China.
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