Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 2/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
Footbinding
The Queue
The 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.
Those feet which have been bound from childhood have an ideal length of three inches, but many are much larger. This involves enormous suffering to the child, but small feet are a source of pride to all who possess them, and large feet a source of shame.
A foot that is long and narrow is much disliked and is called huang kua 黃瓜 chüeh, cucumber foot. The reasons assigned for the continuation of this custom are as follows:
(1) It the custom and that is enough for most people.
(2) It is nice looking. These small feet are also called the hsiang kou 香鉤 or incense hook with which to hook the affections of the men; and the men generally desire that the feet should be so.
(3) It is impossible to find a husband unless the girl's feet are bound.
(4) It keeps the women from bad company and from remaining away from home.
In Ssŭch'uan some women make a speciality of both footbinding and hair dressing, others make a speciality of one only.
The Queue. 辮子 pien tzŭ
When the Ch'ing dynasty conquered the Chinese Empire the shaving of the head was made compulsory, the barber being sent forth with an official warrant to seize and shave all the refractory and rebellious; and the barber bears to this day the name of tai chao 待詔 or carry-passport man. Till quite recently the itinerant barber's stand consisted in a low stool for sitting on, and a high stool on which the hands could be rested: on the other side was a small boiler for heating water, and above was a short mast on which there were two iron hooks, from one of which a sword used to be suspended while on the other the head of the rebellious was hung after execution. From the top of this mast the flag used to be displayed.
Popular opinion has it that there were certain exceptions to the rule of head shaving; these were as follows: 男從女不從 Nan ts‘ung nü pu ts‘ung; the men had to conform but the women did not need to do so. Thus we have the Chinese women wearing the dress of the Ming dynasty while the men had to adopt the Manchu style of dressing, as well as the head-shaving. The living had to conform, but the funeral rites remained as before the occupation, 生從死不從, shêng ts‘ung, ssŭ pu ts‘ung. The people had to conform but not the priests; min ts‘ung chiao pu ts‘ung 民從敎不從. Hence we have the clean-shaven Buddhist priest, and the coiled locks of the Taoist sect; this is believed to be the original Chinese mode of hair dressing. Moreover the style of garments now worn by the Taoist priests would appear to be the style of ancient China.
When the queue was forced upon the Chinese people it was hateful to them as a sign of subjection to a stronger branch of the Mongolian race. This loathing gradually gave place to pride, and the queue became a national badge, and a sign of loyalty to the reigning dynasty. Hence every rebellion against the Manchus has made the cutting off of the queue of first importance.
The queue, when worn properly, was used to indicate reverence for superiors, respect to equals, and decorum in worship. No inferior would dare to enter the presence of a superior with his queue hanging in front, or coiled round the head; and when worshipping at the temples its position was carefully noted. The following are a few of the kinds of queues spoken of by the Chinese and were indicative of character:
To leave the hair unplaited for three handwidths from the skull in order that the hair might fall loose on the neck; 鬆三把 sung san pa. This was for protection against sword cuts, and also in fights, when the queue was largely used to pull with. Its looseness kept the strain from falling on one part of the head.
The big queue made up of false hair and silk. Those who wear this are known as wu êrh shên 吾二神, and are those who have just entered a secret society. They are neither men nor boys.
The dandy of the secret society wears a queue that is dressed up with silk tassels, têng lung t‘iao pien tzŭ 燈籠縧辮子.
The unkempt queue of the novice who has not entered the society is called k‘ung tzŭ 空子 pien tzŭ.
A few hairs on the back of the head is called yü mei sui 御麥穗 pien tzŭ or a hao-tzŭ wei pa 耗子尾巴, a rat's tail.
A nice-looking queue of a youth with a long red cord attached to it is called kua tao pa 銙刀杷 the sword-handle queue.
The cow's head, niu t‘ou 牛頭 queue is worn by women of the aboriginal tribes to the west of Kuan Hsien.
A common proverb is shên hsien yang chih-chia, hsin hsien yang t‘ou-fa 身閑養指甲，心閑養頭髮; an idle body grows finger nails; an idle head grows hair.
The Kitan tribes, ta-ta 韃韃, probably the ancestors of the Mongols, have the following slang names for the queue:
The hairy lid, mao kai-tzŭ 毛葢子; Tartar hair, ta-ta mao; the hairy tassel, mao t‘ou tzŭ 毛頭子; the horse-bucket cover, ma t‘ung kai 馬桶葢; the magpie's nest, ya ch‘iao wo 鴉鵲窩; the tadpole's tail, ting ting wei 丁丁尾.