When did the three-inch golden lotus originate?

According to folklore and historical records, the origin of "three-inch golden lotus" has the following five statements:

In the era of Confucius (55 BC/kloc-0 BC/-479 BC), small feet were regarded as one of the standards of beauty. According to legend, when Qin Shihuang (22 BC1year) chose beautiful women, women's feet were also listed as one of the criteria for beautiful women. Of course, the feet at that time were generally natural, not tangled. But from this, little feet have become one of the conditions for evaluating women in China men's minds. For more than two thousand years, even today, there is still the idea that women's feet are petite and beautiful. ) This is one.

According to Qi Dong's vigorous southern history, Dong Qi's vigorous southern department (reigned in 498 -500 AD) ordered ladies-in-waiting to cut lotus flowers with gold foil and stick them on the ground, and then let Pan Fei walk on them, charming step by step, like many golden lotus flowers blooming along the way. The so-called "lotus flowers are born step by step". Later, women called women's feet "golden lotus". Then, "Jin Ping Mei" was extended to women's foot-binding shoes. There is not enough historical data to prove that "Jin Ping Mei" is related to women's feet at that time. However, due to the recurrence of this phenomenon, it is possible for court women to shorten the distance between "little feet" and "golden lotus" in language. Among the flowers, there is indeed the name of the golden lotus, also called "golden water lily" or "Jin Baihe". Therefore, women's foot-binding is also poetically called "Golden Water Lily" or "Jin Baihe". The second is.

Emperor Yang Di of Sui Dynasty (reigned from 604 to 6 17) was a dissolute emperor. Once, he wanted to swim the canal by boat, without a boatman, but wanted to choose a hundred beautiful women on both sides of the canal to pull the fiber for him. Wu Yueniang, the daughter of a blacksmith who lives by the canal, was chosen. In order to show her resistance, Wu Yueniang asked her father to make her a lotus knife three inches long and one inch wide, which is very small, unique and sharp. She wrapped the knife tightly under her feet with a small piece of cloth, and at the same time wrapped her feet as small as possible, and made a pair of shoes according to the wrapped feet. The sole of the shoe is engraved with a lotus flower. When you walk, you will print a lotus flower in one step, which is very beautiful. Emperor Yang Di liked it very much, and saw that Wu Yueniang was beautiful, so he called her nearby to watch her bind her feet. After Wu Yueniang and other courtiers around the emperor left, they slowly untied the foot-binding cloth, suddenly took out a lotus knife and stabbed the emperor Yang Di. Emperor Yang Di flashed and hurt his arm. Emperor immediately pulled Zhao to, knowing that he had been exposed, so he threw himself into the river. After Emperor Yang Di returned to the palace, he issued an imperial edict: "No matter how beautiful a woman is, she will not choose foot-binding." But since then, folk women have wrapped their feet in memory of Wu Yueniang. This statement is widely circulated among the people around the canal, just as China ate moon cakes to commemorate Qi Jiguang in the Ming Dynasty and zongzi to commemorate Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period (339-278 BC), which may be a new traditional folk custom. Third. The above legends are based on the oral arrangement of the elderly folk, and have been compiled into the book "China Customs".

After the Tang dynasty unified the whole country, the national strength reached its peak, politics, economy and culture developed rapidly, and the people were cheerful and pursued innovation. Costumes blended with foreign characteristics, forming a distinctive Tang suit. Tang clothes are flexible and practical, and the prohibition of laws is reduced, which belongs to the opening period of Chinese clothes. During this period, women formed the atmosphere of boots. However, from Kaiyuan to Tianbao, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (7 12-756 reigned) gradually became lazy and indulged in singing and dancing. In 744 (the third year of Tianbao), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty took his son Princess Yang Taizhen as his imperial concubine, loved him infinitely and led a dissolute and corrupt life. In 752 (the 11th year of Tianbao), Yang Guifei was appointed as prime minister again, which completely changed the policy of "appointing people on merit" in the Tang Taizong dynasty. The extravagance and extravagance of the nobles in the imperial court and palace intensified social contradictions and led to the abnormal atmosphere of the whole country. Since then, women in the ruling and opposition parties have gradually returned to the wide-sleeved robes in Qin and Han dynasties from wearing boots and trousers, while Yang Guifei has become the forerunner of pointed embroidered shoes. This is a historical retrogression, an epoch-making retrogression from women's liberation marked by boots to women's tragedy marked by feet. According to the literature, Yang Guifei wore foot-binding bow shoes before and after her death. Yi Shizhen wrote in the footnote of the article: "When Yang Guifei was given the gift of death by Emperor Tang Ming at Maweipo, a woman picked up her thin sandalwood-bottomed sparrow-headed shoes, which were only three or five inches long." Xu also wrote in the poem Feiyang Miao Dance: "Ling Bo walks with a small bow three inches." Du Mu (803-852 AD), a poet in the Tang Dynasty, also wrote in his poem that "the cymbal ruler is reduced by four points, and the delicate jade bamboo shoots are wrapped in light clouds." So the Tang Dynasty (6 18 ~907) also bound feet. He also said, "Today's shoes are worn by people who don't bind their feet. People who bind their feet make shoes with silk." Also as a card. This record also shows that the foot-binding shoes in the Tang Dynasty were made of silk. In addition, the female figures of Tang Tomb 1 No.2 and Bao Zhong Village in the western suburbs of Xi wear pointed shoes. Therefore, there is a saying of "small shoes and narrow clothes" in the poems that claim to be easy. This is the fourth one.

In China, it is generally acknowledged by historians that the "Three-inch Golden Lotus" originated in the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Five Dynasties (937-975 AD). Shoes are the foot decoration of clothes. Yiya said: "It is also a gift to wear shoes, so it is also a gift to decorate your feet." Before the Tang Dynasty, ladies of all ages used to wear the front ornaments of shoes, with high-head ornamentation such as Yuntou and Ruyi. Since the Five Dynasties, Li Houzhu has asked dancers to tie their feet with silk, making them slender and curved like crescent moons and bows, and dancing on a six-foot-high golden lotus platform, making them feel like fairy Ling Bo, hence the name "Golden Lotus". Since then, women inside and outside the palace have followed suit. And foot binding is beautiful, expensive, charming and elegant. Mr. Jane Bozan, a famous historian in China, thinks in the book "Outline of China History" that women's foot-binding in China began in the Five Dynasties. This is the fifth one.

The biggest difference between the above five kinds of "three-inch golden lotus" is the time of origin. But the biggest similarity between them is that they both originated from the court. This is also a symbol of the luxury of the highest ruling smelting class at that time.

Foot-binding doesn't start at three inches, and it has roughly gone through four stages: the first stage is to wrap the feet of an adult woman with cloth. The second stage is the foot binding in the origin period, when it was five inches or four inches. The third stage is the prosperous period of foot binding, from the Song Dynasty (960- 1279) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-191), when foot binding was only three inches, even two inches and six minutes, or two inches and four minutes. The fourth stage is 19 1 1 After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, foot binding gradually changed from three inches to four inches or more.