Cinderella’s Lessons on Footbinding: How Tiny Feet Found their Way into the Chinese Cinderella Story

Cinderella: Bound To ChinaShoes, slippers, feet and sandals play one of the most pivotal roles in the prominent Cinderella stories through the tale's history. Tracing versions of the tale geographically as it spread throughout Central Asia and then throughout the globe can exemplify the different traditions and mores a society entrusts to the story. However, feet and their coverings survive all of these retellings after a certain point. Footbinding and the spread of early versions of the Cinderella tale share the same time periods in the ninth-century, and the tradition of footbinding makes a lasting impact on the story once it begins moving from southern China.1Review of the LiteratureThe popularly agreed upon origin for the tale is in southern China and is thought to have been recorded by Duan Chengshi in the early ninth-century. He is credited with recording the tale of Yeh-Shen, a mistreated stepchild who is subjected to hardship but later is elevated by her selection for a marriage into power and affluence. The most extensive research on the tale's origin is authored by Marian Cox who catalogued and classified over three-hundred variants of the tale throughout the world, in her book Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O'Rushes.2 She explains the motifs required in the construction of a Cinderella tale. Cox states that the 'Type A motif,' the most common in Cinderella tales, is made up of two key elements, an 'ill-treated heroine' and her 'recognition by means of a shoe.'3 These same motifs are utilized by Anna Birgitta Rooth, who updates and augments the work of Cox by bringing another 300 versions of the tale to the attention of researchers in her work, The Cinderella Cycle.4 Alan Dundes compiles the scholarship of both Cox and Rooth, along with many others, in his book, Cinderella: A Casebook.5 The variants pointed out by Rooth, Cox and Dundes display that the tales which reach Europe maintain the shoe motif. Charles Perrualt's recording the Little Glass Slipper in 1697 made the impact on the westernization of the story. However Perrault's version allows for Cinderella to be noticed for her beauty and elegance, and even adds a meeting between the Prince and Cinderella before their marriage. These aspects are missing from Yeh-Shen.6 Later, in 1812, the Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their collection of stories; they also maintained the shoe motif and also allow for a meeting between Cinderella and the prince before his obtaining her slipper. These two well-known European versions of the story represent the versions after their journey through China.Yeh-Shen was brought to the attention of the scholarly community in 1947 when Arthur Waley published his paper, The Chinese Cinderella Story.7 His translation of the folktale recorded by Duan Chengshi in the ninth-century became the definitive text for the story. Waley credits the roots of his version of the story with the 'aborigines in the extreme south of China.'8 The evidence of geography and the time period point to the 'aborigines' Waley spoke of as the people of the Yungchow Clan. Duan Chengshi actually stated in his original text that the story was obtained by his servant, Li Shih Yuan, who was from the Yungchow familial group in the region.9Although the story is widely regarded as having its roots in the southern most part of China, Wayne Schlepp argues that a version of the tale of Ye Shen can be found in Tibet and it predates the Chengshi record. 10 He cites the Tibetan collection tales, The Twenty-five Stories of the Magic Corpse, in which similar motifs from the story Yeh-Shen are observed. In the translated tale presented by Schlepp the main character is tricked into killing her own mother and then moves in with two ogresses who mistreat her. When she is granted wishes from her mother, who has been reincarnated as a cow, she attends a local fair and there catches the eye of a prince. …