The Chinese custom of binding a young girl's feet plays an important role in The Good Earth. When Wang Lung first sees O-lan, he immediately notes that her feet are not bound; later, he has O-lan bind his daughter's feet. He becomes disgusted with O-lan's feet and is attracted to Lotus partly because of her bound feet. The practice of foot-binding symbolized many things to the Chinese man. To Wang Lung, it symbolizes, among other things, the aristocratic society from which he was excluded.
In a society so old, so large, and so diverse as that of China, it is impossible to accurately trace the origin of such a custom. There are many stories concerning the origin of this custom, and perhaps part of each story has some element of truth. Most authorities claim that the practice started during the T'ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). One of the earliest stories asserts that bound feet originally came from the practice of wearing bow-shoes, which were small shoes with upturned toes and were worn by royal dancers in the royal court. A poet-king (Li Yu) thought fancifully that the dancers would dance more gracefully if their feet were bound in cloth. Consequently, he made his favorite dancer dance with her feet bound in cloth, which was then decorated with pearls and precious stones so as to resemble lotus flowers. The poet-king then wrote verses about the beauty of the dancer's feet, calling them "little golden lotus flowers" or, sometimes, "little golden lilies." Thus because of the beautiful verses written by the king, binding of the feet became a popular and fashionable thing throughout the kingdom. "Lotus" was often another name for bound feet and, thus, Wang Lung's concubine is appropriately named "Lotus."
Another story concerns another king in the T'ang dynasty. This king's concubine decided to have her feet bound in order to make herself more desirable in the king's eyes. The king was so pleased with her attempts to please him and with the beauty of her small feet that the other ladies of the court soon followed the concubine's example in order to please the king.
A third story involves an empress (Tak-ki) during the Shang dynasty. She had club feet and was very ashamed of them and was also jealous of the other women in the court. Consequently, she forced all other women to bind their feet so that they too would become deformed.
