03538cam a2200529 4500 1130163706 TxAuBib 20240123120000.0 230616s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2022513676 9781982117085 hc. 1982117087 hc. 9781398526051 hardback 1398526053 hardback TxAuBib See, Lisa, author. Lady Tan's circle of women : a novel / Lisa See. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York : Scribner, 2023. ©2023. 352 pages ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references. 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?" -- Provided by publisher. 20240123. 1368-1644. fast Women physicians Fiction. Aristocracy (Social class) Fiction. Female friendship Fiction. Midwives Fiction. Women China Fiction. Arranged marriage Fiction. Sex role Fiction. Aristocracy (Social class.) fast Female friendship. fast Women physicians. fast China History Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 Fiction. China. fast Historical fiction. fast Fiction. fast Domestic fiction. fast Historical fiction. fast History. fast Domestic fiction. fast Novels. fast TXBVM