Locating the 'Four Flower Points' for women with bound feet

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Locating the 'Four Flower Points' for women with bound feet. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Illustration from an edition published in 1848 (28th year of the Daoguang reign period of the Qing dynasty). The practice of foot binding rendered a woman's feet unnaturally small and short. Thus, Master Cui's Four Flower Points (Cui shi sihua xue) could not be located on the basis of foot size after binding. These points therefore came instead to be located by reference to the jianshu (Shoulder Conveyor) point on the right side. For measurement purposes, a piece of string was extended downwards from jianshu to the end of the fleshy part of the middle toe (ignoring the toenail) and cut off.

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