Lady Tan's Circle of Women

In this Preface to Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor, imperial official Ru Luan notes that women are more difficult to treat than men because of menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth. He suggests his cousin, Lady Tan Yunxian, excelled at treating women because she understood “what it means to be a female on this earth” (iii).

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.