Recently, a lot of anti-capitalist material has been posted on the forums, fully exposing the reactionary faces of those who have infiltrated the Communist Party. Contradictions are a struggle between two opposing aspects; without understanding what is bad, one cannot understand what is good. Today, I share a glorious story from the Cultural Revolution period about young barefoot doctor Tang Yun’an, who served and sacrificed for the people. Comparing him with traitors, spies, and industrial saboteurs who infiltrated the Communist Party, let everyone see the true spirit of a communist.
Let Youth Shine Brightly in the Broad World
—— Remembering barefoot doctor and student of Hubei Medical College, Tang Yun’an
On September 30, 1972, Tang Yun’an, a student of Hubei Medical College, heroically sacrificed himself to save national property.
This unfortunate news quickly spread to Yankou Commune, Yejin County, where young Tang served as a barefoot doctor. The poor and lower-middle peasants were deeply saddened. They sincerely requested: “Send Yun’an’s body back so we can see him one last time!”
On October 2, under continuous heavy rain, the poor peasants, commune members, cadres, and barefoot doctors from all directions gathered at the riverbank ridge to bid farewell to young Tang’s body. They wept and said: “Yun’an, you are our farmer’s doctor. We will never forget you!”
“This barefoot doctor is really good!”
Tang Yun’an was born in 1949 into a middle peasant family in Yankou Tang, Jinniu District, Dajie County, Hubei Province.
In 1964, after graduating from junior high school, young Tang returned to his hometown to participate in agricultural production. During the socialist education movement, he proudly joined the Communist Youth League. Recognizing his potential, the poor and lower-middle peasants sent him to study medicine.
In the first half of 1967, Tang Yun’an entered the “Farmer-Medical Class” at Huangshi Health School.
Two years later, after graduating from Huangshi Health School, Tang Yun’an returned to his hometown. Hearing that Hu Haigui, a female peasant member, was seriously ill and bedridden, he hurried to visit her. Due to bone tuberculosis, she could only pad her back with cotton clothes and endure the pain while lying in bed. When she saw young Tang, she struggled to sit up, tears in her eyes, and said: “Yun’an, this disease is really tormenting me.”
Tang Yun’an looked at Hu Haigui’s haggard face and her rotting, pus-filled wound, feeling deeply responsible.
Soon after, Tang Yun’an, carrying a medicine box and glucose water, went to Hu Haigui’s home. Upon entering, he kindly said: “Sister-in-law, I will operate on you right in the house, okay?” As he spoke, he began preparations.
Hu Haigui looked at Tang with gratitude that words could not express. Knowing she would be anxious about surgery and injections, Yun’an first handed her glucose water to calm her down, then carefully performed the operation.
From then on, Tang Yun’an came daily to give her injections and change dressings. Once, during a heavy rain, Hu Haigui worried about Yun’an getting wet. Just as she was thinking this, Tang, soaked with water, entered. She felt guilty and insisted he go back to change into dry clothes. Yun’an took off his medicine box, disregarding the rain, and said: “It’s more important to change dressings than to waste time!”
After twenty-one days of careful treatment, Hu Haigui’s condition improved, and she could do household chores again. She praised Tang Yun’an everywhere:
“This barefoot doctor is really good!”
The three years of Yun’an’s tireless concern for Liu Mingrong!
Liu Mingrong suffered from nephritis, was jaundiced all over, bedridden all year, and sought treatment everywhere but to no avail. In 1969, a touring medical team from Wuhan came and treated him for a while, with some improvement. After they left, Yun’an continued treatment.
One day, old Liu said to him:
“If I could get up, I’d also be able to help the team!”
This deeply moved Yun’an. He decided to cure Liu’s illness.
Yun’an brought fresh herbal medicine “Hai Jin Sha” every day, delivering treatment door-to-door without interruption. During busy farming seasons, Yun’an worked in the fields during the day and made house calls at night, squeezing in time to visit Liu’s home.
Liu Mingrong saw him sweating in the sun and soaked in rain, and was very distressed, advising him not to come every day. Yun’an replied:
“I don’t mind suffering a bit; I just want you to get up soon!”
After three years of meticulous treatment, Liu Mingrong finally stood up and became a water management worker for the production team, contributing to agriculture.
The “Old Yellow Bull” Who Knows No Rest
During his time as a barefoot doctor in Yankou Commune, Yun’an often worked with poor peasants planting rice, harvesting grain, manure pits, and digging ponds. Sometimes, after returning from night visits, he still insisted on studying Mao’s works and learning “Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine.”
The poor peasants admired and pitied him, saying:
“Even the ox, when tired, knows to rest. Yun’an is an old yellow bull who doesn’t know rest!”
Busy during the Spring Festival for Patients
Before the 1970 Spring Festival, Yun’an visited the second team and heard that peasant comrade Guo Puyi had an “ulcer,” rumored to be a malignant tumor.
Yun’an thought: Grandma has two sons who are not around, and she needs care! He hurried to her home, gently lifted the quilt, and saw that her bedding was soaked with pus and blood, with a large ulcer on her abdomen. Yun’an’s heart ached.
He didn’t say a word, went to boil water, and helped her wash, clean the wound with medicated cotton. Grandma Guo was moved and said:
“Yun’an, I’m about to die. I feel so embarrassed to trouble you like this!”
Yun’an kindly comforted her:
“Don’t think of me as a doctor; just think of me as your child!”
A warm current flowed into the old woman’s heart.
For several days, Yun’an pondered whether Grandma Guo really had a malignant tumor. He reviewed various materials, carefully inquired about her medical history. He sat by her bed, peeled back the wound, examined repeatedly, and studied with the commune health workers. They concluded:
“It’s not a malignant tumor but an abscess of the rectus abdominis muscle, which requires immediate surgery and drainage.”
As the Spring Festival approached, every family prepared for the holiday. Yun’an wrote a letter to her son:
“Grandma will be under my care. You can work peacefully.”
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Yun’an’s family waited and waited but did not see him return. The prepared meals and tea remained uneaten from noon until evening.
That day, Yun’an operated on Grandma Guo, draining three bowls of pus, then boiled water and made egg soup for her.
He visited her daily after surgery, helping with chores, boiling water, cooking, and seeking traditional herbs for careful treatment. Finally, her “ulcer” was cured.
After the Spring Festival, her son returned home, saw his recovered mother, and held Yun’an’s hand excitedly:
“You are closer than a brother!”
The Night of High Fever and the Urgent Journey
In January 1971, Yun’an was working and treating patients at a construction site. One day, he had a high fever of 40°C and was lying unconscious. Late at night, someone shouted:
“Doctor, doctor! Our child is in trouble!”
In the drizzling rain, the urgent call was particularly clear. Yun’an quickly got up:
“I’m coming.”
The door opened, and cold wind and rain hit him. Yun’an, with a high fever and trembling teeth, recognized a poor peasant from Kejiawan standing in the rain. He carried his medicine box and was about to leave.
A migrant worker at the site stopped him:
“You’re so sick…”
Yun’an said:
“Saving the child is more important!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he left.
Along a ten-mile mountain road, Yun’an gritted his teeth. When he finally arrived, he saw the sick child’s face was cyanotic and breathing was difficult. He quickly listened with a stethoscope, but it was buzzing loudly—he was deafened by his own high fever.
The child’s father saw him gasping and asked:
“Doctor, are you cold?”
He smiled and shook his head. Yun’an tried to calm himself, examined the child carefully, and diagnosed acute pneumonia. He immediately administered injections for rescue!
Under a kerosene lamp, Yun’an held a syringe, pale and sweating, trembling all over. He desperately needed to lie down, but he couldn’t—
“Otherwise, this peasant’s descendant might never stand up again!”
After more than two hours of rescue, the child was sleeping peacefully. Yun’an took out a packet of medicine and said:
“Take two pills at dawn, and I’ll come again…”
He fainted before he finished speaking.
The child’s father felt his forehead—hot as a boil, and finally understood everything. The whole family couldn’t help but shed tears:
“Good doctor, you don’t care about yourself, only about us!”
Yun’an woke up, carried his medicine box, and was about to leave. The child’s parents held him back. He smiled and said:
“The construction site is still waiting for me!”
He plunged back into the night rain.
It rained until noon. Looking at the now safe child, listening to the pattering rain, the mother of the sick child suddenly remembered Yun’an said he would come again. She hurriedly told her husband:
“Quickly tell the doctor not to come today. Let him rest well!”
At this moment, Yun’an’s gentle voice came from the door:
“The medicine, I’ve brought it…”
Yun’an, Who Dedicates Himself Selflessly to Work
Yun’an worked tirelessly like this.
Whether under scorching sun or cold wind and rain, he always ran between the fields and villages; whether giving medical treatment, performing surgery, or working in the fields, feeding pigs, or cutting hair, he always kept “serving the people” in his heart and put it into action.
The Road to Serving the People Widens
In the vast rural world, Comrade Yun’an firmly followed the path of combining with poor and lower-middle peasants.
The poor and lower-middle peasants tell him their heartfelt words; discuss household matters with him; seek his help with difficulties. He understands their needs very well. He thinks more and more for the peasants.
Skilled in Treating Both People and Pigs
Once, he visited the fourth team to treat a peasant’s illness. He heard a neighbor say:
“If Yun’an could cure pig diseases, that would be great.”
He hurriedly inquired and found out that a pig at the neighbor’s house was sick. He went in, checked the pig, and found it was panting heavily. He examined the temperature, which was very high. How to treat it? He quickly borrowed a “Veterinary Handbook,” sought advice from the veterinary station, then went to the fourth team and cured the neighbor’s pig.
This became well known:
“Yun’an not only cures people but is also good at treating pigs!”
Since then, more people came to him for livestock treatment. Yun’an deeply realized:
“The rural world is vast; there is indeed great potential.”
Practicing Castration of Chickens to Serve the Masses
While touring the second team, Yun’an found that villagers had to go far to find someone to castrate chickens. So he took some chickens from his own home to the Jinniu Veterinary Station to learn how to castrate chickens.
Someone laughed at him:
“You, a doctor, learning to castrate chickens—what’s that for?”
He smiled and said:
“Castrating chickens can serve poor and lower-middle peasants, and also practice basic skills like cutting, stitching, and tying knots.”
Soon, he learned how to castrate chickens. One day, Zhou Daisao from the second team, who raised chickens, came back from work and found her house spotless and her chickens castrated—
It turned out that Yun’an, during a home visit, had treated her chickens and, taking the opportunity, castrated all six chickens.
Skilled in Treating Diseases, Castrating Chickens, and Cutting Hair
In 1971, Yun’an was working at a water conservancy construction site, treating patients and working. Soon, he noticed many poor peasants were busy working and had no time for haircuts. So he pooled money with some others, bought barber tools, and learned how to cut hair.
At the busy water project site, he eagerly gave everyone haircuts whenever he had free time.
Yun’an is not only a “barefoot doctor” but also a true close-to-the-people “all-round barefoot doctor.”
The Environment Changes, but His Mind Remains Unchanged in Rural Life
Based on recommendations from poor and lower-middle peasants, the Party organization sent Yun’an to university.
In April 1972, Yun’an arrived at Hubei Medical College. He studied Marxist-Leninist books and Mao’s works diligently, sharply criticizing Liu Shaoqi and other counterrevolutionary revisionists, further clarifying his purpose and direction in learning.
Diary Expresses His Aspiration: Return to the Countryside!
On the evening of June 26, 1972, he repeatedly studied Mao’s important instructions:
“Put the focus of medical and health work into the countryside.”
He thought:
“From a ‘Farmer-Medical Student’ to a barefoot doctor, and from a barefoot doctor to a university student, environments change constantly, but my determination to serve poor and lower-middle peasants never changes!”
He passionately wrote in his diary:
“I was born in the countryside, grew up in the countryside, and the kindness of poor and lower-middle peasants is deep. I must not forget my roots when I go to the city…”
Silent Labor and Self-Transformation
He said and did. He linked his thoughts, study, and life closely with the idea: “I still want to return to the countryside.”
Next to the student dormitory, there was a small vegetable patch. Early in the morning, Yun’an was the first to get up, watering pumpkins, beans, and peppers.
Initially, some classmates misunderstood, thinking he was “showing off.” But over time, everyone saw that he did all these things:
- Not only planting vegetables and hauling manure;
- Also sweeping toilets, cleaning ditches, helping in the kitchen… everything.
It turned out that Yun’an was consciously transforming his worldview!
He cultivated this small vegetable patch, thinking about going to the broad rural world.
He thought about the peasants’ need for a good doctor who is both red and expert, with a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. He studied basic courses diligently, combining his medical practice with theoretical research, learning “Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine” and “Internal Medicine.”
While doing laundry, he recited “Tangtou Gejue Baihua Explanation,” memorizing drug names and properties. Thinking about the need for surgery in the countryside, he bought a roll of suture thread to practice tying knots.
He thought: rural doctors must climb mountains and cross waters, so he practiced iron soles and swimming. During summer vacations, he returned to the countryside, dropped his luggage, and went straight to the fields for rice planting.
The peasants said:
“Yun’an, just like before, even though he’s in university, his heart is still in the countryside.”
Heroes in the Fire and Heroic Sacrifice
On the morning of September 23, 1972, Yun’an, as usual, drew water to irrigate the tea fields beside the dormitory.
At 3 p.m., Yun’an and his classmates were cleaning a car in the garage when suddenly, the other end of the car caught fire. Flames burst out, and Yun’an rushed forward!
The flames licked the car engine, and Yun’an threw himself at it. Then, the car’s interior caught fire, and he turned around to rush in again. Gasoline splashed on his head, body, and feet, turning him into a “fire man.” His clothes burned off, burning into flesh…
He fought tirelessly in the flames, shouting:
“Comrades, quickly put out the fire!”
Comrades arrived and extinguished the fire on his body. He woke from unconsciousness and the first thing he said was:
“Quick… the car… don’t care about me!..”
Yun’an was immediately taken to the hospital, with extremely serious injuries.
At the brink of death, he took a breath and said:
“If I can live, I will dedicate my life to the Party’s cause, serve the poor and lower-middle peasants all my life; if I die, tell my father and comrades not to be sad. I am cultivated by the Party, and I should do this.”
The Party’s Recognition and People’s Remembrance
After Yun’an’s sacrifice, with the approval of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, the Party organization of Hubei Medical College officially recognized him as a Communist Party member based on his application and performance during his lifetime.
In the same year, the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League awarded him the honorary title of “Model Communist Youth League Member.”
Eternal Inspiration
Yun’an’s heroic deeds of wholeheartedly serving the people will forever inspire people to forge ahead along Mao’s revolutionary line!
——“People’s Daily” correspondent
Originally published in the July 17, 1973 edition of “People’s Daily”
