Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Maoren brings a high-ranking official to visit. The women of the inner chambers are fascinated by the official’s wife, Lady Liu, and her mother, Widow Bao. The official works for the emperor, seeking boys and men to become eunuchs in the imperial palace. Widow Bao has heard Yunxian is a doctor for women and describes the illness of her other daughter, who has lost both her children. Yunxian suggests a remedy for the daughter’s depression, and for Widow Bao, who is going through menopause. The visiting women observe Meiling while she attends a young wife who is in pain because she just gave birth and is neglected by her husband.

Despite trying, Yunxian is not able to conceive a son. Lady Kuo arranges to buy Maoren a concubine. The girl is 14 and named Snowpink. Yunxian feels sad and defeated.

Meiling is summoned to serve as midwife at the imperial palace, and Yunxian helps her prepare for the journey to Beijing. Maoren scolds Yunxian because Meiling, and not their family, has been elevated by their visitors.

Three months later, Yunxian is summoned to Beijing to treat a woman with an eye infection. Yunxian says she cannot go as she is pregnant, but Maoren insists she take this opportunity. Miss Zhao and Poppy travel with her. Yunxian treats the woman who steers the boat, who appears to have symptoms of neurological damage.

After five weeks of travel, Yunxian arrives at the Forbidden City. They are escorted into the Great Within, the inner chambers for the imperial women. Meiling welcomes them, and Yunxian sees she is pregnant. The woman Yunxian has been called to attend is the empress.

The Hongzhi emperor has no concubines and only one wife: Empress Zhang. Yunxian is nervous about treating her, but after her eye infection clears up, the empress decides she wants a woman doctor to attend her childbirth. Both Yunxian and Meiling will have to stay in Beijing. They take comfort in one another’s company and imagine their children will grow up together.

Yunxian doctors Meiling through her pregnancy and is concerned when Meiling experiences severe morning sickness. When the empress goes into labor, so does Meiling. Meiling insists on staying to attend to the empress, who gives birth to a boy. Before Meiling can leave the room, she delivers a stillborn daughter. Meiling is devastated.

Yunxian tends Meiling, who has lost a great deal of blood. Meiling is seized and brought before the emperor, accused of offending the empress and polluting her chambers. The emperor orders that Meiling be put to death, but the empress intercedes. Yunxian pleads on Meiling’s behalf, and so do the other women present. The sentence is commuted to a flogging.

When Meiling is brought back to her rooms, beaten and bleeding, Yunxian violates the taboo on touching blood to wash and tend her. She cuts a vein in her wrist and mixes her own blood into a healing tea. A doctor who treats war wounds advises Yunxian to use spiderwebs to close the wounds on Meiling’s back. Meiling’s emotions need healing as well, and Yunxian is distressed that she missed the signs that something was wrong.

Yunxian weeps tears of joy when she at last gives birth to a son. She prepares to return home with her son and Meiling. The empress sends Yunxian many gifts, which Yunxian plans to share with Meiling. They ride with the same tiller woman, who has improved thanks to Yunxian’s prescription.

Meiling confesses that she took the preparation Doctor Wong sent Yunxian for her pregnancy. She feels guilty for stealing, but when she describes the ingredients, Yunxian recognizes several abortifacients—ingredients that would cause a miscarriage. They arrive home, and Yunxian promises she will visit Meiling.

Smallpox has struck the Garden of Fragrant Delights. Lady Kuo asks Yunxian to help. Yunxian gives her son, Lian, to a wetnurse and goes to the garden, where the sick have been taken. Miss Chen is among them, along with her son, Manzi, and Yunxian’s daughter, Ailan. Snowpink, the concubine, and her infant son die despite Yunxian’s tending. Yunxian toils to help the afflicted, though she feels she is failing at every death. Miss Chen assists. Doctor Wong stays away.

Grandmother Ru arrives to help, along with Miss Zhao, and Yunxian takes heart as Ailan recovers. Grandmother Ru wonders why Doctor Wong would prescribe Yunxian a tea that would cause a miscarriage. She reminds Yunxian of how she once treated a “ghost pregnancy”—a pregnancy that occurs in widows or wives and concubines whose husbands and masters are far from home. While Yunxian thinks that anger is the emotion most often at the root of women’s illnesses, Grandmother reflects that sadness was at the heart of the affliction that killed Yunxian’s mother. Grieved over the loss of her sons, she neglected to care for her damaged feet and so took infection and died.

Manzi dies from smallpox, and Yunxian realizes he doesn’t resemble Master Yang. She remembers how Spinster Aunt wanted to tell Yunxian something the night before she died and concludes that Manzi’s father was someone else.

After the smallpox threat is over, Miss Chen is sent away with her last surviving child. Yunxian visits Meiling and discusses her suspicions. Midwife Shi, Meiling’s mother, confirms that, at his birth, Miss Chen identified Doctor Wong as Manzi’s father. Yunxian writes to her father, now a high-ranking magistrate, who arrives to conduct an inquiry.

Her father-in-law and husband scold her again, but Yunxian is prepared to give her evidence. Spinster Aunt’s body is exhumed and the fracture on her skull indicates that she was struck from behind. Witnesses locate the rock that cracked her skull. Meiling describes the remedy she took in Beijing and the miscarriage that resulted. Poppy reveals that she was instructed by Doctor Wong to make the remedy for Yunxian.

Doctor Wong protests that a magistrate should not be swayed by the mutterings of women. Then, Midwife Shi testifies that Miss Chen identified Doctor Wong as being Manzi’s father. Spinster Aunt knew this also. Doctor Wong confesses that he conspired with Miss Chen to have a son who would rule the Yang household, and he meant for Yunxian to miscarry so she could not have a son to rival Manzi.

Maoren is not pleased at the family scandal, but Yunxian’s father is proud of what Yunxian has accomplished as a doctor. When Yunxian is frustrated that her father did not call all possible witnesses, he warns Yunxian to consider who else might have conspired with Miss Chen to produce a son for the Yang family.

Yunxian visits her grandmother, who is dying from a tumor in her breast. Grandmother bequeaths Yunxian her books and medical supplies. Yunxian stays until her grandmother passes, then performs the duties necessary to prepare and inter the body and observe the mourning rites.

When she returns home, Yunxian becomes ill and experiences delirium. She dreams that Grandmother visits and chides Yunxian for giving in to melancholy, which has always been her weakness. The ghost of Grandmother tells Yunxian that she encouraged her friendship with Meiling to provide yang to balance Yunxian’s yin. Grandmother tells Yunxian exactly where in her casebook to look for a remedy. Grandmother thinks that a doctor who has experienced illness can treat her patients with better understanding.

Yunxian finds the remedy, and Meiling helps her prepare it. Yunxian heals. When she is well, Yunxian confronts her mother-in-law. Lady Kuo confesses that she instructed Doctor Wong and Miss Chen to give her a ritual son in case something happened to Maoren. Lady Kuo insists that everything she has done has been to make sure the family endures, and she has been training Yunxian to take up this same responsibility. She did not expect Doctor Wong to become ambitious and try to harm Yunxian, however. Seeking forgiveness, Lady Kuo says she will approve of Yunxian practicing medicine, but only inside the compound. She asks Yunxian to treat her, and Yunxian extracts an enormous tapeworm from Lady Kuo’s intestines.

Next, Yunxian prepares remedies that help Meiling conceive again. She prepares her daughter, Yuelan, for her marriage. She locates Miss Chen and helps find customers for Miss Chen’s embroidery skills so she can support herself and her daughter. Meiling gives birth to a healthy son. Reflecting that she is 31 years of age, with many rice-and-salt years ahead of her, Yunxian resolves to use what her grandmother taught her to “heal women. Without fear. Without hesitation” (320).