Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Imperial China, the 15th century. Tang Yunxian is an aristocrat, and her fate—like the fates of thousands of other daughters of officials—is predetermined: a monotonous life in the inner chambers, unbearable torment from binding her feet, and then a marriage arranged by contract and the mandatory duty to bear a son. But after her mother dies, her father sends the young Yunxian to his parents—doctors. There, under her grandmother’s guidance, the girl plunges headfirst into the study of medicine. According to the Confucian canon, a male doctor must not see women, and a female doctor must not touch blood—yet who will treat women’s ailments? Yunxian and her friend Meiling decide to devote their lives to this. A captivating narrative full of dramatic twists—the new stroke of luck from the famous Lisa Si, author of the novels “Snow Flower and the Enchanted Fan,” “Peony Pavilion,” and “Girls from Shanghai.”