Chapter 903 Save my wife! My wife is about to be forced to death by the Lord!
Mei Ruying kept the letter of appointment that Li Sanniang had brought, but she did not immediately agree to become a teacher at the Women's Medical School. She only said, "This is no small matter. Let me think about it for a while. Is that alright?"
Li San Niang naturally agreed to Mei Ru Ying's suggestion, after all, she hadn't expected to succeed on her first try.
There are female tutors nowadays, but most of them are hired by aristocratic families for their daughters. They teach them only things like music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and embroidery, all so that their daughters can marry well in the future.
In this way, a woman who has married into a wealthy family can ask her husband to help her family's son-in-law.
In other words, their actions were merely to make the women in their household look better so they could be sold to high-class families for a higher price.
Most of these female tutors were married women from declining families. They needed this tuition fee to accept the invitation from wealthy families to teach the young women in those households.
The number of students who receive this kind of family education is not large, usually ranging from five or six to about ten.
However, there were many more students in the girls' school, like Dewdrop, with some classes having as many as twenty or thirty students.
Moreover, the curriculum in that school was almost identical to that of boys' schools, covering all six arts of a gentleman: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics, except for archery and charioteering.
The reason why girls' schools don't have these two things is because horses are scarce and women are weak, so bows and arrows are indeed not something that ordinary girls can pull.
Most of the teachers in this girls' school are older men. It's not that there are no women; there are a few older women who are teachers. Li San Niang had heard Lu Zhu'er mention that the teacher who taught the zither in their school was a woman.
However, these two, whether they are aristocratic family schools or girls' schools, are completely different from the girls' medical school that Li San Niang wants to build.
First of all, the students of the Women's Medical School must be women from all walks of life, and most of them should be commoners who want to study medicine so that they can make a living in the future.
Even if I can't become a female doctor, being a female doctor is still good.
The students have different aptitudes, and Confucius's idea of "education for all" is not something that everyone can accept in this era.
Those who can afford to go to school must be from moderately wealthy families, as they have the surplus to support their offspring who do not engage in productive labor.
As for Li San Niang's female medical school, those who enroll must be girls from poor families. They hope to have a livelihood in the future. As Li San Niang previously posted outside the maternity ward, as long as they sign a contract and accept the training and follow the arrangements of the maternity ward, they will only be charged for food in the school. Tuition and accommodation are free.
Secondly, the tradition in the medical profession is that the master teaches the apprentice, and this teaching lasts a lifetime.
As the saying goes, "Teach your apprentice and you'll starve." This applies not only to doctors, but also to carpenters and blacksmiths.
Having a skill that can provide for one's livelihood is a lifelong endeavor. If one is capable of doing so, most people would only pass it on to their own children, and would not teach it to outsiders.
It was taught in the Imperial Medical Bureau. If you had the aptitude, you would master the skill; if you didn't, you wouldn't be promoted and would waste your life as a ninth-rank official.
But if Li San Niang hires someone to be a teacher at the school, isn't that a bit like taking away someone's livelihood?
The female doctors who graduate from Li San Niang's Women's Medical School will be able to enter the Imperial Medical Academy after passing the examination!
One doctor for one position; if one more female doctor enters the obstetrics and gynecology department, then one less male doctor will be available.
If it weren't for the fact that Li Sanniang had already become an official in the Imperial Medical Bureau and had received praise from Princess Taiping at the Physicians' Exchange Conference, implying that Li Sanniang was someone greatly protected by Emperor Wu, how could this women's medical school have been established?
In the eyes of some people, Li San Niang's female medical school was encroaching on their interests.
Thirdly, regarding medical security, before a large number of doctors were trained, it was something that only the upper class could enjoy.
This can be described as a monopolistic service.
How useful would any one of the physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau who were on duty in the palace be if they were released to serve among the common people?
At least, they could save a dozen or twenty more people a day.
Such a skilled physician could only be supplied to those within the palace for their use.
The purpose of the women's medical school established by Li San Niang was to spread skills and knowledge, so that more doctors would emerge, and the interests of the monopolists would inevitably be damaged.
All of the above are problems.
Therefore, Li San Niang understood why Mei Ruying was temporarily unwilling to become a teacher at the Women's Medical School.
Li San Niang also considered Plan B: if she really couldn't find anyone, she could simply ask the physicians in the Imperial Medical Bureau to give her lessons in their spare time.
In this feudal dynasty, Li San Niang felt that there was no way she couldn't accomplish something that the supreme ruler, Emperor Wu, greatly supported.
The question is, will it be done well?
Two days have passed since Li San Niang returned from Dr. Gao's place, and she still hasn't received a letter from Mei Ruying agreeing to let her become a female tutor.
She couldn't help but sigh. Before she could exhale completely, Song Fuling entered the room with quick steps. She anxiously handed over the letter in her hand: "Master, Yu Xuelian's personal maid is outside. This is the letter she brought in. It must be something."
Li San Niang quickly took the letter, opened it, and after reading only a few lines, she frowned. She looked up and instructed Song Fuling, "Invite that maid in; I have something to ask her."
Song Fuling responded and stepped outside.
Qiu Xiang, who had been sitting at the table diagonally opposite Li San Niang, also stood up. She walked over and watched Li San Niang quickly skim through the thin sheet of paper.
After reading the letter, Li San Niang handed it directly to Qiu Xiang, who was looking at her with a questioning gaze.
As Qiu Xiang read the letter, she exclaimed in surprise, "This...this Yu family is too...too..."
Qiu Xiang couldn't find the right words to describe it, and could only open her mouth in surprise as she looked at Li San Niang.
Li San Niang sighed bitterly: "They're too heartless. They don't even care about human life. Xue Lian is their own child, after all."
The two had only exchanged a few words when Song Fuling led Yu Xuelian's maid into the room.
The moment the maid entered and saw Li San Niang, she knelt down on both knees without saying a word, her head thumping twice. When she looked up, the maid, who appeared to be only eight or nine years old, cried out to Li San Niang in a sobbing voice, "Please, Physician Li, save my mistress! My mistress is about to be forced to her death by the master!"
Before Li San Niang could get up to help the maid, Song Fuling pulled the maid up from the ground. Then, Song Fuling took out her own handkerchief and wiped the maid's tear-streaked face.
"You silly child, stop crying now. Tell us about your wife's situation."
It took the maid some time to calm down. Song Fuling handed her a cup of tea, which she took and drank a sip of before saying directly to Li Sanniang, "My master has arranged a marriage for my wife, and the betrothal ceremony has already taken place."
But my wife is unwilling; she doesn't want to get married, and she wants to marry someone from Dengzhou, which is far away from Chang'an.
The lady said she wanted to become a female doctor like Physician Li, but the master wouldn't allow it and had the first wife put her under control.
At this point, the maid's tears, which she had just wiped away, started flowing again. She cried as she said, "Seven days, it's been seven days already. My mistress has been locked up for seven days."
The First Madam forbade me from delivering food, and I only received this letter when I went to collect the chamber pot.
"I am a maid in your courtyard, madam. As soon as I received this letter, I found an opportunity to leave the mansion."
With a thud, the maid knelt down again. "Please, Physician Li, save my mistress! She's really going to die!"
Qiu Xiang naturally wouldn't let the young woman kneel down and kowtow again. She simply grabbed the young woman by the collar and lifted her up.
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