China has diverse customs and stylesas regards its traditional dress culture, and the abundance and varietyof Chinese footwear justifies its being singled out from other items ofapparel to be studied separately as “shoe culture”. Footwear is aninteresting facet of the many aspects of Chinese culture.
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Men’s palace shoes during the Qing Dynasty were straightforward. They were slim but virile. |
From “Foot Clothing” to Leather Boots
Ancient Chinese distinguished the mainitems of dress as “upper clothing,” “lower clothing” and “footclothing,” the latter referring to both shoes and socks. In the ancientscript engraved on bone and tortoise shell it depicts a whole animalhide that has been trimmed and stretched out. This would indicate that,at the time written Chinese was being formulated, socks and shoes wereboth related to leather. In ancient times there was, in fact, nodistinction between shoes and socks. The ancients would protect theirfeet by cutting out pieces of animal hide, wrapping them around theirfeet, and securing them with leather thongs. According toarchaeologists, this kind of foot wrapping first appeared in the OldStone Age.
Later, in the process of makingfootwear ancient people learned to use bone needles, to dry and hammeranimal tendons thin enough to use as thread, to dye animal hides withanimal fats and plant juices, and to rub the hides with their hands tomake them soft. This practice formed the basis of the method throughwhich shoes would later be made.
The earliest pair of leather shoes inexistance in China is a 4,000-year-old pair of boots made from sheephide, worn by a mummified female corpse discovered in the ruins of theancient kingdom of Loulan, in the deserts of Xinjiang Uygur AutonomousRegion. The lower and upper parts were sewn together using thick hidethreads.
The ancient nomads of north China woreboots made from a variety of materials. Tibetan boots were made of yakhide, the Oroqen people used roe deer hides, and the Hezhen people usedfish skin. The Huns were more sophisticated in their boot-makingmethods and used sheep wool rolled into felt as their basic material.
Leather boots were first introducedinto the Central Plains area by King Wuling of the State of Zhao duringthe Warring States Period (475–221 BC). In 325 BC, threatened bycontending states, King Wuling decided to replace his warring chariotswith mounted archers. The king dispensed with the traditional looserobes and wooden soled, flax-fabric shoes normally worn in battle,dressing his cavalrymen instead in tunics, pants and boots modeled onthe attire of the northern nomads, thus making his troops one of thestrongest and best protected of the time.
