Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Shi Meiling is Yunxian’s lifelong friend. She is very beautiful and the only daughter of Midwife Shi. Meiling does not have a father. Her feet are not bound, so she is able to move freely, but she learns from Yunxian how to behave like a fine lady, as well as how to read and write. Where Yunxian is cautious, Meiling is exuberant. She is full of energy, curiosity, and compassion. Meiling is ambitious and wants to advance herself and her husband, but she does so through hard work and honest means. Meiling enjoys taking care of people. She is kind-hearted, funny, and resourceful, as when she disguises Yunxian to take her to meet a friend. She is also resilient: Even after her miscarriage and beating, when she is at her lowest point, she resolves to survive and recover.

Meiling’s companionship adds joy and grace to Yunxian’s life, and not only does she help nurse Yunxian during her illnesses, but she also helps Yunxian compile her book by helping her decide which cases to include. While Meiling admits to feeling jealous of Yunxian and has selfish motives for taking the prescription that Doctor Wong gave Yunxian during her fourth pregnancy, she suffers deeply in response and confesses to Yunxian, hoping to repair their friendship. She shares much with Yunxian, including selling her teas to please her demanding mother-in-law, and is grateful when Yunxian helps her conceive and safely give birth to a treasured son, her only child.

Grandmother Ru acts as one of Yunxian’s valued circle of women, providing instruction, guidance, and care through Yunxian’s life and beyond. Grandmother Ru comes from a line of hereditary doctors—medical practitioners who have passed on the knowledge, customs, and remedies that comprise what is known in the West as Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Grandmother Ru is wise, level-headed, compassionate, selfless, and while she conforms to Confucian ideals in her behavior, she has a broader social vision than what her culture maintains. Though girls are less valued in Yunxian’s culture, Grandmother takes an interest in Yunxian and proves her mentor and guide. She sees how necessary it is for women to understand how to treat other women. She values midwives, which is a trade held in contempt by the higher classes, and she encourages the friendship between Meiling and Yunxian, foreseeing the benefit this crossing of social strata will bring to both girls.

Grandmother Ru is a good doctor and an affectionate grandmother. She continues to guide and instruct Yunxian throughout her life. Even when she is ill with a tumor of the breast, Grandmother helps Yunxian during the smallpox epidemic. While Yunxian may simply be feverish with illness when she imagines Grandmother visits after her death, it is very much in line with Grandmother’s practical, resourceful, and determined personality to show up in her dream, demand Yunxian heal herself, and tell her exactly where in her case notes to find the remedy Yunxian needs. Grandmother gives her pharmacy to Yunxian, showing her trust and belief that Yunxian is becoming a doctor who can truly help people.

Lady Kuo is Yunxian’s mother-in-law. Lady Kuo became the top woman in her husband’s household at the young age of 29 when her husband’s parents died of typhus. She has a high forehead and wears her hair in elaborate buns. She rules “with an iron fist” (100) and is quick to scold, though she never has the servants beaten so badly they cannot work the next day.

Yunxian finds her strict, disapproving, and cold, but this is because Lady Kuo values obedience and duty above all else in The Conflict Between Tradition and Ambition. She is willing to push Doctor Wong into Miss Chen’s bed in order to produce another son for the Yang household. In other ways, Lady Kuo’s pride and adherence to duty and appearance prove harmful. She is too proud to ask Yunxian to treat her, even though Yunxian knows the proper remedy. The tapeworm that inhabits Lady Kuo’s insides is a metaphor for her twisted view of the world, and the way she feeds on the energy and work of others for her own ends.