TY  - SOUND
AU  - See,Lisa
AU  - Lim,Jennifer
AU  - Chien,Justin
TI  - Lady Tan's circle of women
SN  - 9781797150338
PY  - 2023///
CY  - [New York, NY]
PB  - Simon & Schuster Audio
KW  - Women physicians
KW  - Fiction
KW  - Aristocracy (Social class)
KW  - China
KW  - Female friendship
KW  - Arranged marriage
KW  - Women
KW  - Social conditions
KW  - 15th century
KW  - History
KW  - Ming dynasty, 1368-1644
KW  - Audiobooks
KW  - lcgft
KW  - Domestic fiction
KW  - Historical fiction
N1  - Title from container; Read by Jennifer Lim & Justin Chien
N2  - 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  -