What Was It like to Be a Female Doctor during the Ming Dynasty?

image via New Scientist

February 27, 2025, 4:00 PM

Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a novel by Lisa See, based on Tan Yunxian's original book, Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor, translated to English by Lorraine Wilcox. The novel tells the story of Tan Yunxian, an elite woman born into a family of doctors in China during the Ming Dynasty. Tan Yunxian was a hereditary doctor and had studied medicine with her grandmother. She was also highly literate and read all the medical texts in translation. Tan Yunxian wrote a book of her cases, which was published in 1511. The book is a collection of 50 cases, each of which describes a woman's illness and how Tan Yunxian treated her. Tan Yunxian's book is unique because it is one of the few medical texts written by a woman during the Ming Dynasty. It is also one of the few medical texts that focuses on women's health. Tan Yunxian's book is a valuable resource for historians and scholars

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