[197] Footbinding War

Just after Song Youliang moved to Liaodong, a wave of immigrants was set off in North China, and under the attraction of beating roe deer and scooping fish, pheasants flying into the rice pot, millions of people from Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong continued to pass through Shanhaiguan or take a boat from Dengzhou to enter Liaodong, which is called breaking through Guandong. In the land of Liaodong, which has been ravaged by Jiannu for many years and is full of devastation, villages and towns have sprung up one after another, and the officials in charge of registering the household registration in the three prefectures and twelve counties are very busy.

At the beginning of his tenure, Song Youliang issued a series of decrees to build Liaodong

In terms of the administration of officials, the first is to promote the attribution of fire consumption, the second is to improve the quality of officials, and the third is to establish a system of maintaining honest silver

In the military aspect, the first is to comprehensively promote the modernization of the army, gradually eliminate the position of spearmen in the army, and realize the whole army firearms; second, the concept of the East Factory, the West Factory, and the Inner Factory has been put into practice, with Ximen Jian as the commander of the East Factory, Situ Gong as the commander of the West Factory, and Yin Hongsheng as the commander of the Inner Factory. A patrol room was set up below the inner factory to establish a police system

In agriculture, for new immigrants, the system of farming on large farms will continue to be encouraged and developed; For the local landlords and tenant farmers, the policy of tenants paying rent and interest, and landlords reducing rent and interest was implemented to alleviate class contradictions; vigorously promote the cultivation of high-yield wheat, as well as new crops such as corn and potatoes, as well as cash crops such as rapeseed, sugar beet and cotton; Promote advanced agricultural technologies and machinery such as fertilizers and cocoons

In terms of commerce, it completely copied the practice in Dengzhou, set up a special commercial tax yamen, encouraged the development of industry and commerce, but strictly investigated tax evasion.

In the case of handicrafts, a patent system was established to encourage innovation

In terms of trade, a customs yamen was set up to collect customs duties, and at the same time, Lushun, Fengcheng and Fushun were built as treaty ports to develop trade with the mainland, Korea, Japan and the Northeast ethnic groups. Encourage exports, develop imports, and strictly prohibit trade with Mongolian tribes

In the area of education, government schools are set up at the county level, but all children who have reached the age of six, regardless of their origin, must be enrolled, and the government will take care of all food, clothing, housing and transportation during this period. In addition to traditional Confucianism, the school also teaches medicine, Western studies, military science, business studies, etc., aiming to cultivate modern talents who not only have traditional patriotic ideas of loyalty to the monarch, but also understand modern skills such as modern natural science, modern military science, and modern business skills

In the area of medical care, there are government-run medical officers at the county level, and if people fall ill, they have to go to the medical officer for treatment, and the fees are very low.

In terms of religion, the legitimacy of Catholicism was recognized, and free proselytization was allowed, but at the same time efforts were made to train Chinese priests, and gradually Chinese priests became the main force of mission

In terms of customs, there are two main ones, one is to severely crack down on feudal superstitious activities, witch doctors and goddesses are banned; The other is the abolition of foot binding

As soon as the various policies were announced, it caused an uproar in Liaodong, if not for anything else, just for foot binding. Foot binding began with Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who had a concubine and a concubine, charming and coquettish, and could sing and dance. Li Yu built a six-foot-high lotus platform for her, decorated with a treasure belt. My fair lady wraps her feet with silk, so that her feet are slender and bent and her toes are crescent-shaped, and she dances on the lotus platform to win the queen's heart. This trend then spread among the fashionable women of the people. The saying of "Golden Lotus" began in the Southern Dynasty Qi Dong Hou Xiao Baojuan, Baojuan is a romantic and mediocre generation, he once let the craftsman pave the ground with golden lotus, and the concubine Pan Concubine walked by, jokingly called "step by step lotus".

In the Song Dynasty, women who did not wrap their small feet were regarded as rough people, and they had to be wrapped into three-inch feet by adults since they were young to be beautiful, so the wind of foot binding prevailed in the Song Dynasty. In order not to relax their feet, women also wore "sleeping shoes" when sleeping, which were the same style as bow shoes, but with soft soles and delicate embroidery, and these shoes were mostly sewn by the owner himself.

During the Yuan Dynasty, many places in the south stipulated that only women from rich and powerful families were allowed to bind their feet. During the Ming Dynasty, a ban was issued to distinguish the noble from the low, and the untouchable class women were not allowed to bind their feet. According to the "Zhejiang Chronicle", the southeast region of Zhejiang clearly stipulates that "men are not allowed to study, and women are not allowed to bind their feet".

Women's foot binding is "a pair of small feet, a tank of tears". The specific method of foot binding is to use a narrow cloth belt to tightly wrap the woman's ankle and deform the muscles and bones. After foot binding, the feet will become slender and twisted. Before binding her feet, the little girl first soaks her feet. In some areas, a lamb or chicken is disemboweled, and then the girl is made to put her feet into it and soak her feet in the slimy blood.

In order to tighten the skin, some people will also sprinkle alum between the girls' toes. Then, in addition to the big toe, the four little toes are pushed hard towards the center of the foot and pressed under the foot plate, and then a blue cloth ten feet long and two and a half to three and a half inches wide, from the four toes, through the back of the foot, the heel, and then to the back of the foot and heel, wrapped in a circle.

In the era of foot binding, women began to bind their feet from the age of four or five, and it was not until adulthood that the bones were shaped before the cloth was removed. There are also those who are entangled for life, and they will not be removed until old age. Girls begin to bind their feet at the age of three or four, and they can generally be "shaped" in three or four years.

For this reason, Song Youliang also did a lot of work, first of all, he counted the various dynasties and generations There was no practice of foot binding at all, and it was only in the Five Dynasties period; He also spoke of the disadvantages of foot binding and pointed out that the bad habit of foot binding must be abolished. Then he took the lead in making it forbidden for the women of his own household to bind their feet. This decree first solicited people's opinions extensively in the territory, and immediately aroused opposition from all strata of society, and the opposition was so loud that it really exceeded Song Youliang's expectations.

In desperation, Song Youliang came up with a crooked trick, he first summoned those who strongly opposed the abolition of foot binding, and asked them to gather in the yamen, and at the same time, he also put up a list to let the people go to the yamen to watch the excitement. Those who opposed foot binding elected four people as representatives and stood at the front of the crowd.

Song Youliang loudly announced: "The saint has clouds, do not do to others what you do not want to be done." If you want to do unto others in this way, then it means that you yourself are also lustful, and then the Dok will fulfill you. Whoever supported the binding of his feet was to be given 30 days by the government, and if they were able to hold on for 30 days, he was allowed to bind his daughter's feet. ”

As soon as Song Youliang's voice fell, the people burst into a bang, giving full play to the Chinese's nature of loving coaxing and watching excitement, and applauded one after another, while several people who were about to be bound in their feet shouted.

The wolf-like officials didn't care what kind of talent they were or how they lifted, and they stepped forward and knocked four people to the ground. Two of each of them pressed it, and two of them took off their socks, took out the sackcloth they had prepared, threw off their arms, and wrapped them up fiercely. If you don't use force, you can't do it, because Song Youliang has an order, if you wrap it lightly, you will hit their board. The heart-rending pain of the bound feet made several usually sanctimonious literati completely ignore any etiquette at this time, and tore their throats and screamed like killing pigs. People inside and outside the scene were also a little stunned, and then someone said: "My mother, does it still hurt so much?" ”

"Of course, don't you believe you?"

"Forget it, it turns out that my mother suffered this crime at the beginning! What a sin! A talented man held his lady's hand tightly, his eyes full of pity. And his wife rested her head on his shoulder, looking sad that the past could not be looked back on

A few rural women and old ladies were silent, they all remembered the pain they had suffered at the beginning, and they were actually quite comfortable in their hearts: let these old boys also taste this sin!

A bold woman quietly spat out: "You deserve it!" ”

After the entanglement was over, Song Youliang said with a smile: "Thanks, everyone, go back for thirty days, it will be thirty days, and after these thirty days, there will be nothing left, but a few people can remember, don't open it privately, this has a seal, if you untie it privately, but there are still heavy punishments to serve, several of them are people with heads and faces, and the governor doesn't want to wipe the face of a few people because of the torture." ”

A few people endured the pain and stood there strongly, thinking in their hearts that they couldn't lose their share, it was a big deal to find someone to carry it every day, and it would be okay to carry it for the past thirty days, and give this rough warrior from a military family a little color.

"Alas, look at my memory, I forgot one thing!" Song Youliang suddenly patted his head, "A few of them are still teachers in the school, right?" During this period, the teaching will continue as usual, but we can't delay the dolls' studies! ”

Those few talents and people turned green all of a sudden.

The surrounding people were screaming and coaxing

On the spot, a showman knelt down: "Adult, the little one doesn't dare, the little one doesn't bind the little one's daughter!" Adults please spare the small ones! ”

Song Youliang pretended to be surprised and said, "Huh? Wang Xiucai, why did you change your mind? Didn't you say that it was a matter of course for a woman to bind her feet? Why did you regret it again? ”

"No, no! Adult, it's a small moment of confusion, and binding a woman's feet is a great crime! Wang Xiucai was already sweating profusely

"That's it! I see that you are also an understanding person~" Song Youliang helped him up, "Do not do to others what you do not want to be done to yourself." My daughter is the meat of my heart, why should I let her suffer this living sin! Come on, loosen the footcloth for this benevolent brother! ”

The others were still holding on, squinting at the Xiucai who had lost first with contempt. Then, he simply arched his hand to Song Youliang, and walked away slowly.

Looking at their staggering backs, the onlookers laughed again

At the beginning of the second day, the three stubborn Xiucai and Juren insisted on walking to the school by themselves. From the third day onwards, they could not get off the ground. Some of the women who suffered from foot binding took the opportunity to constantly trick them and make them move around. Even an old friend of Xiucai in the brothel deliberately coquettishly snorted, and Xiucai, who wanted to wrap his feet, ran to her when he saw the sky

Finally, on the fifth day, the show surrendered

On the ninth day, the other two men surrendered

The Foot-Binding War ended with Song Youliang's victory.

At the same time, the newly opened "Liaoning Daily" also took the opportunity to make a big splash and launched a public opinion propaganda offensive, telling people that Confucius had never advocated foot binding, and our ancestors did not bind their feet, so why should we bind our daughters' feet? Everyone knows the pain of foot binding, why impose this pain on your beloved daughter? He also actively created public opinion among women, saying that the four beauties before the Song Dynasty did not bind their feet, so they were the most beautiful. And now they are all wrapped around their feet and have defects, so after the Song Dynasty, there will be no four beauties, and they vigorously promote that only normal feet are beautiful.

With the abolition of foot binding, a vigorous foot-laying movement was set off on the land of Liaodong, and women in many places gathered, piled up the stinky and long footcloths, and then burned them with fire. Then, singing and dancing around the bonfire, the content of the song is mostly in praise of Song Youliang.

For a time, Song Youliang became the "friend of women" in Liaodong and became the idol of countless girls and young women