Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve

“Human Life is like a sunbeam passing through a crack”.  Exceptional people achieve much in that fraction of time and one is surely Lady Tan, Tan Yunxian, a pioneer in women’s medicine, who employed her knowledge and skills in fifteenth century China.

In her book about this brilliant woman, Lisa See had threaded fact with an imagined reconstruction based upon research. This enabled her to learn much of the customs, lifestyle and even dress, as well as studying the writings of Yunxian herself.  The book that emerges is not only fascinating but enormously enjoyable to read. Actual traditional Chinese remedies and herbal treatments are copiously included and it is clear that doctors then were highly regarded and successfully worked in their profession.

As a very young girl, Yunxian realised that a male doctor, although he thoroughly questioned a patient, by his very nature was not equipped to understand the plight of females who sought medical aid. He was also restricted by his having to diligently ask these questions while standing behind a screen, as society dictated.

Her Grandmother inspired her and as she matured, her knowledge expanded, her reputation grew until she eventually attended the Empress in her compound in The Forbidden City.

Lisa See does not concentrate solely on women’s health and the complications of childbirth in China. Yunxian made a lifelong friend in Meiling, a midwife of lowly birth. The dramas involved in maintaining their friendship are sensitively drawn, and their connection leads to a much darker aspect of what was, superficially, a society ruled by a refined, educated elite strictly  governed by protocols.

A crime is exposed and the ensuing judicial process is high drama redolent of Shakespeare.

Women of Yunxian’s position were not free in the sense that they only left their homes to join their husband’s family, leaving the familiar to be again confined in a compound of courtyards, gardens and rooms. When, almost fifty, she became Lady Tan in that family, she was able to decree that all, including children, could venture out beyond these confines to witness the thrills of the annual Dragon Race.

Unsurprisingly, men were absolutely dominant in China in her lifetime. The cruelest example of this is the fact that from age 3 or 4 a girl was subjected to the torture of their feet being bound. The process was excruciatingly painful, its aim to break four toes so they stayed under the ball of the foot. The tiny foot that resulted made walking difficult and dangerous. Women with this affliction lived lives in constant pain, often reduced to tears.

All this suffering was for the erotic pleasure of the male.

The production of a male heir overhung the pleasures of ‘bedroom affairs’. Failure was borne by the wife who was then supplanted by a Concubine. Relationships could be fraught but often friendly and respectful in this account of Lady Tan’s life.

The language is frequently poetic: ‘She was radiant as though she had swallowed a cup full of stars’.

The Chinese decreed that the stages of life for a woman were, picturesquely, ‘milk days, hair pinning days, salt and rice days and finally, sitting quietly days’.  Euphemisms too are frequent. The uterus is always ‘the Child Palace’ the chamber pot is ‘the Honey Pot’, sex is ‘bedroom affairs’.

This, and the  charm of place names like the Garden of Fragrant Delights, makes this story of a woman who was not afraid to act without hesitation, a beautiful example of how important and interesting it is to know the history of the practice of medicine…an essential to us all.

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

[2023]

by Lisa See

Scribner

ISBN 978 139852 606 8

$32.99; 348pp

 

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