After leaving the village, they continued walking until they stopped in a small town. The town was small, but it looked quite lively.
After settling into the inn, Youqing planned to take her daughter for a walk after dinner. However, after walking only a few steps, she suddenly heard a wail coming from the backyard.
It was a little girl's voice.
Youqing quickly asked the waiter, "What's that sound?"
Seeing the waiter's nonchalant attitude, Youqing felt that something was amiss. Besides, the backyard was where the innkeeper lived.
The waiter didn't think it was anything shameful and said, "The shopkeeper's youngest daughter is six years old now, and the proprietress is binding her feet!"
Youqing frowned: "Didn't the imperial court issue an order forbidding women from binding their feet anymore? How can this still happen?"
Although she had never seen what bound feet looked like in person, she had seen pictures of them. The feet were deformed and bent under pressure, which was no ordinary suffering.
"Madam is joking. Although the court has issued an order, if a girl with unbound feet cannot get married, then she must bind her feet."
Youqing fell silent.
The custom of foot binding has a long history. The imperial court once issued an order forbidding women from binding their feet, but no measures were taken. There was only this regulation, and people continued to do as they pleased.
Before Youqing could say anything more, a little girl suddenly rushed out from the backyard, tears streaming down her face: "Mother is mean, it hurts, it hurts so much."
The little girl looked so soft and cuddly; it was clear that the shopkeeper's family doted on their daughter, otherwise this child wouldn't dare to speak ill of her.
As soon as the young girl finished speaking, a woman in her early thirties with delicate features came out from the backyard.
"Listen to your mother, bind your feet, and I'll make your favorite braised pork for you tonight."
"I don't want to eat meat, and I don't want my feet bound, it hurts so much... Waaah..."
The little girl burst into tears, and her voice was certainly not pleasant. Many people in the inn went over to her.
The woman's expression changed when she saw so many people looking at her: "Come here quickly."
"No, Mother is bad, bad... Waaah, I want Father... Father..."
At this moment, the woman stepped forward, covered the child's mouth, picked the child up, and walked towards the backyard. The child kicked and struggled in her mother's arms, trying to get out of her mother's arms.
A six-year-old child doesn't know the future. She doesn't know that it's bad to marry without bound feet. She only knows that foot binding hurts, a pain she has never experienced before. So the little girl feels wronged, which is why she cries so hard.
Youqing lost her desire for a walk and returned to her room on the second floor.
Upon entering the room, Kangxi put down the letter sent from the capital and asked, "Have you encountered something unpleasant?"
"I just came across the shopkeeper's wife binding her daughter's feet, and she was crying pitifully, so I came up here."
Youqing did want to stop the girl from binding her feet, but if she rashly stepped forward to stop her, she would have no legitimate reason to do so. As an outsider, even if she felt she was right, it would still be wrong in the girl's eyes.
"Doesn't the imperial court have long ago issued an order prohibiting foot binding?"
"Yes, it's just that Manchu girls don't bind their feet, while Han women still traditionally bind their feet. It's said that if you don't bind your feet, it's hard to get married."
At this point, Youqing felt a sense of helplessness. Since the Tang Dynasty, subsequent dynasties have been increasingly harsh on women. Before the Tang Dynasty, although the law was biased towards men and divorce was very easy, it was later discovered that nowadays, the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues, the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, female virtues, and female precepts have completely confined women to the home.
Are bound feet (three-inch golden lotuses) really beautiful?
Not necessarily. If a man really saw those deformed little feet, he might not be able to resist. Youqing once heard someone say that in ancient times, women generally did not let their husbands see their feet. Why didn't they?
Ultimately, she herself felt that her bound feet looked ugly and was afraid of scaring her husband.
It's a contradiction, really.
"You want to help that little girl?"
Kangxi naturally understood the meaning behind her words.
Youqing did indeed have this intention.
Perhaps having a daughter has softened my heart.
"I've had someone hold the shopkeeper's wife back. She probably won't force her daughter to bind her feet for the next couple of days. But this is only temporary. If we can't change their minds, it's just a matter of time."
"What do you need me to do?"
With Kangxi's words, Youqing felt much more at ease.
"You can issue an imperial edict that from now on, any family with a daughter who has bound feet shall have three generations of men in the family barred from taking the imperial examinations, and shall not take a woman with bound feet as a concubine, otherwise they shall also be barred from taking the imperial examinations."
In ancient times, people who wanted to change their social status could only do so through rebellion or by taking the imperial examinations or joining the military. Joining the military was too risky, and ordinary people who started as soldiers rarely lived to the point of entering the imperial court.
Therefore, most people who wanted to change their social standing relied on the imperial examination.
If an ordinary family is relatively wealthy, or if they have a little foresight, they will send their sons to school. Since they are studying, they naturally aspire to take the imperial examinations.
If a family cannot pass the imperial examinations for three generations, their future is ruined.
Families that were capable of passing the imperial examinations would pay more attention to foot binding for their daughters in order to ensure the women could continue their studies.
Furthermore, men were not allowed to take women with bound feet as concubines.
Han women were gentle and beautiful, and therefore more popular with men. Generally speaking, the most common concubines men took were Han women with bound feet. The prohibition against taking women with bound feet as concubines was, to a certain extent, effective in preventing the custom of foot binding.
After all, what the superiors do, the inferiors follow suit; from the emperor to the high-ranking officials and nobles, it does have an effect.
"Alright, I will issue the decree immediately."
Emperor Shunzhi had already issued an edict banning foot binding, but with the ban on shaving heads preceding it, the ban on foot binding seemed ineffective and few people followed it.
As far as Emperor Kangxi knew, some Manchu families in the capital had begun to bind their daughters' feet. When Emperor Kangxi heard that some of the candidates for the imperial examination had bound their feet, he immediately sent them out of the palace.
Nobody took it seriously, and the pheasants kept by Manchu nobles in the capital all had bound feet.
The widespread trend of foot binding shows the general trend. However, compared with the many important national affairs, the matter of foot binding seems insignificant. Even if Kangxi saw it, he did not care too much about it. Now that Youqing brought it up, Kangxi had to care about it even if it was just to make his wife happy.
Subsequently, Emperor Kangxi issued an edict ordering all women who had bound their feet to cease doing so, and those who disobeyed would be rewarded if their neighbors reported them.
Then, excluding the previous ones, if a woman in the family had bound feet again, the men in the family would not be allowed to take the imperial examinations for three generations. In addition, it was forbidden to take women with bound feet as concubines. If a woman had bound feet during the imperial concubine selection in the capital, her family would not be implicated if she had bound her feet before, but she would not pass the preliminary selection.
If it is verified that the feet were bound after the imperial edict, the father and brothers in the family will be dismissed from their posts and will not be allowed to work, and their families will be prohibited from taking the imperial examinations for three generations.
One copy of the imperial edict was sent to the capital, from where it was distributed to various localities, and another copy was delivered directly to the local government office.
When the county magistrate received the imperial edict, he was completely stunned.
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