TY  - BOOK
AU  - See,Lisa
TI  - Lady Tan's circle of women: a novel 
SN  - 9781982117085
AV  - PS3569.E3334 L33 2023
U1  - 813/.54 23/eng/20230519
PY  - 2023///
CY  - New York
PB  - Scribner
KW  - Women physicians
KW  - Fiction
KW  - Aristocracy (Social class)
KW  - Female friendship
KW  - Midwives
KW  - Women
KW  - China
KW  - Arranged marriage
KW  - Sex role
KW  - fast
KW  - History
KW  - Ming dynasty, 1368-1644
KW  - Historical fiction
KW  - Domestic fiction
KW  - lcgft
KW  - Novels
N1  - Includes bibliographical references
N2  - Sent into an arranged marriage, Tan Yunxian, forbidden to continue her work as a midwife-in-training as well as see her forever friend Meiling, is ordered to act like proper wife and seeks a way to continue treating women and girls from every level of society in fifteenth-century China; "According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian--born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness--is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations--looking, listening, touching, and asking--something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose--despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it--and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife--embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts?" --
ER  -