Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/66

54 CHAPTER III.

origin of the custom of footbinding is said by some to date from the Six States and to have been begun by an Imperial concubine P‘an-fei 潘妃. This aspirant for imperial favour bound her feet with silken bands. By binding the toes together and the instep upwards, she made the foot somewhat like a bow; while the licentious Emperor made golden lotus flowers for her to tread upon. Hence women's feet are sometimes spoken of as san ts‘un chin lien 三寸金蓮 three inches of golden lotus.

In Ssŭch’uan there are some places where the women have natural feet. These places are said to have been settled by people from Kuangtung province; and these feet are scornfully called huo chüeh pan 活脚板. Some feet have not been bound in childhood, and when older the pain would have been too great; hence the toes are simply turned in and the foot bound up a little: such are called pan chüeh 半脚.

When the instep is round and almost perpendicular like a horse's hoof it is called yuan chüeh 圓脚, round foot.

If the bandages are so manipulated as to make the heel to be part of the leg, wooden heels are put in to make up the deficiency between the false heel and the shoes; the woman thus only walking on the half of her foot. Such feet are termed chia 叚, chüeh false feet.