Three Women Doctors of Late Imperial China

How could these upper-class literate women become doctors? How did they learn herbal medicine? Why did they choose this path? Their stories were almost lost, but we can restore their legacy.

This lecture was made possible with generous support from the Carol, Edward, Ariana, and Joseph Wong Trust.

About the Speaker

Lorraine Wilcox is an experienced translator of Chinese medical texts and an accomplished author on various Chinese medicine topics. She is the author/translator of numerous books documenting historical Chinese medicine. These include two books on moxibustion, Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor (by Tan Yunxian), Raising the Dead and Returning Life: Emergency Medicine of the Qing Dynasty, The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Vol. V and 9, and Outline of Female Medicine (by Xue Ji), as well as numerous research articles in a variety of professional journals. In her clinical career, Wilcox served as the staff acupuncturist at the Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2005, where she helped to introduce complementary and alternative medicine treatments into HIV care. Wilcox has been teaching East Asian medicine since 1990 at Emperor’s College and Alhambra Medical University.