From Aesthetics to Essentiality: Expansion of Footbinding Under the Sung
The Sung dynasty (960-1278) provides examples of some of the highest peaks in Chinese
economy, cosmopolitan living and the arts. Unfortunately, many hallmarks of heightened
civilization under the Sung came about due to the demographic and social pressures placed on
China by invading Mongols and their relentless drive for domination. Pressed by the invading
‘barbarian’ Mongols, the seat of Chinese power and civilization shifted from the North to the
South, culminating in the Southern Sung period (1126-1278).
This geographical shift in power and resultant migration of hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, caused dynamic shifts in commerce, urban life, recreation and wealth. Each of these
had sociological and cultural implications. The rise of the official scholar also occurred during
the Sung. This new elite corps was much less masculine than their aristocratic predecessors, the
T’ang. As mentioned previously, this feminization of the Chinese male, the conservative
backlash from the influence of powerful T’ang females and the threat of barbarian invasion
resulting in a rethinking of the way the Sung maintained order, hierarchy and balance both within
the family and the society.
The growing practice of footbinding, having only limited and mostly artistic application
at the beginning of the Sung, was able to become a powerful symbol of Chinese high culture and
womanly virtue while at the same time representing the lewdness and excess of female sexuality.
As Robert Blake (1994) mentions, footbinding became much more than “simply a fashion
marking the leisured life of ‘upper-class’ women.” It is this development of the practice into a
multifaceted and culturally grounded notion that created a foundation of resilience and flexibility
the people, both commoners and elite alike, would draw on to maintain its use into the 20th
century.
As the masculinity of the Chinese male gave way to the “elegant, bookish and
contemplative” literati (Ebry, 1993), these new intellectuals began to look back at what caused
the downfall of the T’ang. Many looked toward the elevated position T’ang women had reached;
it was the T’ang that had supplied the only female emperor in Chinese history, Empress Wu.
Although her reign was more than adequate compared to other emperors, her manipulation of
royal succession and the trail of influential and troublesome females that followed her only made
Sung intellections surer of the negative impact that these “ambitious and unscrupulous women”
(Twitchett, 1994) effected on society and dynastic security.
The Empress Wei again influenced the status of a sitting emperor. After failing to have
Chung-tsung permanently removed from the throne, Wei attempted to establish her daughter,
An-lo, as heir-apparent and when these attempts failed, murdered Chung-tsung and established a
new “dynasty.” The new dynasty lasted two weeks. Both Wei and An-lo were killed and the
throne returned to Jui-tsung, the once dethroned younger brother of the murdered Chung-tsung
(Twitchett, 1994).
Royal princesses also saw a significant rise in power during the T’ang. During the reign
of Chung-tsu, administrative households were allotted to princesses in addition to princes, with
T’ia-ping receiving a true fief entitlement of 10,000 households. T’ia-ping attempted to take
advantage of this power. In 713, she planned a conspiracy to kill Li Lung Chi. Li Lung Chi
became aware of the plot, however, and ordered T’ai-ping to commit suicide (Twitchett, 1994).
Royals were not the only females to benefit from increased, albeit still limited,
entitlements. Examples of powerful aristocratic women, religious interpretations of male and
female roles and a less restrictive legal code created opportunities for even the common T’ang
woman. Additionally, the T’ang viewpoint of Taoism was “distinctively ambivalent about
gender” and in some respects “challenged both Chinese family and state” (Cahill, 2003). The
resultant religious tolerance of women’s actions, relaxed legal restrictions, and powerful royal
females highlighted both the nature of late T’ang society and the fears of the conservative and
revisionist Sung.
As the Sung male became more ‘feminine’ and the dynasty faced military defeats at the
hands of the militaristic barbarians, there was little room in the fragile male psyche for powerful
women. Handlin (1975) argues that “the increase in footbinding and cults of chastity [in the
Sung] can be seen as a reaction against aggressive nature of women as much as a sign of growing
oppression.” Whether backlash or unbridled oppression, Sung intellectuals effectively promoted
initiatives to limit women’s status outside of the inner quarters. This was done through avenues
believed to be reinforcements of ‘traditional’ Chinese ideals. Family instructions were issued in
large numbers to provide directions for members on how to behave and Neo-Confucian
teachings taught the need for renewed hierarchy and order. Footbinding, already increasing in
popularity and entrenching itself in Chinese thought, easily shifted from a visually and sexually
pleasing novelty to a practice that encompassed family values, womanly virtue, Neo-Confucian
order and cultural identity.
The transition from T’ang to Sung was also accompanied by a shift in family makeup.
The extended and aristocratic model that existed in the T’ang gave way to the rise of the ‘lineage
family’ of which two general types existed. The first type was made up of families which lived
together and shared property, passing it on from generation to generation. The other example was
families in which smaller families were created by sons dividing property and establishing
smaller residences nearby, in essence creating a type of ‘corporate family.’ Although this second
form was practiced, it was not always socially or politically acceptable; in 968 the Northern Sung
made such division by sons punishable by death (Zang, 2003).
In this lineage family, the already pivotal role of the patriarch required further
strengthening. As families began living in closer proximity, patriarchs needed to provide
direction to the growing number of family members under their direct control. Out of this need
to regular family member’s actions came the creation and expansion of family instructions.
Perhaps more influential at the personal level than well-known Neo-Confucian texts or
governmental decrees, these family instructions had dramatic effects on female freedoms and
expected behavior. Some of these effects included: (1) the renewed priority of filial behavior,
(2) increasing need for separation of male and female, (3) a focus on the duties expected of
females in the inner quarters, (4) reduction of female rights in terms of property and inheritance
and (5) directions involving conjugal relations. An example of how impacting family
instructions could be is seen in the Zheng Family Instructions. Of the 168 total stipulations in
the instructions, 77 were related to the correct behavior of women (Zang, 2003).
Over time, these types of instructions played a more prominent, and invasive, role in rural
areas. Although family instructions may have been the tools of implementation of NeoConfucian values at the local and family levels, they generally drew upon fundamentals laid out
in larger and widely disseminated texts and government decrees. Aiding the distribution of ideas
were bureaucratic and societal factors. The rise of merchant wealth and the scholar-official
class created a new population of elites. These new elites championed Neo-Confucianism and
accepted its tenants as fundamental aspects of not only Chinese society but as guidelines for
proper behavior of elite families. Many rural sons left the countryside and went to the city for
the examinations in hopes of improving both theirs’ as well as their family’s lot.
Despite their level of success, those who returned did so with a new perspective of both
family dynamics and women. Now versed on Neo-Confucian principles and having been
exposed to examples of elite metropolitan families, these men sought to incorporate what they
had learned into their rural families. Their ‘education’ had included much more that texts and
principled actions of city elites, however. Many visited houses of prostitution and enjoyed the
entertainment of courtesans, again adding another ‘perspective’ to their views toward women
and their place as not only family members but as items of objectification and consumption.
This reexamination of women’s roles in the family (and as an extension, society) during
the Sung was driven by the same factors forcing changes in politics and the greater Chinese
society. Issues of crisis in Chinese masculinity, economic growth and opportunities,
demographic shifts, and the rise of Neo-Confucianism all impacted Chinese women regardless of
status. In each case, footbinding, having grown beyond simple entertainment, provided ways for
Chinese women, and men, to address these changes.
Barbarian invasions and loss of lands exposed cracks in the foundations of Chinese
invincibility and superiority. The ‘feminization’ of Chinese elites via the promotion of the
official-scholar as the model male only added to an increasing physical and military frailty.
Unable to control the comparisons between themselves and the militaristic invaders, Chinese
males defined their masculinity in contrast to their women. In doing so, women were forced to
react and adapt to cultural and social pressures to become even more demure, fragile and needy;
footbinding provided the answer. By submitting to bound feet, “everything about a woman’s
physical being” was changed (Ebry, 1993). Severely limited mobility and increased weakness
made the elegant and composed males seem more active and energetic. Additionally, the
resultant confinement to the inner quarters created a distinction between male and female by
making the woman “invisible” to the public eye (Ebry, 1993). In these ways, footbinding created
the counterbalance to the ‘new’ Chinese male, maintaining the correct order and hierarchy
necessary for societal stability.
In addition to the psycho-somatic aspects of footbinding on the concepts of yin and yang,
Chinese notions of the aesthetic beauty of the bound foot persisted and by the end of the Sung,
was “an essential condition to be considered beautiful” (Chang, 2001). This identification of
footbinding with Chinese beauty also complemented the scholar’s learning such that the ideal
Neo-Confucian couple would be a scholar-official and his footbound wife (Ebry, 1993). By the
last century of the Sung, the practice had become so commonplace and so strongly tied to beauty
that in many cases the mechanics of footbinding and maintenance of the feet were considered
cosmetic issues. In the Essentials of Domestic Living (ca. 1260-1294), footbinding instructions
were listed alongside face powder fragrances and pimple treatments (Ko, 2005).
Footbinding’s response to the shift in Chinese masculinity and barbarian invasion was not
limited to ideas of beauty and contrast to masculinity, however. By the late Sung, the power and
pervasiveness of the practice into Chinese thought can be seen in discussions to use it as a
weapon. The idea was that by promoting footbinding to the Northern barbarians, two results
would occur. First, they would see the propriety and superiority of Chinese culture. Secondly,
and somewhat paradoxical, if footbinding became commonplace among the barbarians, their
military leaders would become “deluded by such women” and would “lose their cruel and harsh
natures” (Chang, 2001). This slightly veiled indictment of footbinding’s impact on the
productivity and judgment of Chinese males also showed how deep it had burrowed itself into
Chinese identity. It had become so powerful that it could be both the example of Chinese
superiority and an instrument to promote societal timidity at the same time.
As a result of the barbarian invasions, China underwent dramatic and lasting population
shifts. From 700 to 1100 the population of China doubled and shifted drastically to the South
(Ebry, 1993). The capital of the southern Sung, Hangchow, grew to be the largest and richest
city in the world by 1275, as well as home to over one million inhabitants. In this transition, the
“uncouth, warlike, rather stiff and hierarchical society,” gave way to one that was “lively,
mercantile, pleasure seeking and corrupt” (Gernet, 1962). This description summarized the
economic boom created by increased agricultural and commercial trade made possible by better
land and the use of the South’s vast waterways while at the same time highlights the increase in
vice, corruption and destitution that lay beneath the shiny veneer of prosperity (Gernet, 1962).
As more people moved into the cities, the need for entertainment grew as well.
Competing with courtesans and prostitutes, mothers saw the importance of maintaining their
husband’s eye. Hoping for more for their daughters, they promoted footbinding to keep their
children competitive for good marriages and against concubines once married (Ebry, 1993).
Footbinding’s origins lay in the aesthetic aspects it created for dancers but during the Sung
became strong marks of beauty not for its usefulness in society but as markers of class and
virtue. Through the Sung, the bindings grew tighter-to the point they no longer offered
usefulness in dance but became debilitating. In this debilitation, however, the hobbled feet
marked a family that could afford to cripple its daughters and daughter’s that had the fortitude to
follow their parent’s and society’s model of virtue regardless of the pain.
Footbinding had its place for more modest families as well. As a market for women as
commodities was created and the need grew as cities expanded in size, daughters began to be
looked as not only for their usefulness in marriage or as a labor force but as a product for sale.
Capable of bringing instant wealth to a common family, the sale of a beautiful (let us not forget
the role of footbinding in definitions of beauty) daughter could sustain a family or provide the
revenue necessary to prepare a son for entrance into the scholar-official class. In this manner,
just as in the elite classes, footbinding became a “product of womanly labor” (Chang, 2001).
This ‘labor’ was practiced throughout the class structure of Sung China.
The expansion of footbinding mirrored and in many cases provided support for the
dynamic nature of Chinese society as it existed in the Sung dynasty. To some it was a means of
promoting Chinese identity in contrast to barbarians. If not in contrast to barbarian cultures,
footbinding provided an avenue to create a much more ‘feminine’ female to balance the less
‘masculine’ Sung male. The practice also became identified with family status and as the elite
class grew, a footbound wife or daughter highlighted a family’s new elevated status. Finally, for
families hoping to rise in standing, the commodity of a daughter offered an economic tool for
advancement. It is this very adaptability, allowed by the identification of the practice as a
distinctively Chinese creation, that promoted its spread throughout all level of Sung society.
Once entrenched, footbinding came to be a symbol of China, for good or bad, for next six
centuries.