Lost Women of Science Conversations: Lady Tan's Circle of Women
How a Chinese medical textbook published in 1511 led to a novel about an all-but-forgotten female doctor practicing during the Ming Dynasty
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Show Notes
Lisa See’s novel Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is inspired by a medical textbook published in 1511 by an eminent female doctor, Tan Yunxian. In this episode, we talk to See about the origin of her novel, and to Lorraine Wilcox, the scholar who translated the original Chinese text, about what the practice of medicine was like for a female doctor during the Ming Dynasty. Tan Yunxian was almost lost to history, but the chronicle of her cases was reprinted by a great nephew and, amazingly, one copy survived through the centuries. Through serendipitous scholarly connections, Wilcox translated it and See used that translation as the inspiration for her novel.