The general view is that the practice is likely to have originated in the time of the 10th century Emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang, just before the Song dynasty. Li Yu created a tall golden lotus decorated with precious stones and pearls, and asked his concubine Yao Niang to bind her feet in white silk into the shape of the crescent moon and perform a dance on the points of her feet on the lotus. Yao Niang's dance was said to be so graceful that others sought to imitate her. The binding of feet was then replicated by other upper-class women, and the practice spread.