“What are you doing at this hour, like a devil with his tongue hanging out?”
“Afraid of disturbing your sleep, I refrained from moving about or making noise.”
“Stop your devil’s tongue and come over here!” He did as commanded, like a criminal before a judge or an official in the presence of an emperor.
“Merciful wife, let me wash your feet for you.”
“Get out of here, faceless one. Who asks you to wash for me?”
“Give me face, I beg of you.”
“Answer me this. What devil’s haunt did you frequent this evening?”
“My friends enticed me to drink. It was all their fault.”
“Well, I’ll give you the ‘face’ that you want and let you have another drink besides. Bring me a wine glass.” The husband brought a glass at once, as compliant as if he had been commanded to do so by a sage. The wife scooped a glass of water from the basin in which her feet were immersed:
“Empty the glass and let me know how it tastes!” He hesitated for a moment but then, in obedience to her command, gulped down the contents.
“How does it taste?”
“Sweet!”
The storyteller went on to say that Szechwanese friends of his vouched for the tale’s authenticity, insisting that if you ask for sweet wine at a Szechwanese banquet, the response around the table will usually be one of amused laughter.
There were also stories about smelling the tiny foot, generally favorable in tone. Whether the odor pleased or offended depended on whether the individual was an impartial observer or a lotus enthusiast. A Japanese visitor to Shanghai in 1919, for example, said that bound feet, usually washed only once every two weeks, smelled most unpleasant. But he admitted that the Chinese male was pleased rather than offended by the aroma.During his student days in Kwangtung, a Chinese writer made a similar observation. He met a studious scholar there named Kuan, who lived with his wife in perfect harmony. When they slept together, Kuan placed his head by his wife’s feet, so that the couple resembled two steamed and salted fish. Kuan slept this way in order to smell the aroma of his wife’s bound feet, for only then was he able to sleep soundly. Mrs. Kuan once got ready to visit her parents, expecting to be away for about ten days. Just as she was putting her bags in order, Kuan made the following proposaclass="underline"
“Wife, leave a pair of your shoes and bindings behind.”
“Why?”
“You’re really not very bright. Do I have to go into explicit detail to make you understand?”
His wife, grasping the implication, left behind one pair of shoes and two bindings which she had just been wearing. On the first night of her absence, Kuan tossed and turned about in bed, feeling so lonely and restless that sleep was out of the question. Finally realizing what he had to do, he took out the shoes and wrappings, placed them by his head, inhaled deeply, and calmly went to sleep. Our narrator stated in conclusion that this story was not fabricated but was told to him as the gospel truth by a fellow villager.
Chinese storytellers commonly created fiction from a basis of fact by building their plots around famous historical figures. They depicted charms of the tiny foot by conjuring up suggestive and mildly erotic bedroom scenes. Nan-kung Po, a master of this technique, is a well-known contemporary Chinese historical novelist. He once wrote a fictional adaptation of Sung dynastic episodes called The Lady of An County and included incidental remarks about the sensual delights of footbinding. A few of these passages have been translated below because of their relevance to our study, as they indicate how the attractions of the tiny foot were described in widely-read popular works.
The plot centered about the love affair of Han Shih-chung, a Southern Sung general, and a courtesan with the art-name of Carmine Jade. The first scene describes how they met:
It was an early hour, with few guests present. More than ten courtesans were seated at tables, idly chatting. Shih-chung’s army friend nudged him with his elbow:
“Look how tiny their feet are! They must be only an inch long!”
“An inch? You silly fool, the smallest golden lotus is three inches; I’ve never heard of one an inch long.”
“I was really referring to their width.”
While the courtesans couldn’t hear what was being said, they seemed to have guessed the topic of conversation. They displayed their tiny feet, forming a sort of Bound Foot Exhibition.
“Look,” said Shih-chung in embarrassment, “they seem to know what we’re talking about.”
“They’re all purchasable, so why shouldn’t we first look over the goods?”
Shih-chung failed to reply, for he was staring at a pair of tiny feet in startled appreciation. They were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Though the shoes were not pretty, being an ordinary black color and lacking ornamentation, the foot itself was slightly over four inches long and about three fingers in width. Viewed in its over-all dimensions, the foot was unusually lovable. It narrowed from heel to toe, and about halfway towards the tip narrowed so suddenly that it was as slender as a long pepper. The tip curled upwards slightly.
A foot that long was a common sight in the capital, but it was rare to see one which narrowed as this one did. Most feet were unavoidably puffed up at the ankle, with the instep shaped like a dumpling, looking very much like a horse’s hoof. Such types, no matter how small, were not aesthetic in the slightest.
Only this pair of bound feet led the viewer to think of rubbing them in his palms. Han Shih-chung imagined that her feet must be as soft as a ball of flour; otherwise, how could they be so delicate and tender? Shih-chung suddenly resolved to take them in the palms of his hands and knead them furiously with his fingers.
“Ouch!” The lovable pair of bound feet suddenly jumped up. Shih-chung was startled, thinking that he must have hurt her by the very thought of kneading her feet. This of course was not true, but “lovely feet” had cried out in actual pain. There had been a glass of boiling water at her table. When she turned to look at Shih-chung, the courtesan beside her deliberately spilled it over her and accused her of having done it herself. The women quarreled, spurred on by the words of the other courtesans, who were envious of “lovely feet,” and began fighting furiously. This alarmed Shih-chung, who realized the tiny feet of the courtesan whom he admired were the object of widespread jealousy. A ponderous five-inch foot suddenly stamped down on “lovely feet.” Shih-chung bellowed out in rage and rushed to her side, causing her adversaries to flee in panic.
“It must be very painful; I hope that you did not suffer serious injury.”
“They tried to break my feet,” she murmured, pressing her tiny feet with both hands.”
“What is your name?”
“Carmine Jade . . . and your name, sir?”
For the general and the courtesan, it was love at first sight. In the bedroom scenes which follow, the ways in which the tiny foot enhanced sensation are clearly suggested:
Carmine Jade’s bed was spotless; Shih-chung threw himself on it, stretched out, and beckoned to her:
“Why don’t you come closer?”
She blushed, but slowly approached the bed and sat down, leaning on the bedpost. Shih-chung looked her over greedily, from tip to toe, until he felt satiated. He finally fixed his glance upon her thighs and raised her skirt in order to inspect her tiny feet.