Slow—a girl trying to walk after her feet have first been bound.
Inevitable—the bride trying to force small shoes on her big feet to avoid being criticized by the groom.
Analogies—the small foot which, like silver money, is universally liked. The large foot in a high heel, making a noise like a croaking frog.
To be avoided—tapping one’s foot on the ground to keep time with music; lifting one’s legs in order to kick a ball.
Slight displeasure—the mother who loves her daughters but still has to bind their feet.
Bothersome—new shoes chewed by a rat.
Sarcasm—damning a large-footed woman with faint praise by saying that her lower extremities are as good looking as those of the natural-footed goddess Kuanyin.
Unhappy—the wearer of new shoes who inadvertently steps in dog faeces.
Can’t bear to hear—the cries of a young girl as her feet are bound for the first time.
Wasted childhood—she was not diligent in footbinding as a child and now, because no one wants her large feet, she has to marry a poor man and go through life wearing straw shoes and cheap stockings.
Unbearable—painful corns; smelling the awful odor when the binding is suddenly removed.
Ludicrous—the large-footed woman who criticizes a tiny-footed lady for having bound her feet excessively in order to attract the opposite sex.
Inner thoughts—wondering who left the small footprint by the side of the road.
Befuddled—the big-footed lady who wants white flowers painted on her shoes, since these will accentuate the largeness of her feet.
My mad contemporaries—who adopt the Manchu style of natural feet through fear of footbinding.
False accusation—to revile an ugly woman who, nevertheless, has tiny feet.
Inevitable impoverishment—one who wastes an entire piece of cloth merely to make the sides for a pair of tiny shoes; one who makes great noise on the ground with the heel of her foot.
Inevitable wealth—one whose shoes still display freshly embossed flowers even after the soles have been worn out.
Capable—the woman who makes her own shoes and stockings, producing new and elegant styles.
Improper—washing her feet in the same basin where she has washed her face.
Acting like a servant—putting shoes and stockings away in front of others.
Easy to get—a. prostitute’s shoes.
Unattractive—the moving buttocks of one with large feet.
Annoying—canceling an appointment because your feet suddenly hurt; about to wash your feet, when a distant guest arrives.
Untrustworthy—you give shoes away as a love token, but the lover displays them as proof of your love and you hear about it from others.
Pitiful—a beauty with large feet.
Difficulties—descending a steep slope in high heels; wearing tiny shoes when you suffer from painful corns.
Too late—to start binding when you’re old enough to wed.
Incongruous—secretly pleased at hearing someone refer to you as Madam Large Feet.
Can’t stop—anytime during the binding process.
Unendurable—itching between the toes; not being allowed to cry out when the foot is first bound.
Meaningless—to pay a call on a large-footed prostitute.
Disagreeable—stepping on a frog with your embroidered shoes during a heavy rain.
Silent endurance—being criticized by a big-footed peasant mother-in-law because of your slow tiny-footed walk.
Coercion—the servant who has to rub her mistress’s foot to make it more comfortable; the prostitute who, though suffering from corns, has to accompany an important guest in roaming about the mountains.
Distressing—to see someone with small feet having to pound with a pestle or thresh the rice.
Can’t trust—the women of Suchow and Yangchow who become prostitutes at sixteen, go to Peking and other northern areas, earn money, and return home to marry in their twenties. The literal phrase is “Suchow face, Yangchow feet,” implying that they are too beautiful to be trusted. [Suchow women were renowned for facial beauty, Yangchow women for their tiny bound-feet.]
Especially pleasant—to marry a woman whom you know through hearsay is a beauty, first remove her veil, and later place her tiny feet in your hands.
Motherly encouragement—to the daughter who complains about having her feet bound.
Speechless—trying to remove a corn but piercing it with a needle instead; losing one’s shoes in a crowd; the priest who secretly collects tiny embroidered shoes, only to discover that someone has stolen his collection.
To be discarded—corns; the water in which you wash your feet; the bindings.
The bindings were generally discarded, but a Hunanese physician once allegedly used them to cure illnesses, with wondrous effect. If the sickness was brought about by the presence of evil spirits, relief was obtained by wrapping the bindings of young girls around the patient’s waist. For the treatment of cholera, the doctor stirred boiling water with the bowed sole from an old shoe of a footbound young girl until the water thickened. The patient then drank the water as a palliative. Fevers were reduced by placing the old shoe of a footbound young girl on the patient’s navel. As the shoe heated up, it was replaced by another one, causing the temperature gradually to subside. To restore consciousness, a young girl’s tiny feet were washed in boiled water which had slightly cooled. The patient was made to drink this, and immediately came to his senses. The remedy for relieving extremely sore throats consisted of tiny-foot toenails, flat spiders, lamp wick ashes, frankincense, cow bezoar, and elephant tusks, ground together in prescribed amounts. Sufferers from malaria, blurred vision, or dizziness could get immediate relief by smelling the tiny foot, but the cure was ineffective if the foot was either old or lacked the addition of alum.
There were many drinking games during the Yuan and later dynasties in which tiny shoes figured prominently in the overall festivities. This type of drinking probably originated in the Sung and was not done directly from the shoe but from a cup placed in it, sometimes called the Cup of the Golden Lotus. One story was told of a Yuan official who enjoyed removing a prostitute’s tiny shoe to drink from it in this way. The official, Yang T’ieh-ai, so infuriated a meticulous friend that the latter left in disgust whenever Yang drank from a shoe, feeling that the habit was extremely unsanitary. Until the early twentieth century, Chinese men might still be excited by the chance to drink out of a wine cup placed in a courtesan’s tiny shoe. The Cup of the Golden Lotus habitue revered Yang T’ieh-ai as the patron saint of tiny-shoe inebriation.
We are indebted to Fang Hsun for detailed descriptions of how drinking parties were conducted. At one banquet, pretty prostitutes spurred on the drinking by playing a game in which small fruits and seeds were tossed into a tiny shoe, delighting both winners and losers. The shoe was first passed around from hand to hand and was widely admired. It was compared to a mythical raft which revolved like the moon and was so referred to in play.
The Raft was played according to a fixed set of rules. The prostitute with the prettiest and tiniest feet had both of her shoes removed. A wine cup was placed in one shoe, while the other shoe was placed in a basin. The shoeless prostitute became Recording Secretary. It was her duty to hobble about, basin in hand, before each guest in turn and hold the basin about one and a half feet away. The guests took lotus seeds, red beans, or similar objects from a bamboo box, held them parallel with the basin and tried to throw them into the shoe. The tosses were made by grasping the seeds or beans with the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger. Each person made five tosses and, after all had taken turns, the Secretary prescribed drinking penalties for those who had gotten the fewest throws into the shoe.