Foot Binding In Ancient China

Between 1644 and 1911 China was in a new dynasty called the Qing Dynasty, during the Qing Dynasty many new foreigners migrated into China, to trade their merchandise with the chinese. This had great influence on the chinese people and culture, which lead to a number of events occurring during this period. For so long China was isolated, and that was because: in the East; laid the vast Pacific ocean, South; lay mountain ranges and dense jungles, North; laid the cold yet piercing sun of the Gobi desert, and in the West; the rough and jagged mountains of the Tibetan Plateau. Having this isolation was a benefit to the chinese people, it gave them more arable land and resources, along with new materials and more population growth expansion (R darlington,

G Smithies, A Wood, 2012).

In the 10th century, practises of foot binding began in China, by doing this woman were seen as beautiful and very good to marry.

This slowly finished in the 1900’s, because it was severely painful, however there were still a very small portion of people binding their feet, to well up to 10 years after it was declared illegal. Woman in traditional China were not seen as important people. When a woman was married, the male was to make sure that she could produce a son, this was because a male was the man in power of China, and was always the man in charge of their household. As a good basic wife in traditional China, you would have had to be a woman who can; cook, look after her husband, give him sons, and be willing to eat bitterness (Woman in China, 2013).

Prior to the mid nineteenth century, four occupations applied to men, these were

Shi - aristocrats, philosophers and government administrators

Nong - farmers; considered important because they grew the food that fed the

nation
Gong - artists and craftsmen; also valued because they produced goods essential to society
Shang - merchants; placed at the lowest recognised level because they did not produce anything but rather profited from others’ work. (R Darlington, G Smithies, A Wood, 2015). This having been because men were able to do more in society. Men new a decent amount more than women in society, because they got higher educational knowledge than most women. This lead to men; crafting and build homes, as well as it kept the town running. All women were to do was cook and produce more sons, so that the villages could become more stable and stronger. Children in traditional China at a young age were schooled in the Confucian virtues of humanity, honesty, knowledge, integrity and manners. When they would reached an age of about five years old, peasant boys would begin helping in the fields and girls would begin taking part in household chores. If children were of higher social standing, education continued, although learning was strictly in line with Confucian. Because sons/men were able to run the village, they were to stay in the family and contribute to its success (stay with the same name). A young girl (5-13) was usually sold off to people, (the people that are selling their daughter may pay for someone else to have it; not get money in return for their daughters) as they did not want them. During times of hardship, a boy’s health and wellbeing would be put ahead, that of a girls. Subsequently, many more girls died during harsh times than boys.

The first foreigner to explore China was Marco polo. On his return home he wrote an account of his voyage, which influence other explorers to explore China. Over the next few centuries, several countries established colonies, and made their presence known in China. The first foreigners to arrive in China were the Jesuit missionaries, They traveled around China preaching, and trying to convert chinese to christianity. This caused issues and aggravated imperial rulers, which therefore provoked bans on christianity activity (Alpha History, 2015). Later the Portuguese set up 1 trading port in the 15 hundreds, then further in the 17 hundreds, the British East India trading company commenced. The Qing leadership, tried to restrict the foreign trade, and introduced the Canton system, where foreign companies were to trade with the chinese merchant collective, not the chinese people directly; this however failed.
The first Opium war was one of the most significant events that occurred in China during the Qing Dynasty. Opium was a drug formerly found in plants by the british, and sold off illegally to countries. The first Opium war began, when british were selling opium to the chinese society. The emperor eventually banned this, but the british people didn’t agree. Over years the british people started smuggling thousands of dollars worth of opium into China, through ships (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011 ). The Chinese emperor soon retaliated against this and start the First Opium war. At this time britain was well into the Industrial Revolution, with designs of cannons and working guns. This is a reason as to why china got massively beaten in the Opium war, as their arrows stood no chance. Once the war was over China was forced to sign a humiliating treaty. This was the treaty of Nanjing. Some long term consequences of this was the Boxer rebellion and the Taiping rebellion.

In the start, China was ruled by the Qing Dynasty which was influenced by Confucianism and was ruled as a peaceful nation.

It was very traditional and the family was considered the building block of society. A range of new foreign food crops were introduced which grew the population and exports of manufactured goods increased to European countries. Although the Chinese were still suspicious of the foreign powers, It was considered an active and growing economy. But then in the 1900’s the Chinese people were not happy with the foreign encroachment, therefore the revolt against the dynasty .They felt the emperor had changed and was now power hungry and unfair believing that they had unlimited power and the people had no say. This lead to several rebellions and war where it further showed the weakness of the Qing and there difficulty in resolving issues with the west. Eventually after 267 years of Dynasty rules China became a republic. (R Darlington, G Smithies, A Wood,

2014).