Nihilitarianism

Bound feet should be a warning to the Chinese about what Confucian ideals of conformity lead to. Such psychopathy could only have started among the very powerful, as it would've otherwise been instantly condemned: first the Emperor would've enforced such mutilation, then his next in command, then their next in command, and by the 19th century half of all Chinese families followed in order to marry off their daughters to those powerful people from where it came, because "if they do it, they have to be right." With China so unified that there were few authorities to compete with each other, the madness of one became the madness of all.