_ANTI-FOOTBINDING._
Church Mission's Action.--American Mission's
Action.--Tʽien Tsu Hui.--Chinese Ladies' Drawing-room
Meeting.--Suifu Appeal.--Kang, the Modern Sage.--Duke
Kung.--Appeal to the Chinese People.
To turn to a cheerfuller subject. Although the Roman Catholics, the
American Episcopal Church, and some other missionary bodies have in
former days thought it wiser to conform to Chinese custom in the
matter of binding, there have been other missionary bodies, that have
for twenty years or more refused to countenance it. One or two
examples of their methods of work will probably suffice. The Church
Mission at Hangchow opened a school for girls in 1867, and in 1896 Mr.
J. L. Stuart wrote:
"The Mission undertook from the first to feed and clothe and care for
the girls for about ten years; and it was required that the feet of
the girls should be unbound, and that they should not be compelled to
marry against their own consent. The school opened with three
scholars; but the number soon increased to a dozen, and then to
twenty, and after a few years to thirty, and then to forty, and for
five years it has had fifty pupils. After the first few years, no
solicitations were ever made for pupils, and they were not taken
under eight or ten years of age; but there have always been more
applicants than can be accommodated. For ten years the pupils have
furnished their own clothing and bedding, and a few have paid for
their food. The superintendent of the school took the ground in the
beginning that, as the Mission undertook to support and train the
girls, it was not only a right but it was an obligation to require the
girls to conform to rules that were considered right and proper as far
as possible. The success of the school proves the wisdom of the stand
taken at the time. The girls have a good yard in which to play, and no
sprig of grass can make headway where their big feet go romping
about, and their rosy cheeks and happy faces are in marked contrast to
the average Chinese girl seen in the street and in their homes. As the
girls grow up and are ready to leave the school, in almost every case
they have been claimed by some Christian young man who is not ashamed
of their big feet. In the course of the past twenty-eight years many
pupils have been sent out from this school; but, so far as is known,
none of them have ever attempted to rebind their daughters' feet."
[Illustration: CHINESE ROMAN CATHOLIC BURIAL-GROUND.
_By Mrs. Archibald Little._]
A letter from Kalgan in the far north shows very quaintly the
difficulties encountered by an American lady missionary, evidently an
ardent anti-footbinder:
"KALGAN, CHINA, _September 24th_.
"Anti-footbinding seems to be very much entangled with match-making on
my part. I perhaps wrote about a little girl who came from four days'
distance here to school, and unbound her feet, because I was to help
the young man selected to be her husband, if he took a wife with large
feet. The engagement papers were not made out, because the family
wanted more betrothal money than I cared to give. I did not limit the
young man at all. He could give what additional sum he pleased; but I
would not give more than twenty-four tiao, about two pounds ten
shillings; and thought that a good deal for a little girl of fourteen.
The young man did not have any money, and rather wanted a small-footed
wife; but his elder brothers exhorted him, and he gave in: but no
additional money is to be expected from him. The little girl herself
admires her young man very much, and said if her father did not give
her to Yü Chʽien (the young man) she would jump into the well when she
got home. I have just heard that the father is dead. He was an
opium-smoker, and wanted to betroth the girl where they could get the
most money; but the brothers said, 'Let our sister be happy, even if
the money is less.' His death may bring on the engagement, as they
wish the money for the funeral expenses, I suppose. Did you ever hear
of Chinese who had enough money on hand for funeral expenses?
"One of our schoolboys, whose mother engaged him to a little girl
eight years old, told his mother he wanted his bride's feet unbound,
so she could enter our girls' school here.
"I took the schoolgirls out for a pleasure-trip yesterday. They went
to the beautiful new Russian church and churchyard, prettily laid out
with trees, flower-beds, and a chime of bells in the bell-tower.
Afterwards we went to a temple in the city. One of the priests said,
'Why don't your girls bind their feet?' I said, 'Why don't you bind
your feet?' 'I! I'm a _man_!' I didn't talk further, as there was an
unpleasant crowd gathering to watch the girls.
"Mr. McKee, of Ta-tung Fu, Shansi, is exercised over the future of his
schoolgirls. His wife has now the charge of a school of six girls. No
girls with bound feet can enter. Mr. McKee says no boy in Ta-tung will
engage himself to a large-footed girl, even if his parents are
willing; and if they are willing, he or his big brother is not. I
said, 'In Fenchou Fu, Shansi, there is a boys' school, and they can't
get Christian girls enough for their brides.' But he said, 'No,
Ta-tung has such a bad reputation for selling daughters, that no good
family will let its daughters be married outside of the city or very
near villages, for fear it will be said they have been sold.' The
girls are young yet, and there is no immediate necessity for their
marriage; so Mr. McKee trusts that Providence will provide bridegrooms
when the time comes."
In April, 1895, I was happy enough to start the Tʽien Tsu Hui, or
Natural Feet Society. Up till then foreigners who were not
missionaries had done but little, if anything, to prevent footbinding.
It was, therefore, quite a joyful surprise to find that pretty well
all the Shanghai ladies whom I asked were willing and eager to serve
upon the committee. We began very timidly by republishing a poem
written by a Chinese lady of Hangchow, sent down by Bishop Moule, and
happily for us translated into English verse by Dr. Edkins, for one of
our initial difficulties was that not one of us could read Chinese. We
then ventured on another poem by another Chinese lady. After that we
published a tract written in English by Pastor Kranz, sat upon and
somewhat remodelled by the whole committee, then translated into
Chinese for us by the Rev. Timothy Richard's Chinese writer. It is
difficult for English people to understand what anguish of mind had
been suffered by all the ladies on the committee, before we could
decide into what sort of Chinese we would have our tract translated.
There were so many alternatives before us. Should it be into the
Shanghai dialect? and then, Should there be other translations into
the dialects of the other parts? The women would then understand it.
But, then, the women could not read. And were we appealing to the men
or the women? And would not our tract be thought very low and vulgar
in such common language? Should it be translated into ordinary
mandarin? But would not the learned even then despise it? We knew of
course--we all sat sadly weighted by the thought--that feet are the
most _risqué_ subject of conversation in China, and no subject more
improper can be found there. And some of us felt as if we should blush
before those impassive blue-gowned, long-tailed Boys, who stand behind
our chairs and minister to our wants at tiffin and at dinner, when the
latter knew that we--we, their mistresses--were responsible for a book
upon footbinding, a book that any common man off the streets could
read. In the end we took refuge in the dignified Wenli of the Chinese
classics, confident that thus anti-footbinding would be brought with
as great decorum as possible before the Chinese public, and that at
least the literati must marvel at the beautiful style and learning of
the foreign ladies, who, alas! could not read one character of the
little booklet, whose type and red label we all examined so wistfully.
We circulated our books as well as we could; we encouraged each other
not to mind the burst of ridicule with which we were greeted by the
twenty-years-in-China-and-not-know-a-word-of-the-language men. Our one
French member was most comforting with her two quotations, "La
moquerie provient souvent d'indigence d'esprit," and "La moquerie est
l'esprit de ceux qui n'en ont point." But, to use the Chinese phrase,
our hearts were very small indeed; for we knew the custom was so old,
and the country so big. And what were we to fight against centuries
and millions?
There was a drawing-room meeting held at Chungking, in the far west of
Szechuan; and it was a most brilliant affair. The wealth of
embroideries on the occasion was a thing to remember. One young lady
could look neither to the right nor to the left, so bejewelled was
she; indeed, altogether she was a masterpiece of art. But all the
Chinese ladies laughed so gaily, and were so brilliant in their
attire, that the few missionary ladies among them looked like sober
moths caught in a flight of broidered butterflies. Every one came, and
many brought friends; and all brought children, in their best clothes
too, like the most beautiful dolls. At first, in the middle of the
cakes and tea, the speeches seemed to bewilder the guests, who could
not make out what they were meant to do, when their hostess actually
stood up and addressed them through an interpreter. Then there was
such eager desire to corroborate the statements: "On the north bank of
the river near Nanking----" "Yes, yes!" exclaimed a lady from Nanking;
"they don't bind there! And they are strong--very." Then, when the
speaker went on to say that on the road to Chengtu there was a city
where a large part of the population all intermarried, and did not
bind their women's feet, being of Cantonese descent, Cantonese ladies
nodded and smiled, and moved dainty little hands with impetuous
movements, as if eager for interpreters in their turn to make
themselves understood by the great, jolly Szechuan dames round them.
And when the speaker further spoke of parts of Hunan where rich and
poor alike did not bind, the two solitary representatives of Hupeh,
the boastful, could bear it no more, but with quiet dignity rose, and
said, in their soft Hupeh voices, "In Hupeh, too, there are parts
where no woman binds--none." Next a missionary lady in fluent Chinese
explained the circulation of the blood, and with an indiarubber pipe
showed the effect of binding some part of it. There were no
interruptions then. This seemed to the Chinese ladies practical, and
it was quite striking to see how attentively they listened. This
speech was afterwards a good deal commented on. A Chinese lady then
related how she had been led to unbind, ceasing any longer to feel
delight in the little feet that had once been such a pride to her.
After which another English lady explained in the local dialect our
one tract in the classic language, the rather difficult Wenli. The
meeting was then thrown open, and at once the very smartest of the
Chinese ladies present came forward to make a speech in her turn. All
present were agreed that footbinding was of no use, but it could only
be given up by degrees. _Man man-ti_ (Little by little) was the
watchword. Then, just as at an English meeting, a number of ladies
went on to a dinner party. But the others stayed and talked. "Did you
see my little girls listening?" said one mother. "They are thinking
they will never have their feet bound again." And certainly the
expression of the little girls had been eager in the extreme--poor
little crippled creatures! with their faces all rouged to simulate the
roses of healthy exercise.
But what did the men say? What they thought of the meeting we did not
know; for as the husband of one of the ladies said next day rather
crossly, "Oh, of course the women liked it! They don't want to bind
their feet!" It seemed a step, however, to have got a Chinaman even to
admit that.
At an anti-footbinding meeting another day, when those opposed to
binding were asked to stand up, all the men present but six rose to
their feet, and a merchant among the audience began a speech against
binding. Some days afterwards a mandarin, calling, took up Pastor
Kranz's pamphlet lying on the table, and said: "Ah, I have the larger
copy of this book with pictures. No, I was not at the meeting the
other day, but my people were. As to unbinding, the elder women can't;
you see, their toes have dropped off. But my little girl of six is not
having her feet bound any more. She screamed out so directly she laid
her head upon her pillow, I could not bear to hear it. Besides, she
got no sleep." He was a man of means, and made no reference as to any
possible difficulty about marrying her.
It was a little later on that we got our first great push forward. One
of the examiners at Peking lost his father, and being in mourning
could not, in accordance with Chinese usage, continue to hold office,
so returned to his home in the far west, and there found his little
daughter of seven crying over her footbinding. Whilst on the way he
had come across one of our tracts. First he had his child's feet
unbound; then he thought, Could not he write something better on the
subject--an appeal to his nation that would carry power? After many
days of thought, he wrote what we commonly call the Suifu Appeal; for
having signed it with his name and seal, and got five of his friends,
leading men of the neighbourhood, to add their testimony and names,
they proceeded to placard it over the walls of Suifu, against the
examinations that were just coming off there, that all the young men
might carry back the news of it to the different homes from which they
came. No sooner did we get a copy of this pamphlet--which, curiously
enough, was brought to me by Mr. Upcraft, then on his way down-river
to be married to the very lady who had first told me of the
missionaries' efforts against footbinding, and thus impelled me to try
to do what a simple lay woman could--than we at once began to reprint
and distribute this appeal to all the ten thousand students who were
coming up for examination to Chungking. We were more lavish of our
funds than they of Suifu, and tried to give each a copy to take home.
Then came a letter from the Shanghai manager of the great China
Merchants' Company, the one great commercial body of China, also
semi-official, saying he heard that there was a wonderful tract in the
west, and he would like a copy, that he might reprint it at his own
expense, and send it to be circulated through his native province of
Kwangtung.
About a year afterwards we heard that the Pu Tsan Tsu Hui (No Bind
Feet Society) had been formed at Canton by Kang, the Modern Sage, the
adviser of the youthful Emperor, who has lately had to fly for his
life, and only done so in safety under an English man-of-war's
protection; that ten thousand fathers of families had thereby pledged
themselves not to bind their little girls' feet, nor to marry their
sons to bound-foot girls; that they had opened offices in Shanghai,
and were memorialising Viceroys and high officials on the subject. We
had ourselves memorialised the Emperor in characters of gold on white
satin enclosed in a beautiful silver casket; but although the American
Minister, the _doyen_ of the Diplomatic Corps, had done his best for
us, we had never been officially informed of our beautiful memorial,
signed by our President on behalf of nearly every European lady
residing in the East, even getting into the young Emperor's hands, the
Tsung-li Yamen preferring to keep it on their own shelves. This had
discouraged us from going on to memorialise Viceroys, as we had
originally intended. But now, to our delight, we heard of the Viceroys
responding to the Chinese society. Chang-chih-tung, the one
incorruptible Viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan, in that beautiful literary
Chinese, in which he is unrivalled condemned footbinding, and we
immediately proceeded to placard the cities of his two provinces with
his condemnation; whilst the Governor of Hunan, since degraded by the
Empress-Dowager, dared to go a step farther, and forbade binding. The
Viceroy of Nanking struck his breast; then lifted up his hands to
heaven, and said it was a good work, and he too would give a writing.
But he died shortly afterwards. The Viceroy of Chihli admonished all
his subordinate officials to discourage binding, each in their
separate districts.
Meanwhile, another most unexpected adherent had come forward. Duke
Kung Hui-chung, one of the lineal descendants of Confucius, wrote: "I
have always had my unquiet thoughts about footbinding, and felt pity
for the many sufferers. Yet I could not venture to say so publicly.
Now there are happily certain benevolent gentlemen and virtuous
daughters of ability, wise daughters from foreign lands, who have
initiated a truly noble enterprise. They have addressed our women in
animated exhortations, and founded a society for the prohibition of
footbinding. They aim at extinguishing a pernicious custom." And he
applied for copies of all our tracts that he might compile a book out
of the best ones and circulate it.
[Illustration: FAMILY OF LITERATI, LEADERS IN THE ANTI-FOOTBINDING
MOVEMENT IN THE WEST OF CHINA.
_By Mrs. Archibald Little._]
We were naturally immensely pleased by his phrase "wise daughters from
foreign lands," and began to forget that any one had ever laughed at
us, as Chinese ladies now came forward to start a school for girls of
the upper classes, the first rule of which is that all who enter it
must mutually exhort one another to unbind their feet. Shanghai ladies
held drawing-room meetings, where they heard from Chinese ladies
themselves how they were never free from pain, admired their elegant
raiment, and shuddered over the size of their feet; whilst a meeting
was held at one of the principal silk factories, when about a thousand
Chinese women were addressed by European and Chinese ladies on the
subject.
As showing the Chinese view of the matter, it may interest some to
read a rough sketch of the famous Suifu Appeal, that has had such an
awakening influence over China. It is not at all what English people
would write; but there is no doubt that it does appeal to the hearts
of Chinese.
Recalling the anti-footbinding edict of the Emperor Shun Chih
(1644-1662), the immediate predecessor of Kang Hsi--an edict too much
ignored--and pronouncing footbinding actually illegal, Mr. Chou begins
without any preliminary flourish with the statement that "No crime is
more criminal than disobedience to the Emperor, no pain more injurious
than the breaking of the bones and sinews. Even the most stupid man
knows this." He dilates upon the wickedness of disobeying the Emperor
Shun Chih's edict, and disregarding the precepts of Confucius, who
taught that men should respect and not injure their own bodies. "But
now," he says, "they have their young daughters' feet bound tightly
till they bleed, and the bones and sinews are broken.... Manchus and
Mongols and Chinese bannermen do not bind their women's feet, upper
and lower classes alike.... The provinces of Chihli, Kwangtung, and
Kwangsi, after the Taiping rebellion was suppressed, acknowledged
footbinding was wrong, and the half of them abandoned the practice. In
Szechuan Province, in the cities of Pengchou and Peng-chi-hien,
Hung-ya, and Sa-chang, there are some wise men who have changed this
fashion of small feet into natural feet. Let other places do the
same."
Then Mr. Chou refers to the countries beyond the seas--England,
France, Germany, America, etc. The women there are free from the pains
of footbinding. Only the Chinese voluntarily incur suffering and
injury; parents neglect teaching their daughters the five womanly
virtues; and teach them instead a bad custom, spoiling their feet. He
next points out that "distinctions of rank are not indicated by the
feet. Moreover, the laws of the empire ordain the punishment of the
wicked by cutting in pieces, beheading, and strangling; but there is
nothing about binding of the feet: the laws are too merciful for that.
When in a fight or quarrel people's limbs are injured, there is an
appointed punishment. But people have their young daughters' feet
broken on purpose, not heeding their cries and pain. And yet parents
are said to love their daughters. For what crime are these tender
children punished? Their parents cannot say. It makes the daughters
cry day and night, aching with pain. It is a hundred times as bad a
punishment as robbers get. If a man is beaten in the _yamen_, he can
get over it in a fortnight. But if a girl's feet are bound, she
suffers from it all her life long, and her feet can never regain their
natural shape."
Mr. Chou has no patience with fathers who torture their little
daughters because their ancestors did it. "I do not think much," he
says, "of such respect for ancestors." Then he goes to the practical
side of the question, and shows how, if robbers come or a fire breaks
out, the men of the family have to leave the women behind (as they
actually do) to commit suicide, or suffer a still worse fate. Whereas,
if the women had natural feet, they could defend themselves, or
escape, as well as the men. Men should not despise girls with natural
feet. "In times of calamity the noble and rich are the first to
suffer, because their women, brought up in ease and luxury, cannot
escape. If any accident suddenly occurs, they can but sit and await
death; whilst those with unbound feet can carry heavy things or use
weapons, and need not fear being left behind or killed. They can even
be trained in military exercises, so as to defend themselves against
attack, and thus enjoy security. This is the happy course."
It is a man's business, Mr. Chou says he hears foolish people say, to
defend women; but from ancient times to the present day even high
officials have not always succeeded in defending their wives. And the
inability of the women to escape leads to the death of the men who
stay to defend them, and so the family perishes. "I hope people will
be wise and intelligent, and give up this stupidity."
"The present is no time of peace. Foreign women have natural feet;
they are daring, and can defend themselves; whilst Chinese women have
bound feet, and are too weak even to bear the weight of their own
clothes. They think it looks nice; but in reality it does not look
nice, and weakens their bodies, often causing their death. I am a
student, a man of no use in the world; but I must try to do people
some good, and I may be of some use by writing this. The people in
Szechuan Province are numerous and crowded together, and there are
many idlers and bad characters. Many unforeseen things may arise. Am I
right or wrong?"
Many people ask whether it is possible for women to unbind. It is not
only possible, but many women have done so, and can not only walk now,
but declare they are free from suffering. It is, however, obvious that
their feet cannot regain their natural shape; and probably it is even
in some cases impossible to dispense with the bandages. In all cases
unbinding is a painful process, requiring much care. Cotton-wool has
to be pushed under the toes; massage is generally resorted to; and not
uncommonly the woman has to lie in bed for some days. But I have seen
many women who have unbound at forty, and one even at sixty. All those
I have seen have done so under direct Christian influence; but I have
heard of large groups of Chinese women unbinding quite apart from all
foreign influence. And so, with Chinese literati writing
anti-footbinding tracts; a Chinese Viceroy circulating one with a
preface of his own; a descendant of Confucius collating and
distributing our publications; the leading Chinese periodical
advocating our cause; an influential Chinese Anti-footbinding Society
established in Shanghai; and, best of all, Chinese ladies of
distinction coming forward to found a school for girls of the upper
classes,--it seems almost as if we had already set the women of China
on their feet again. But with this reaction set in at Peking, it may
be that the hardest and fiercest part of the fight is yet to come, and
that Chinese women may yet need more help from us before the custom of
a thousand years is for all time done away, and "golden lily" shoes
only to be found in the shape of Liberty pincushions.
[Illustration: BRIDGE NEAR SOOCHOW.]