Three-inch Golden Lotus

     Whenever we recall the lines, "How much sorrow can one have? It's like a river of spring water flowing eastward," we easily think of one person: Li Yu, the last ruler of the Later Tang Dynasty. People may only know him as a poet and a ruler who lost his kingdom, but they may not know the "three-inch golden lotus" phenomenon that arose because of him.

    Of course, some say that the concept of women's bound feet already existed in the Warring States or Shang Dynasty. However, perhaps the name "three-inch golden lotus" originated from one of his dancers, or perhaps his concubines! Between 969 and 975 AD, a dancer or concubine of Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty ingeniously bound her feet into crescent shapes with silk and danced on golden lotus flowers to please the emperor.

    It was this ingenuity, this act of pleasing the emperor, that laid the foundation for the distorted aesthetic standards of men for over a thousand years. When the royal family and nobility catered to this ingenious way of pleasing the emperor, and when this distorted aesthetic standard spread to the common people and became widely known... Perhaps Li Yu, as a poet, or perhaps as a deposed ruler, will bear the infamy of eternity.

    Records show that girls in rural areas began binding their feet at the age of four or five, ensuring their feet were no more than three inches long by adulthood—this was the much-admired "three-inch golden lotus." So how did this "three-inch golden lotus" come about? I will explain briefly below. It involved using force to dislocate or fracture the metatarsal bones of young girls' feet, pressing them down to the soles of their feet and tightly binding them with layers of cloth. Hence the saying, "A pair of small feet, a jar of tears."

    Why did women have to have small feet? Because at that time, small feet were considered an important aspect of "feminine beauty." As a girl, even if you were beautiful and had a good figure, if you had "natural feet" (presumably naturally occurring feet) or your feet weren't bound small enough, you would be ridiculed and unable to marry. This is a product of a patriarchal society, embodying the ideas of male superiority and female inferiority, and male strength and female weakness. It is a kind of "beauty" that violates nature and health, built on the foundation of physical abuse of women; it is not only an extreme distortion and perversion of beauty. Because of bound feet, women faced inconvenience in labor and social interaction, confining them to the home. Thus, the traditional roles of "men work outside the home, women work inside the home" became logical. Even if women had a thousand grievances, they were powerless to change them.

    For men, bound feet satisfied certain needs, as the appearance of a woman with small feet gave men a sense of superiority, like a "willow swaying in the wind." Some also say that if a woman's feet are very small, the muscles in her thighs, especially her hips, are very tight when she walks. Therefore, her legs are very tense when she walks, and her buttocks... It's very sexy when it's raised high. In short, men accepted this improvement in women, and it became widespread. When this became a characteristic possessed by all women, perhaps men's vanity was unprecedentedly satisfied.

    Records show that from the Song Dynasty onwards, a game of "passing wine" became popular in banquets in many brothels, highlighting the prostitutes' bound feet and their shoes from beginning to end. Clients would pass wine cups inside the prostitutes' shoes to drink. Until the early 20th century, some men still enjoyed participating in this "passing wine" game and were excited about the opportunity to drink from the cups inside the prostitutes' bound feet. This was a result of a distorted male aesthetic, a fetish born from bound feet, a perversion of sexual arousal aroused by the mutilated small feet of women.

    However, as history receded, perhaps due to cultural... The arrival of the Ming Dynasty, still driven by male tastes, and with the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, the practice of foot binding, which had lasted for over a thousand years, came to an end. In the late 19th century, images of Chinese women's bound feet began appearing at various Western expositions, displayed alongside images of opium smoking and beheadings, as a cultural symbol of a barbaric and ignorant nation. Meanwhile, domestically, with the rise of revolutionary sentiment, society began to undergo significant changes regarding foot binding. Perhaps these bound feet, created for men, hindered China's modernization process, becoming a stumbling block to revolution and a laughingstock of the world.

    Thus, a movement forcing women to "unbind their feet" (meaning young girls were forbidden from binding their feet, and those who already had them were forbidden from binding them again) unfolded vigorously throughout the country. At that time, Xi'an strictly prohibited women with bound feet from entering public places; Yantai restricted women with bound feet from walking on the streets. In Kaifeng, police even stripped women of their foot bindings in the street (essentially displaying them naked); in Zhangzhou, if a woman with bound feet went out, her feet would be whipped; in Shanxi, Yan Xishan, in pursuit of political achievements, mobilized the police force, sending foot-binding inspectors to check foot bindings door-to-door, fining those who refused to unbind their feet. Thus, a harsh and humiliating approach was employed by politicians.

    This was a biased act from extreme left to extreme right, an abandonment following a shift in male aesthetics, because women bore a price they shouldn't have to bear. In a patriarchal society, they had no choice but to use their modified "beauty" to conform to a society oriented towards male values. When an old woman with bound feet said to the inspector, "A twisted dough stick has burst open, it's hardened. You see it's twisted, twisted into a pretzel shape, can you turn it back into the soft dough it was before? Obviously, there's no way," this seemingly simple statement contained a profound truth.

    "Three-inch golden lotuses" should perhaps only have been the standard for dancing girls enjoyed by royalty and nobility, or perhaps extended to geishas, ​​but never become the aesthetic standard of society as a whole. Unfortunately, it became a reality, and as it neared its end, men, as the societal judge, should not callously insult, ridicule, or demean them.

    They became this way because of us men. We cannot describe ourselves as "wanting to be a prostitute while also wanting to maintain a virtuous image." As a remnant of feudalism, we should thoroughly eradicate its poisonous influence on women. However... We cannot adopt a blanket approach, starting with young girls and abolishing foot binding altogether. Those whose feet have just been bound can be saved. But for those whose feet are already bound, like pretzel-shaped twists, let them live out the rest of their lives with this old scar. Perhaps this is the attitude we should have towards the present, leaving behind yesterday; perhaps this is the courage we should have when facing our mistakes!

    The three-inch golden lotus has become a dream of yesterday. The three-inch golden lotus has also become a scar in our hearts. Perhaps only after women are completely liberated, perhaps only after a society with gender equality and aesthetic standards is established, will the nightmare of the three-inch golden lotus disappear!