Treating Bound Feet Infection: A Ming Dynasty Healer’s Letter
To Madam Wang Meizhen,
I send you greetings and trust that your household remains in good order and your shelves well supplied.
I write to request a careful selection of herbs for a difficult case that has come into my care. The patient is a woman of about thirty years, whose bound feet have become inflamed and foul with infection. The skin is broken in several places, and there is heat and swelling. An odor that suggests corruption has also set in. She has endured this condition longer than she should have, likely out of fear of causing trouble within her household.
For her treatment, I ask if you can prepare or provide the following, or their closest equivalents available in your stock:
- Substances to clear heat and resolve toxicity
- Herbs to reduce swelling and draw out infection
- Materials suitable for washing and cleansing the affected areas
- Any reliable powders or pastes used to promote healing of damaged flesh
If you have something you trust, especially for wounds in confined or poorly aired places, I would value your recommendation.
This case has troubled me more than most. I have seen many forms of suffering, but tending to wounds caused by expectation is particularly difficult. These wounds were not born of accident or illness. The patient herself does not complain of the binding, only of the pain that has followed. Even so, I cannot help but think that such practices ask too much of the body. They demand too much of a woman’s endurance.
I find myself quietly grateful, in moments like these, that I was not required to submit to such shaping. My own feet carry me where I must go. They allow me to stand. I walk the markets and answer those who call for help. It is a simple freedom, yet not a small one.
Still, my task is not to judge but to care for the person before me. I will do what I can to ease her suffering and prevent further harm. Your assistance in providing suitable materials will make that work more effective.
Please send word when the order is ready, and I will arrange for its collection.
With respect,
Li Zhenyan
