Origin of the term "Sitting the Month" I've recently learned about the practice of 坐月子 or sitting the month where a woman secludes herself for around a month following a pregnancy. The articles I've read indicate that this practice has been around quite a while.

I'm curious as to when this expression first came into use and if there are many historical precedents for it.
The earliest reference i can make is a chapter "Nei Ze" in a book "Liji" (See http://ctext.org/liji/nei-ze). The word "sitting the month" has been replaced by "the month of confinement", "坐月子" by "月辰".