Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Respectful Lady, Yunxian’s mother, instructs Yunxian, who is eight years old, on what it means to be a woman. They discuss the stages of a woman’s life: “milk days,” when she is a child; “hair-pinning days,” when she is ready to be married; “rice-and-salt days,” when she is a wife and mother responsible for her children and household; and “the time of sitting quietly,” when she is a widow (5). Much of the instruction, which is based on memorizing texts, has to do with being unobtrusive, serving others, and staying within the inner rooms, keeping to her place in the world. Her mother reminds her that “We are a man’s possessions” and that “We women exist to give him heirs and feed, clothe, and amuse him” (6).

They sit in the courtyard of their home in Laizhou. Yunxian’s father is a prefect in the government. Yunxian’s older brothers died of smallpox, though Yunxian survived. Respectful Lady has adopted Yifeng, the daughter of her husband’s concubine, Miss Zhao, as her ritual son. Yunxian helps Yifeng with his lessons. Her feet hurt from binding, and her mother reminds her that small feet will please her husband. Yunxian notes an unpleasant smell from her mother’s own feet.

Later, when Yunxian and Yifeng visit to pay their respects to their parents, where Yunxian is ignored, Respectful Lady faints. She is carried to her room and laid in her marriage bed. Miss Zhao unbinds her feet to reveal an infected sore, with red running up her legs. Her father instructs Yunxian to speak as the go-between, since a male doctor cannot touch a female patient. As Yunxian conveys the doctor’s inquiries and returns her mother’s answers, she realizes the doctor does not understand there is an infection.

As Respectful Lady worsens, the doctor takes her pulse only after her wrist is wrapped in cloth. In her last lucid moment, Respectful Lady laments that she will not see Yunxian become a wife and mother, and she tells her daughter, “To live is to suffer” (16). She dies, only 28 years of age, and Yunxian feels helpless and guilty.

Miss Zhao conducts Yunxian, Yunxian’s personal maid, Poppy, and Yifeng to Wuxi to live with Yunxian’s paternal grandparents while her father goes to Beijing to take the next level of imperial exams. This is the first time Yunxian has been outside her family home, and she is disappointed that she must ride to the dock in a palanquin, a kind of covered chair, while Poppy, who has big feet, runs behind.

On the boat, Miss Zhao persuades the boatmen to let the women remain on deck, where Yunxian is able to see the passing scenery. Miss Zhao does not try to replace Yunxian’s mother but continues her education, teaching her that a woman’s duty is to “give birth to sons, uphold rules, and perform rituals that will guarantee a family’s success” (22). Miss Zhao instructs Yunxian to find female friendship where she can.

They arrive at her grandparents’ home, the Mansion of Golden Light. The high threshold at the gate indicates the family’s importance. The housekeeper shows them to their rooms, in the most inner of the five courtyards. Yunxian finds that her mother’s marriage bed has been set up in her room. Yunxian meets Grandfather Tan and Lady Ru, who welcome her with kindness.

Yunxian joins her grandparents in the pharmacy where they make remedies for their medical practices. Her grandfather learned medicine through books, and her grandmother learned through family tradition and practice. They discuss the pregnancy of Lady Huang, a nephew’s wife, and explain that midwives are considered of low status because they touch blood and are called to prove “virginity” or examine corpses, but they are necessary during childbirth.

Grandmother teaches Yunxian that qi is “the pulsation of the cosmos” (34) while the body is a reflection of the cosmos, governed by the forces of yin and yang. Illnesses in the body arise from an imbalance of yin and yang, which the physician seeks to repair.

Yunxian observes as Grandmother Ru attends Lady Huang and meets Midwife Shi and her daughter, Meiling, who is Yunxian’s age. Grandmother Ru performs the Four Examinations, which include listening to the pulse, and prescribes a remedy. The midwife massages the pregnant woman’s belly. Yunxian finds out that Meiling was also born in the Year of the Snake. Yunxian shares a saying of her mother’s: “no mud, no lotus” (41), which means that good can come out of adversity. The girls play, and Yunxian is dismayed that while Meiling can run and skip, she cannot because of her bound feet. Grandmother Ru asks if Yunxian wants to learn women’s medicine, and Yunxian is eager to begin.

Yunxian isn’t sure of her place within the hierarchy of the inner chambers, where position among the large extended family is determined by relationship to her grandfather. The concubines fret about their lesser status. Grandmother keeps the peace, reminding Yunxian that Confucian women must be above reproach.

Yunxian learns medicine by memorizing formulas and coming to understand the Five Concepts that govern bodily phenomena: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. She learns the purpose of the organs and the impact of emotions and fatigue. Grandmother teaches her how to identify pulses and understand conception, which happens when Essence meets Blood, and childbirth, which can leave fetal poison in the mother’s body. They also discuss smallpox and the process of variolation, which inoculates children against the disease.

Grandmother Ru teaches Yunxian that women are governed by Blood. It is a woman’s duty to help the women of the household, besides her primary task of giving birth to sons. Yunxian notes her education “continues to be about balancing the cosmos within the body and harmonizing that body to the vast cosmos that surrounds us” (55). She plays with Meiling when Midwife Shi visits. One day, one of the concubines falls. The girls see that she has a broken leg, and Yunxian proposes they set it, but Grandmother insists on calling the bonesetter.

Yunxian accompanies her grandmother to attend Lady Huang’s labor and learns the rituals of childbirth, along with the role of the doctors and midwives.

As Yunxian continues to learn medicine, her betrothal is arranged. Miss Zhao and Poppy discuss how they were raised by a “Tooth Lady” to become “Thin Horses,” women who are sold to men. Poppy refused to bind her feet, which meant she would not be sold as a concubine but rather a servant, though she still must deal with the sexual advances of men in the compound. Miss Zhao says they should focus on raising Yunxian—“We are the circle of good that surrounds her” (66), Miss Zhao says.

Grandmother encourages the close friendship between Yunxian and Meiling, hoping they can learn from one another. Grandmother says, “I want Yunxian to have someone who can share in the care of women and offer comfort when things go wrong” (70). Yunxian’s betrothal is announced; she is to marry Yang Maoren, the son of a wealthy family that produces silk.

The concubine who broke her leg is sold and a new concubine replaces her. Yunxian teaches Meiling to read and write. Her father passes his exams and is appointed to the Board of Punishments in Nanjing. The whole household celebrates as her father visits and introduces his new wife.