Tan Yunxian 談允賢 was a doctor. She never received a diploma or the official title, but she saved or improved the lives of countless rural people who would not have had access to proper medical care because of their sex.
During the Ming Dynasty, a woman’s modesty and virtue were her most prized possessions, and to protect them the social customs governing interactions between men and women were incredibly strict. Because all doctors at the time were male, women often suffered incomplete or inaccurate diagnoses assuming they could seek medical treatment at all.
A woman was required to bring a male relative to the appointment. The doctor would speak only to this relative, the patient would not be allowed to advocate for herself directly. The physician would be very limited in the physical examination, even taking her pulse would require permission from the watching male protector, and depending on her status, the doctor might not even be allowed to see his patient, examining the woman from behind a screen or vale.
Into this society was born Tan Yunxian. In 1461 she was into a family of respected physicians. Her grandparents noticed that she was incredibly bright and had a thirst for knowledge. During a time when most women were not educated beyond the 4th grade, they took the extraordinary step of training her in the family business. Their intention was probably to have her assist her brothers as a nurse of sorts, and for a while, that is exactly what happened, but their training and her diligent study would eventually result in China’s first female-run practice devoted mostly to obstetrics and pediatrics.
Because Tan could physically examine women when other doctors could not, she garnered significantly better results than her male counterparts. Her female neighbors flocked to her and she became the unofficial local provider specializing in “woman’s issues.” She would birth hundreds of babies and diagnose and treat countless women, but she would never be allowed to bear the title of doctor or run an accredited practice. We only know of her today because of the records of 31 patients that she kept and assembled into a book entitled 女医杂言 Sayings of a Female Doctor. The laws of the day did not permit printers and booksellers to reproduce or circulate women’s work, so her son had to have the wood printing blocks made for her and which self-published and distributed.
She must have really known her stuff because she would survive to the age of 93 (96 by some accounts). Shockingly long life by modern standards and nearly unheard of in her era. Long before the west would produce Elizabeth Blackwell, Tan left a legacy of service, tenacity, and medical excellence that was almost lost to time.
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