In ancient times, there were various ways to see a doctor, such as suspensory pulse diagnosis, puppet space, etc.
In ancient times, dolls made of ivory, porcelain, jade and wood were used to assist women in their diseases.
At the University of Kansas Medical Center Museum of Medical History, you'll see an ancient jade puppet that comes to life on an intricately embroidered bed.
In ancient China, women were not allowed to meet the doctor face-to-face when they saw a doctor, because men and women could not kiss each other. As a result, there is the legend of "suspensory filament diagnosis". In the Ming and Qing dynasties, in order to diagnose diseases more accurately, a special medical puppet appeared, which was no different from a real person.
The sick woman or her personal maid only needs to point out the symptoms on the doll, such as touching the doll's chest if she has chest pain, touching the doll's abdomen when she has menstrual cramps, and touching the doll's head when she has a headache.
This is how the doctor prescribes the right medicine. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, medical dolls had become the only tool for women to see a doctor. In feudal society, the concept of incompatibility between men and women is deeply rooted, and male doctors must never directly touch the body of female patients, and female patients cannot show any skin in front of male doctors.
However, the entire feudal society only allowed men to practice medicine. It was not until 1879 that the first medical courses for women were offered in the church hospitals of Guangdong, not because of feminist considerations, but because it was inconvenient for male doctors to treat female patients.
A delicate doll lies quietly on a miniature bed, naked, with a pair of jade bracelets and sometimes a fan. Most of the dolls are carved from ivory, but they are also carved from precious materials such as jade, bronze, amber, wood or lapis lazuli.
The dolls all maintain a posture – one hand supporting their heads backwards, and the other hand hanging down on their chests or abdomen. Craftsmen also distinguish the age of the women when carving, with married women having their hair in a bun and unmarried girls combing their hair into braids or double ponytails.
Early dolls would also make women's three-inch golden lotus, that is, the foot binding of women in feudal society. Even the dolls must be kept conservative, so most dolls wear shoes on their feet or wrap their feet with cloth.
Women from wealthy families have their own unique dolls made from precious materials, while women from poor families can only use doctors' dolls. This doll was carved from mutton fat jade in the Ming Dynasty, and it is so lifelike that even the miniature bed where the dolls are placed is paved with expensive silk.
When a woman from a large family sees a doctor, she puts her illness on the puppet with red rouge or charcoal, and then asks the servant to hand it over to the doctor. In the late feudal period, doctors still believed that they could accurately understand the patient's illness by just talking and pointing at the puppet, and sometimes even without words.
But at that time, even men would not take the diagnosis in front of the doctor, although it was harmless in front of the male doctor, but the famous doctors thought that the diagnosis would reduce their status.
But the fact is obvious, it is difficult to accurately diagnose women's diseases just by pointing fingers at dolls. In ancient times, obstetrics, which required physical contact, were performed by midwives and women of lower status, who were responsible for delivering babies and diagnosing menstrual diseases.