CUSTOMS

 = =

 By: Allie G. 

Do you like your feet? Or the shape and size of your toes? Well, in China, people believed that if your feet were unnaturally small and pointed then they were absolutely beautiful! The Chinese art of footbinding goes back hundreds of years! Footbinding is the traditional Chinese custom of tightly binding the feet of young girls that are usually around six years old. The history, procedure, and effects of footbinding are all important to understand this strange custom. Footbinding was practiced on young girls for about 1,000 years! There are many stories that answer the question, how and why did footbinding start? Some say that a fox disguised herself as an Empress, she bound her feet to hide her claws. Others say that the same Empress was club-footed, she  asked the Emperor to make footbinding mandatory for all women in China. . Eventually, “by the end of the 12th Century the practice of binding feet was rampant and severe” (Chinese Foot Binding) and all social classes were practicing the custom. Depending on the size and shape of the girls foot, determined what social class she would marry into. Footbinding was not illegal until 1915. The Chinese government finally realized that the pain and suffering the young girls went through was just too much for them to handle!  Think... what was the most painful thing that you ever physically went through? Anything, getting a cavity filled or jamming your finger in a door or maybe breaking your leg. What ever it is, nothing could be as awful as the pain that came from the process of footbinding. Moms started binding their daughter's feet when they were about six years old. The bones in the feet were still soft, which made them easy to break and mold into a different position before they were fully grown. In the beginning, the toenails were cut very short and the feet were soaked in a liquid blend of hot water, herbs, and nuts called alum. This softened the feet more for what came next... Every toe, except the big toe, was broken and then bent under the foot. By breaking the toes, the foot looked pointed. Then, the arch of the foot was also broken and folded back to the heel of the foot. The mothers bandaged the feet so that the bones stay in place. To reach the perfect size foot, the girls were forced to walk back and forth across their room so that their own body weight crushed their feet. The girls stayed inside their house for two extremely painful years. Some girls even died from infection. In the end, girls were either rewarded with feet seven centimeters long or they had permanently deformed feet. Not only did the girls have strange feet, but as they got older the effects of footbinding affected them in other ways. Women with bound feet had more medical problems than women with normal feet. Older women could break their hips and other bones in falls more easily. Getting up from sitting was even difficult for them. Women with poorly bound feet had to use a cane because walking was tough. They also were more likely to have fractures because studies show that their bone density would e very low. Women were not only affected physically, but <span style="color: rgb(19, 154, 154);">the footb<span style="color: rgb(19, 154, 154);">inding procedure also affected them emotionally. Some just completely blocked the suffering from their memory. <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">The Chinese thought that bound feet were beautiful, even though the pain that these girls went through was horrible! They couldn't even walk properly once the process was complete. Footbinding is important to China's history. Its procedure was cruel and the effects speak for themselves...      By Amber C.   **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">A ****<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">re you going to be a rock-star? Are you going to be a doctor? Don't you wish there was something that could tell you your future? Well, in China, there was one little thing that could. This ‘thing’ was called an oracle bone. It was very important in Chinese culture. **

=

 * <span style="color: rgb(172, 79, 216);">Oracle bones were pieces of animal bone or turtle shell that had writing on them. The people who used these bones were known as fortune-tellers. They were there to answer any question you had, and all they had to do was read what the oracle bone said. The history, preparation, and use of the oracle bones were all very important parts. **=====

=
**<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">“The discovery of the oracle bones in China started in 1899, when a young man from Peking was using the bones as medicine. He saw some carvings that looked like a kind of writing on the bones he had gotten from a local pharmacy. This lucky find led to the discovery of Anyang, the last capital of Shang dynasty [in China] where archeologists found a lot of carved bones ** **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">” ** **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">(Origins of Chinese Writing). The writing on the bones was about weather, hunting, and more. The bones had been used to help people when they were worried or when they needed help. If a soldier was sad during a battle, then he could just grab an oracle bone and have a fortune-teller read it. What the fortune-teller said would lift his spirits on the battle he was about to fight in. ****<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);"> Some people think these bones just appeared out of nowhere, but there is actually a process you have to go through to make them. **=====

=

 * <span style="color: rgb(181, 46, 220);">Making oracle bones was a very easy job. ****<span style="color: rgb(181, 46, 220);">“The bones or shells of [animals] were cleaned of meat, and then prepared by sawing, scraping, smoothing and even polishing to create nice, flat surfaces… There is also a rumor that only girl tortoise shells were used [because they were not as curved as the guy shells]” (Oracle Bone Wiki). After the shells were cleaned, they were heated. When they were heated, cracks could be seen on the bone. The cracks were not bad; they were what helped the fortune-teller get the information they needed. Oracle bones were then used for a lot of reasons.[[image:OraclePic3.JPG width="145" height="161" align="right"]] **=====

=

 * <span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">“When the fortune-teller was reading the bone, the shell or bone had blood put on it, and the date was recorded” (Oracle Bone Wiki). Oracle bones were mostly known to be used by kings and their families, especially kings of the ** **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">Shāng society ****<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">. ** **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">People would ask the oracle bones questions that they were worried about on different topics. The topics were about ** **<span style="color: rgb(62, 204, 199);">illness, birth and death, weather, war, and much more. After the questions were asked, the fortune-teller would look at the cracks and writing on the oracle bone and read. They then would get information and give the answer to whoever asked the question. Whether the answer was good or bad, the Chinese people accepted it. ** =====

=
**WORKS CITIED**
 * <span style="color: rgb(163, 35, 209);">Everyone wants to know what they are going to be when they grow up, and everyone wants to know things about their personal situations and the future. The Chinese people knew this, so they made something that would help these people. They made oracle bones. These bones became very important in Chinese culture, and they made people feel better. [[image:OraclePic2.JPG width="241" height="145"]] **=====

"Chinese Foot Binding." BBC h2g2. 22 Oct. 2003. British Broadcast Corporation. 21 Feb. 2009 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1155872>.

"Exploring Chinese History :: Culture :: Chinese Archaeology :: Oracle Bones." Love ibiblio! 19 Feb. 2009 <http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c03s03.html>.

FEET BOUND. [Online Image] Available <http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z168/thewordisberry/footbinding.jpg>, March 20, 2009

FEET THAT WERE. [Online Image] Available <http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~harrisk/Images/Footbinding-exposed3.jpg>, March 20, 2009.

"Oracle bone -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 19 Feb. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone>.

Oracle bone. [Online Image] Available <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/images/shng-ora.jpg>, March 12, 2009.

Oracle Bone Script. [Online Image] Available <http://www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/02cul/c03s03i01.jpg>, March 12, 2009.

Oracle Bone. [Online Image] Available <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/OracleShell.JPG/389px-OracleShell.JPG>, March 12, 2009.

"Origins of Chinese Writing - A Brief introduction to the beginnings of Chinese writing." Welcome to Logoi.com, The Online Travel Source. 19 Feb. 2009 <http://www.logoi.com/notes/chinese_origins.html>.

THE SHOES. [Online Image] Available <http://badcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/foot-binding-6.jpg>, March 20, 2009.