Compact disc. 06/06/2023. Read by Jennifer Lim, Justin Chien.
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 of 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 embroidering bound-foot slippers, plucking instruments, reciting poetry, giving birth to sons, and staying forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
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