Lady Tan's Circle of Women - Lisa See

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian - born into and elite family, 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, Six Pernicious Influences, Seven Emotions - and that the body is a reflection of the cosmos.

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 contract 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 within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later?  How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts?