02580cam a2200313 i 4500 838696342 TxAuBib 20230609120000.0 221015s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781982117085 hardcover 1982117087 hardcover (OCoLC)1347428005 TxAuBib rda See, Lisa, 1955-, author. Lady Tan's Circle of Women : A Novel / Lisa See. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York : Scribner, 2023. 352 pages ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier 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? 20230609. Women Physicians Fiction. Aristocracy (Social Class) China Fiction. Arranged Marriage Fiction. Women China Social conditions 15th century Fiction. Historical Fiction.