Chinese Footbinding In Ancient China

566 Words2 Pages

Kingdoms, Emperor Li Yu had a concubine named Yao Niang. Li Yu asked Yao Niang to bind her feet in white silk into the shape of the crescent moon and perform a dance like the modern ballet when standing on the points of her feet. Yao Niang’s performance was very elegant and graceful so that Li Yu fell madly in love with her. Meanwhile, different historians have different opinions on how foot binding started and developed through all this time. Howard Levy, the author of the most comprehensive English work on foodbinding, Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom, pointed out that footbinding originated due to men’s appreciation and affection of the small foot, and retained because the male had an erotic interest that bound feet created a ‘female mystique’, and its purpose was for women to please men.
Due to the polygyny system in China back then, most of the upper class married men had concubines and mistresses, besides their first wife. It was very normal to see wives, mistresses …show more content…

It was not appropriate for these scholars and elites to discuss or write about the advantages and disadvantages of bound feet, simply because bound feet was seen as a practice in private life, being regarded as the third sexual organ besides a female’s breasts and the vagina, playing an important role in sexuality. However, there were still insightful scholars started to raise opinions on footbinding. Back in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), philosopher and educator Che Ruoyong, in his book “ Jiao Qi Ji”, wrote “ Why does an innocent girl have to suffer the pain of footbinding when she doesn’t do anything wrong? Plus, what’s the point of footbinding anyways?” China’s very first feminist and revolutionist Qiu Jin publicly spoke out against the footbinding and scolded this

Dorothy Ko's Article: The Body As Banning In Seventeenth-Century China
754 Words | 2 Pages
In her article "The body as attire," Dorothy Ko (1997) reviewed the history about foot binding in seventeenth-century China, and expressed a creative viewpoint. Foot binding began in Song Dynasty, and was just popular in upper social society. With the gradually popularization of foot binding, in the end of Song Dynasty, it became generally popular. In Qing Dynasty, foot binding was endowed deeper meaning that was termed into a tool to against Manchu rule. The author, Dorothy Ko, studied from another aspect which was women themselves to understand and explained her shifting meaning of foot binding. Dorothy Ko contends that “Chinese Elite males in the seventeenth century regarded foot binding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility,
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Analysis of Nigel Cawthrone´s Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China
1641 Words | 4 Pages
...edchamber. Empress Wu completely reversed the sex roles in court; a “woman is superior to man in the way water is to fire. Those who are expert in sexual intercourse are like good cooks who know how to blend the five flavours into tasty broth. Those who know the art of yin and yang can blend the five pleasures (Cawthorne, 49). Daoist philosopher Laozi believed that yin and yang cannot exist without the other. Even into her seventies Empress Wu enjoyed the company of her young consorts regularly; clearly she was very open about her sexual needs and interest in immortality.
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Bound Feet And Western Dress
904 Words | 2 Pages
Traditions in Chinese culture are long-rooted and are taken very seriously from generation to generation. However, there must always be room for modern change in order for society to grow and strive across the globe. In Bound Feet and Western Dress the conflict between Chinese traditions and modern change arises. With this conflict it is important to discuss the different meanings of liberation for men and women and they way in which Chang Yu-I was able to obtain liberation throughout her life.
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The Role Of Women In Premodern China
1392 Words | 3 Pages
These “hand-picked” classics were the guidelines of society. Women did not have the same privileges as men. When the Classics are interpreted as “hand-picked” selections exemplifying Confucian beliefs, the poem “The Han So Wide” depicts that promiscuous “girls roaming free” need to be civilized by a Confucian lifestyle (The Han So Wide). Meanwhile, it was common for men to have multiple wives, such as Magnate Ma in Rescriptor-in-Waiting Bao’s Clever Trick: The Record of the Chalk Circle (Xingdao). Magnate Ma had two wives, the First Wife, and former prostitute Zhang Haitang, yet he was never shamed (Xingdao). Zhang Haitang, however, was judged heavily by everyone in the town for her social background, causing her to lose her first court case against the first wife for the murder of Magnate Ma (Xingdao). It was unacceptable for women to be seen with more than one man, but men could have as many wives and concubines as he
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Good Earth Olan
2198 Words | 5 Pages
O-lan's physical appearance showed her as a very modest woman. When Wang Lung sees her, he stares at O-lan seeing that, "plain though her face was and rough the skin upon her hands the flesh of her big body was soft and untouched . . . her body was beautiful, spare, and big boned yet rounded and soft" (26). From her physical qualities, it is clear that O-lan isn't a spoiled woman who sits around all day, but a hard worker. She is described as an ugly, flat-footed, stolid-faced woman. Many times, Wang Lung secretly wishes that O-lan didn't have such big feet. During the time of this book, women's feet were bound so they would be smaller. O-lan had big feet because they were never bound. This was another aspect of Chinese life that seemed designed to make women suffer was the practice of altering the feet of girls so they could barely walk. The Chinese custom of foot binding was meant to please men esthetically and to enhance a man's status by showing he was wealthy enough for his wife or concubine not to work.
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Chinese Footbinding
1751 Words | 4 Pages
The ancient Chinese custom of footbinding caused severe life-long suffering for the Chinese women involved. When researching the subject of footbinding, one of the difficult things is finding factual knowledge written before the 20th century. Most of the historical data has been gathered from writings, drawings and photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries. Additionally, the research indicates that the historical documentation was mainly from missionary accounts and literature from various anti-footbinding societies. These groups had a bias because of their opposing viewpoints. The first documented reference to footbinding was from the Southern Tang Dynasty in Nanjing (Vento 1).
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Analysis Of The Six Records Of A Floating Life
1383 Words | 3 Pages
However, this “ladder of success” was not as simple as it seemed. First of all, the class of both families will be a huge barrier. We are not even talking about freedom to love here, there is no such thing in late imperial China. Although we can’t say that love doesn’t exist even in such systems, such as Shen Fu and Chen Yun, but most marriages are not about love. Rather, it was about exchange of values. For example, when two families want to become business partners, the parents of the family will have their son and daughter married, so the two families will have closer bonding which made the business much easier. In this sense, we can see that the couple is simply a tool. In the same sense, the families which has not much “values” can only have marriages with the same class of families. Meaning for a women to climb up the ladder of success is not quite possible as the class of her family is a huge deciding factor for marriage in the
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Socially Constructed Childhood
2173 Words | 5 Pages
Also in China girls are made to bind there feet up at an early age so
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Wild Swans Analysis
1456 Words | 3 Pages
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China begins with author Jung Chang’s grandmother, who was born in 1909 with the name Yu-fang. In traditional Chinese culture, for any hopes of marriage, the mother must first bind her daughter’s feet. Though a long and painful process, foot binding was considered a beautiful trait in Chinese men’s eyes. By the age of two, Yu-Fang’s feet were bounded and were referred to as “Lotus Feet”. Having one’s feet bounded during this time period, made it difficult for a woman to walk, and spent their life in pain due to the broken arch and constant bending of the toes. Her father, Yang, was determined to have his daughter’s social status...
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The American Woman Vs. the Chinese Woman
907 Words | 2 Pages
In early America, women in the Paleolithic Era were looked upon as life's sustenance. They provided life by giving birth and were respected for that. They were valued greatly as well, and they were considered too delicate and worth too much to allow to do any type of manual labor. There was a great respect for the American women in this time period, and in China it was quite the opposite. In the story "The Lady Knight Errant," the subject of birthing children comes up. In China having an heir to carry on the name was a very important, and it was necessary for the men who wanted to be considered to be a man of honor and dignity. In order for Ku, who was an unmarried man, to have an heir, the lady knight errant chose to have a love affair with him, and he very much ap...
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Primary Source Analysis: The Travels Of Marco Polo
893 Words | 2 Pages
Many scholars believe his accounts of the city are exaggerated and Marco Polo even states himself “that it is not easy to even put it in writing.” (317). Furthermore his accounts of the women in China seem to be exaggerated as well as missing some information of the society: “These women are extremely accomplished in the arts of allurement, and readily adapt their conversation to all sorts of persons, insomuch that strangers who have once tasted their attractions seems to get bewitched, and are so taken with their blandishments and their fascinating ways that they never seem to get these out of their heads.” (317). While women in China experienced fewer restraints, there were still many patriarchal rules put in place that made women subordinate to men. The act of foot-binding was one such rule which placed an emphasis on “small size, frailty, and deference and served to keep women restricted to the ‘inner quarters’ (331). For reasons unknown, Marco Polo leaves this excruciating detail out of his tales completely, leaving some scholars to question whether he really did make it to
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Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Chang
1947 Words | 4 Pages
A need for both socialization and a sense of identity forge tight community bonds that many maintain throughout their life. Their life may center on religion, race, or even the socioeconomic class to which they belong. Communities reflect these aspects by grouping together individuals in similar situations and beliefs. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s Bound Feet & Western Dress expresses the importance of tradition and culture in community identification by detailing the life of the conventional Chang Yu-i and her relationship with a westernized Hsü Chih-mo. Susanna Kaysen depicts her personal struggles with finding the community that she belongs to in Girl, Interrupted. Both Yu-i and Kaysen learn that community is not assigned, rather it is chosen by a self motivated individual wanting inclusion. Community is formed from a group of people with similar goals and beliefs who obtain identity and strength in numbers. The member is forever bound to his or her community thus preserving the ideals in association which makes finding a new identity is impossible. The effect a community has on its constituents is profound in that it governs the way one looks at the world.
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The Song Dynasty
786 Words | 2 Pages
... Song times was sometimes blamed on Neo-Confucianism. Foot-binding also began during the Song Dynasty. This is the practice of binding the feet of girls with long strips of cloth to keep them from growing large. Moms wanted them to be judged more beautiful.
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No Name Women
1007 Words | 3 Pages
Kingston uses the story of her aunt to show the gender roles in China. Women had to take and respect gender roles that they were given. Women roles they had to follow were getting married, obey men, be a mother, and provide food. Women had to get married. Kingston states, “When the family found a young man in the next village to be her husband…she would be the first wife, an advantage secure now” (623). This quote shows how women had to get married, which is a role women in China had to follow. Moreover, marriage is a very important step in women lives. The marriage of a couple in the village where Kingston’s aunt lived was very important because any thing an individual would do would affect the village and create social disorder. Men dominated women physically and mentally. In paragraph eighteen, “they both gav...
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The Three Types Of Punishment In Ancient China
713 Words | 2 Pages
The feature of Chinese corporal punishment was torture which causes physical injury or amputation in criminals, and the characteristics of the penalty presented gradually through time. Corporal punishment has been China since BC 2000 ago, but the maturation period were in the Zhou dynasty (BC1046-BC249). There were four kinds of corporal punishment: “Mo” which is lettering on offenders’ body, “Yi” which is cut off the criminal’s nose, “Fei” which is to cut off the foot of lawbreakers, and finally, “Gong” which is castrate the criminals. Those penalties were aiming to create an amputation, humiliation and suffering on the wrongdoers (Fu,1993,p.109). Nevertheless, those penalties were abrogated after the Nan-bei dynasty (AD420-AD589), and the main corporal punishment became physical injury, such as flogging. Even though the punishment still intend to humiliate and torture the convict, it is less bloody and unrecoverable.
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Chinese Footbinding In Ancient China

Dorothy Ko's Article: The Body As Banning In Seventeenth-Century China

Analysis of Nigel Cawthrone´s Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China

Bound Feet And Western Dress

The Role Of Women In Premodern China

Good Earth Olan