Wake up（221）

 

Chapter 41

221

 

Nanyang's maternal grandfather's old comrade-in-arms, 96-year-old Chinese doctor Chai Jianhua, accompanied by his former comrade-in-arms Pan Renshu's son Pan Guangfu, arrived in Hong Kong smoothly from the inland.

Chai Jianhua met his wife Wang Yanyan who had arrived in Hong Kong earlier.

That night, Pan Guangfu invited a group of friends from the medical field in Hong Kong to hold a welcome dinner for Chai Jianhua and Wang Yanyan.

Pan Renshu once founded a clinic, which was managed by his son Pan Guangfu, but Pan Guangfu was not good at managing the clinic. After graduating from university, he worked as a reporter for the Hong Kong media.

Most of the guests who came to the banquet were doctors and employees of this clinic, and some of them were military medical veterans who had joined the national army during the Republic of China. But what puzzled Chai Jianhua was why his old comrade-in-arms Pan Renshu didn't come? Wang Yanyan told him quietly: Pan Renshu is seriously ill and cannot come here.

At the dinner, the chief doctor of the clinic, Dr. Bai Bingqing, asked Chai Jianhua: "Old Chai, you are an old Chinese doctor. I am very happy that you can come to Hong Kong to spend your old age in peace. I really want to know the current medical situation in mainland China. My grandfather used to work as a doctor in the mainland. The Barefoot Doctor, I used to listen to him tell the stories of healing the sick and saving lives when I was a child, and he often taught me some medical knowledge. But he never told me about the past of the Barefoot Doctor.”

Dr. Bai Bingqing is in his early 50s and studied at a medical university in Taiwan.

A 50-year-old is relieved. I have fought; I have fought; I have been proud; The arrogance of the past has turned into tolerance, the edges and corners of the past have been rounded, and the struggle of the past has brought about the comfort of today. Occasionally something goes wrong, just laugh it off and don't take it to heart.

A 50-year-old person can concentrate on doing something he likes without the interference of family chores; he has worked for a lifetime, and he is familiar with everything and is serious, so there is no mistake. 50-year-old people are reassuring to do things and be a person. But a fifty-year-old will also be full of memories; a fifty-year-old needs family affection; a fifty-year-old yearns for health; a fifty-year-old has a heart! It is a touch of sadness, deep helplessness...

Doctor Bai Bingqing, who is 50 years old, belongs to this age group.

Dr. Bai Bingqing said that he met a Buddhist master when he was studying in Taiwan. The Buddhist master said to him: "My life begins at the age of 50. In my experience, 50 years old is the turning point of life, so Life can be divided into two stages: before the age of 50 is the stage of laying the foundation, in this stage, we are often exhausted in order to gain a foothold in society and support our families, basically living for others; It has been completed, and this is the most valuable stage of self-realization and self-creation." He said that life is a century-long marathon, and only halfway through fifty, the other half of the journey is the real life.

Dr. Bai Bingqing smiled and said to Chai Jianhua: "Old Chai, I really want to know your life as a doctor before the age of 50. In fact, I really want to know the development of medical care in China at that time."

Chai Jianhua said: In September 1968, the third issue of "Red Flag", the most politically influential magazine in China at that time, published an article entitled "From the Growth of "Barefoot Doctors" to See the Direction of the Medical Education Revolution". The article is an investigative report on the training of barefoot doctors by Jiangzhen Commune, Chuansha County, Shanghai. It introduces the advanced deeds of Wang Guizhen and others who serve farmers wholeheartedly.

On September 14, 1968, the "People's Daily" reprinted the full text of this article. That is, in this investigation report, for the first time, rural health workers who were half-medical and half-agricultural were officially called "barefoot doctors." Since then, "barefoot doctor" has become a specific title for rural doctors who are half-agricultural and half-medical. Subsequently, "Wen Wei Po" and other major newspapers and periodicals reproduced it one after another. Since then, the name "Barefoot Doctor" has spread across the country. Barefoot doctor became a term that began to appear in the middle of the "Cultural Revolution" in the 1960s and 1970s.

Chai Jianhua continued: "Barefoot doctors" refer to medical personnel with certain medical knowledge and ability who have no fixed staff and are generally approved and assigned by the village or grassroots government. They are directly led and guided by the local township health center. Their characteristics are: Farmers are also doctors. They work in agriculture during busy seasons and practice medicine in slack seasons, or they are rural grassroots part-time medical personnel who work in agriculture during the day and send medicines to doctors at night.

"Barefoot doctor" is a product of the rural cooperative medical system, and it is the name of the "half-agricultural, half-medical" health workers by rural members. Cooperative medical care was gradually developed with the rise of the agricultural mutual aid and cooperative movement after the founding of New China.

In fact, the term "barefoot doctor" was not officially created, but was first called by the people. There are many varieties of rice in the south, and you have to be barefoot when you go to the fields. Over time, rural doctors who travel from village to household also have to be barefoot, so they are called barefoot doctors. Later, when Mao Zedong also knew this title. At that time, after Mao Zedong read the article "Seeing the Direction of Medical Education Revolution from the Growth of "Barefoot Doctors", he commented on the eyebrows of the article: "Barefoot doctors are good."

After Mao Zedong’s June 26 Instructions were published in the newspapers, there was an upsurge in learning from barefoot doctors and Wang Guizhen in China. Some people, despite the long distance, brought their own dry food and traveled thousands of miles from various places to Jiangzhen commune to observe and study. The quiet Jiangzhen suddenly became lively, and Wang Guizhen was gradually pushed to the pinnacle of honor by this upsurge.

In September 1969, Wang Guizhen, who had never left Shanghai, was ordered to come to Beijing to participate in the celebration of the 20th birthday of the People's Republic of China. In 1974, Wang Guizhen participated in the 27th World Health Organization Congress on behalf of millions of barefoot doctors in China. After this meeting, Wang Guizhen became more and more famous and influential. Later, a film reflecting "The Barefoot Doctor" was shot, which was based on her.

In 1978, Wang Guizhen went to a company in Chuansha County as a factory doctor. The policy was implemented in 1987, and she passed the doctor's examination and entered the township health center. After retiring in 1999, she co-founded Pudong Zhenxing Printing Factory with her husband. Since the couple are very down-to-earth and kind-hearted people, they have a very good relationship with local people, and their behavior is well-known and respected.

Chai Jianhua added:

On August 10, 1966, the first rural cooperative medical care pilot project in Chinese history led by Qin Xiangguan - "Dujia Village Brigade Clinic of Paradise Commune" was quietly listed. Qin Xiangguan's life trajectory also has many similarities with Wang Guizhen.

On December 5, 1968, the headline on the front page of the "People's Daily" published an investigation report reflecting the establishment of cooperative medical care by the Paradise Commune - "The Cooperative Medical System Welcomed by the Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants". The article specifically mentions that Tan Xiangguan, a barefoot doctor in the clinic of the Dujia Village brigade, is a "bethune-style good doctor" who is "loyal to the people". Overnight, Tan Xiangguan became a well-known news figure in the whole country.

Afterwards, Qin Xiangguan made several visits abroad to give reports, introducing China's rural cooperative medical care system, was received by Chairman Mao Zedong four times, and was elected as a representative of the fourth and fifth National People's Congress.

At the dinner, Chai Jianhua and the group of Hong Kong medical friends invited by Pan Guangfu chatted about the "barefoot doctors" in the inland Cultural Revolution, and also chatted about China's early rural cooperative medical system.

In fact, most of these friends from the medical field in Hong Kong have worked as doctors or nurses in the Mainland, and many of them were "barefoot doctors" back then. But after living in Hong Kong for a long time, the memories of that period seem a bit messy.