| Edition |
Center Point Large Print edition. |
| Description |
549 pages (large print) ; 23 cm |
| Physical Medium |
large print. rdafs |
| Note |
Regular print version previously published by Scribner. |
|
Includes author's note with background information. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Summary |
"According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian -- born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness -- is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations -- looking, listening, touching, and asking -- something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose -- despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it -- and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife -- embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights."-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Tan, Zhonglin, 1822-1905 -- Fiction.
|
|
Women physicians -- Fiction.
|
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Sex role -- China -- Fiction.
|
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Female friendship -- Fiction.
|
|
Large type books.
|
|
China -- History -- Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 -- Fiction.
|
| Genre/Form |
Historical fiction.
|
|
Large print books.
|
| ISBN |
9781638087748 (hardback : alk. paper) |
|
1638087741 (hardback : alk. paper) |
|
