Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Yunxian is 15 and considered ready for marriage. She has acquired the Four Attributes: “virtue, elegant speech, proper comportment, and diligent work habits” (81). Grandmother warns Yunxian to manage her emotions and communicate with her about any treatments she administers in her new household. Grandmother instructs Yunxian to obey her mother-in-law and advises Yunxian to keep her dowry of jewels for her own use, so she will have money to support herself if for some reason she loses her home.

Yunxian’s friendship with Meiling has grown, and Meiling has taught Yunxian things about the outside world she would never have otherwise known. They confide in and comfort one another. Meiling ensures Yunxian is aware of what bedroom affairs entail.

Yunxian is dressed and draped in a veil, then carried in a palanquin to her husband’s compound. She remains veiled as the brief ceremony is conducted, and with that, “I no longer belong to my natal family,” Yunxian realizes: “[M]y relatives and ancestors are now entirely of the Yang lineage” (93). She is taken to her chamber and her husband arrives. He is handsome and gentle.

The next morning, Yunxian rises at dawn to perform her duties, which entail serving tea to her in-laws.