Foot-binding is a custom in ancient China. This means that women wrap their feet tightly with cloth to make them smaller and more beautiful. Generally speaking, women begin to tie their feet at the age of four or five, and then untie the cloth belt until the adult skeleton is formed, and there will be a lifelong foreskin. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people have different views on the origin of foot binding. According to the research of modern scholars, it originated in the Northern Song Dynasty. Foot-binding continued to develop in a small direction in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming dynasty, foot-binding entered its heyday, and the saying of "three-inch golden lotus" appeared. It requires feet to be not only as small as three inches, but also curved. However, foot-binding was not found in female corpses unearthed before the Qing Dynasty, indicating that foot-binding was not common at that time. By the Qing Dynasty, the foot-binding movement had spread widely to women in all walks of life. Rich or poor, they tied their feet one by one. However, some people who don't stick their feet don't know when it started.

There have been several theories in the Six Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Generally speaking, every sentence is spoken from the scattered literature and poetry works of the previous generation. It is meaningful, every sentence finds some basis, and the opponents of every sentence find some reasons to object. But generally speaking, this custom originated in the Southern Tang Dynasty and was formed in the Southern Song Dynasty, which was accepted by scholars. When it comes to the reasons for foot-binding, there are mainly four aspects: aesthetic requirements, the result of the development of gender segregation system in Han history, the advocacy of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, and the advocacy of chastity (Pan Honggang's New Explanation of Foot-binding and Han Women, Jianghan Forum,No. 10, 2003). For a long time, Han people have been pursuing the beauty of women's bodies. In ancient times, there was a saying that the king of Chu had a thin waist and starved to death in his palace. There are countless poems praising the slender figure and brisk pace of beautiful women. In his later years, Bai Juyi entered this poem with the names of his two concubines: "Cherry slaps her mouth, willow is graceful".

Here, willows are used to depict women's images, vividly showing the aesthetics of ancient women's images. It has long been found that women's feet are smaller, they can show their figure better and they can write freely. So five generations ago, women did not bind their feet, but there were many poems about their feet. Being a delicate woman with slow steps and swaying posture is noble and moving. As soon as foot binding appeared, it was welcomed by many scholars. This is the result of the development of people's aesthetic tendency for a long time. Even Su Shi and Xin Qiji, two outstanding literary masters, have their own chapters in singing and appreciating foot binding. In Su Shi's "Bodhisattva Man", there is a saying that "whether it is good or not, we should look at it from the palm of our hand". There is a saying in the novel "Bodhisattva Man": "The pale yellow arched shoes are very small, and the waist will only be blown down by the wind", which is often quoted.

Mr. Lin Yutang once described the female gait after foot-binding: China women's foot-binding completely changed their style and gait. "Its effect is equivalent to that of modern girls wearing high heels, producing a very stiff and delicate gait, which makes the whole body weak and irresistible. It was this "pity" that made feudal literati feel superior. This gave birth to its "reaching the highest level of maturity in the ideal of sex." In the era of myths and legends, there are also such traces in ancient myths and legends in China. It is said that Dayu married Tushan's daughter and gave birth to a son when he was in charge of water conservancy. Tushan's daughter was a fox with little feet, and Princess da ji of the Zhou Dynasty was also a fox and a pheasant, but her feet were not good, so she wrapped them in cloth. Because da ji was favored, women in the Forbidden City began to imitate her and bound their feet.