Books
This historical novel by the American writer starts from the viewpoint of an eight year old girl in 1489 in regimented China. Being born in the year of the Metal Snake, she aspires to follow the family tradition and becomes a doctor by age 15. Her mother dies of infection because of the widespread practice of binding feet. She is widely scorned by the established extremely misogynous medical establishment
Concubines jockey for position, often with the help of wives, herbal concoctions abound and endless lists have to be memorized all numbered, including Five concepts, Five Depot organs, Seven emotions, Five Fatigues, Four vices, Five Deaths, Four examinations, 28 or 100 different pulses, and Four Quintessential attributes. The Smallpox Plant master visits to supposedly prevent that deadly disease with variolation. There is a Period of Three Letters and Six Etiquettes, Six Pernicious Influences, and the Decoction of Four Gentlemen. At age eight, her betrothal is already settled, seven years hence.
Once she is married, she also gets the most devious hostile controlling mother-in-law imaginable when she gives birth to girls, not the desired boy.
Moxibustion points ( applying herbal heat) to the many acupuncture sites are used to treat many illnesses.
A woman with menstrual problems is assessed by Dr. Tan. “You’re suffering from Spleen qi deficiency and injured Kidney yin caused by taxation from toil, …. This type of deep fatigue can come from too much work or from extreme mental doings like studying too hard.”
The cure is equally confusing. “First, please have the herbalist make you a Decoction to Supplement the Center and Boost Qi.”
In a different setting: “ I’ll start with herbs to end your bleeding and continue the Decoction of Four substances and the Decoction of Two aged ingredients. I’ll supplement the latter with cardamom to regulate your qi,…. and the immature bitter orange to promote healing.”
The intrigue and deviousness of the elite Chinese households is impossible to exaggerate, but Lady Tan was a real physician, mainly treating women and childbirth problems and left copious notes for this author to develop into her novel.
There are literally hundreds of trite Chinese aphorisms that become quite tedious.
This book is soberingly educational, even more-so than the author’s previous The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. But both are so far removed from any science and modern western medicine that I had trouble relating to them.
3.5/5
Thanks, Book Club 2.
The Passionate Reader 