Summer rain nourishes all things

In May, after a sudden rainstorm in Chang'an, Wu Zetian was enjoying the cool air in a pavilion by the Taiye Pond.

Her pregnant belly was already quite obvious. She leaned against the bamboo couch, gazing absently at the new lotus flowers in the pond.

The three princes were playing on the other side of the waterside pavilion. Li Hong was teaching Li Xian to recognize the water droplets on the lotus leaves, while Li Xian was trying to reach the lotus pods with a bamboo pole.

(Inner monologue: This pregnancy is much harder than when I was pregnant with Xian'er. I guess I'm not young anymore...)

When Li Zhi returned from court, he saw that she looked tired and immediately waved for the musicians to leave.

He sat by the couch, skillfully massaging her swollen calves: "At today's court assembly, Lady Cui again brought up the maternal mortality rate issue, opposing girls' enrollment in school."

Wu Meiniang snorted coldly and took out a scroll from her sleeve: "This is data just compiled by the Imperial Medical Bureau. Last year, eight or nine out of ten pregnant women who died in Chang'an were poor women who couldn't afford midwives."

Her eyes shone brightly, "If only women could be educated and understand principles, and learn some basic medical knowledge..."

(Inner monologue: Knowledge changes destiny, a truth that applies to both ancient and modern times!)

Li Zhi took the document and examined it closely. Suddenly, he smiled and said, "Perfect timing! Di Renjie submitted a memorial yesterday suggesting that obstetrics departments be added to medical clinics in various regions."

Three days later, an imperial edict shocked the court and the public: female medical schools were to be established in all prefectures and counties to teach obstetrics.

What shocked the aristocratic families even more was that the Empress personally wrote teaching materials for the women's medical school and compiled her own precautions during pregnancy into a "Guide to Safe Childbirth".

That day, Wu Zetian was dictating the key points of prenatal exercises when Li Xian suddenly ran in, holding a wet lotus flower: "Mother! I've put it in a vase for you!"

She took the lotus flower, and suddenly an idea struck her. She broke off the stem to demonstrate: "Look, if you don't know how to deliver a baby, the woman in labor is like this lotus flower with a broken stem." Turning to the female official, she said, "Write this analogy into the teaching materials."

(Inner monologue: The method of teaching through imagery is applicable both in ancient and modern times!)

In early June, the first medical school for girls opened in Chang'an.

Despite the sweltering heat, Wu Zetian personally visited the site. Watching the timid women pick up medical books for the first time, she stroked her pregnant belly and said to Emperor Gaozong, "When Princess Taiping grows up, she should see that women can also practice medicine and save lives."

"More than that," Li Zhi helped her sit down, "I also want her to know what a precedent her mother set for women throughout the land."

Most surprisingly, ladies from aristocratic families also secretly came to attend the class.

One day, Wu Zetian encountered Miss Lu in the Imperial Garden. The girl blushed and said, "Your Majesty, is it wrong for me to want to learn medicine to save lives?"

"Naturally, there's nothing wrong with that." She smiled. "Saving lives and helping the world is itself a meritorious act."

(Inner monologue: It seems the seeds of ideological liberation are beginning to sprout!)

On the summer solstice, Wu Zetian suddenly had a whimsical idea to hold a "pregnant women's tea party" in the palace.

The noblewomen, their bellies of varying sizes protruding, looked at each other in bewilderment until the Empress herself demonstrated prenatal and postpartum exercises, which enlivened the atmosphere.

"Your Majesty," a general's wife asked curiously, "is this movement really beneficial for childbirth?"

"Not only can it help with childbirth," she replied with a smile, wiping away sweat, "it can also relieve back pain."

After the tea party, Li Zhi looked at the suggestions she had compiled and suddenly said, "I have ordered the Imperial Medical Bureau to print these key points into a book and send it to all prefectures and counties."

As night fell, Wu Zetian proofread the last few pages of "Guide to Safe Childbirth" under the lamp.

Li Xian was playing on her lap when he suddenly pointed at her stomach and shouted, "Little sister! Move!"

She looked down and saw that her abdominal wall was indeed rising and falling gently.

Holding her son's little hand and placing it on the spot where he was moving, she suddenly felt that this summer was especially meaningful.

——

[Mini-Theater: A New Trend in the Medical Academy]

(First Day Report of the Women's Medical School)

At today's opening ceremony, Her Majesty the Empress personally demonstrated infant care.

When the empress wrapped the doll up like a rice dumpling, a little girl raised her hand and said, "Your Majesty, this will suffocate the baby."

(Someone actually dared to criticize the Empress!)

What's even more remarkable is that the Empress was not angry but pleased, and immediately rewarded the girl with a set of silver needles: "Those who study medicine should have such courage!"

The whole of Chang'an is now talking about how the Empress is training a female Hua Tuo (a legendary Chinese physician).

It was the gentry of the powerful families who couldn't sit still. Someone was heard beating their chest and stamping their feet in their study, exclaiming, "What kind of behavior is this, women studying medicine!"

(Discretion? Saving lives is the only right thing to do!)