In the earlier ages, when the view of the enthusiast was virtually unopposed, footbinding had its proud proponents. There were Peking families, for example, who looked upon it as a matter for rejoicing. At the start of binding, congratulatory visits were made by women who were either close relatives or intimate friends. They would pay a formal call to put the parents’ minds at ease by praising the form of the child’s foot.
Well-known essays praising footbinding were composed two or three hundred years ago by an aristocrat who wrote under the name of Fang Hsun, probably an alias. This self-styled “Doctor of the Fragrant Lotus,” lyric in his exaltation, listed the necessary aesthetic components of the praiseworthy tiny foot, added critical comments, and analyzed drinking games in which shoes played a principal role. Fang Hsun ostensibly imitated the thematic arrangement of a botanical work called Qualities of Plum Blossoms; the result was “Classification of the Qualities of Fragrant Lotuses,” the essay for which he is best known.
Fang Hsun enumerated fifty-eight varieties of the human lotus, including feet which were properly bound and gloriously favored as well as those which were either ugly or shameful looking. Lotus petal, new moon, harmonious bow, bamboo shoot, and water chestnut were the euphonious names given to principal styles. The three precious qualities were plumpness, softness, and fineness, for a thin foot cooled the ardor of the onlooker, too much strength detracted from its femininity, and the common look gave it a liability which no medicine could cure. Plumpness implied voluptuous beauty, softness an enticing skin texture, and fineness a mystic elegance. The plump and the soft might be appreciated visually, but the quality of fineness had to be grasped through spiritual understanding.
Fang Hsun did not include diagrams in the monograph, but some idea of foot contour may be derived from the way in which he described dominant types. He stated that the Lotus Petal on All Sides was perfectly narrow and arched, three to four inches long. The Lotus with Silk Linen Sides was correctly bound but about an inch longer, preventing the wearing of sharply pointed shoes. The Long Hairpin Lotus, while shaped like a bamboo shoot, was too long and thin to satisfy critical aesthetic standards. The Buddha’s Head Lotus had a very full instep, hunched like the knot on the top of the head of Sakyamuni. “Two-headed lotus petals” depicted the feet of a woman who walked pigeon-toed, toes turned in like the Chinese numeral eight. Toes pointing outwards were called “double flowers,” calloused heels were euphoniously termed “interwined hearts,” and the body bent forward in an effort to walk was a “bound branch lotus.” Morning Lotus walked on her heels, with the big toe pointed upwards, because the bent-under toes were too painful to press down upon. Tibetan Lotus, symbolized as a large flower, constithe foot which was first bound but then let out. This was inferior but still preferable to the Lotus of the Jade Well, referring to a natural foot disguised by wearing a pointed sandal.
Fang Hsun set forth nine gradations of excellence, comparing them to the nine official ranks. Divine Quality (A1) was neither plump nor slender but as perfect in size as the ancient beauty Hsi Shih, who looked superlative in every posture. Wondrous Quality (A2) was weak and slender, like a willow branch leaning for support and bending in the breeze. Immortal Quality (A3) was straight-boned, independent, and not of the common herd. She was like one who lived in the mountains and partook of natural foods, liable to run away if you angrily tried to seize her. The other six grades were marred by imperfections. Precious Article (B1) was as conspicuous and brilliant as a peacock, but the back of her foot was too wide and dis-propovtioned. Pure Article (B2), too long and thin, looked like the neck of a goose with outstretched throat crying aloud or a duck with its neck elongated in flight. Seductive Article (B3) was fleshy and short, relatively wide and round. Frailty was the mark of femininity, but a woman with this foot shape could easily withstand a blowing wind. Excessive Article (C1) was narrow but not smooth, slender but insufficiently pointed, reminding the beholder of a landscape painting with one strong rock but crumbling clouds and precipices. Ordinary Article (C2) was plump and almost common, looking like one so troubled at heart that she remained hunched over. False Article (C3) had such a large heel that she gave the impression of a climbing monkey. Even though from a good family, she moved in a way which gave the onlooker an uncomfortable feeling.
Regardless of how the foot varied, it looked best under the following circumstances: when placed in the palm of a man’s hand; perched on a swing; revealed under the bedcovers; silhouetted by a lantern; leaving an imprint in the snow; glimpsed through a screen, partition, or bamboo fence. There were four taboos to be observed:
1. Don’t walk with your toes pointed upwards.
2. Don’t stand with your heels seemingly suspended in mid-air.
3. Don’t move your skirt when sitting.
4. Don’t move your feet when lying down.
Fang Hsun stated that women were ashamed to hear whispered criticisms behind their backs about having large feet. If the groom said on the wedding night that her feet were “really large,” the mortified bride dared not show her face. A day before the wedding, a line in a congratulatory couplet once referred to the bride’s large feet as weighing at least eight catties (a Chinese weight in this context equal to about twelve pounds). If one criticized servants for having natural feet in a large-footed woman’s presence, the latter felt embarrassed by the implications of the remark. There was a set of derisive terms applied to the large-footed. The girl might be ridiculed for having carp or herring feet or be called a Large-Footed Demon, and her shoes might be referred to as Crow-like Boats. A girl whose feet were poorly bound might be satirized as “green ginger in front, a goose egg in back.” Folk ditties and poems condemned the large-footed:
Fang Hsun felt that the human lotus was superior to the loveliest flower, for it understood human speech, persevered in overcoming pain, and resisted seasonal change. The tiny foot was comparable in quality and perseverence to the plum blossom, bamboo, and pine, and the poems in praise of it were legion: