course materials

1. History Question
History Question ON History QuestionWrite an analytical essay (12-point font and 2,500
words max) responding to one of the following questions. Referencing style should conform
to the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition. You are required to cite at least three sources
from the course readings. History Question Did the Chinese Communist Revolution end in
1949?To what degree did the reception of Maoism in different parts of the world depend on
regional historical contexts? Compare and contrast the reception of Maoism in at least three
countries.Chapter Four Healing Styles and Medical Beliefs © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012,
Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN:
9781580467889 The Consumption of Chinese and Western Medicines Together with
medical knowledge and pharmaceuticals, the healing techniques of Western medicine
gradually entered the village medical domain from early the 1950s onward.1 These new
healing methods emerged gradually among village healers, particularly among the union
clinic doctors. In Jiang Village, Chen Hongting, who had practiced as a Chinese medicine
doctor in his father’s footsteps, was already prescribing a few tablets of aspirin before
liberation. History Question2 After 1949, he learned to administer injections, to obtain a
blood sample, and to hatch schistosomes from human feces in order to diagnose
schistosomiasis. After 1958, Chen Zhicheng recalled, “We carried medical kits during
prevention work and provided mobile medical services. We bought quite a bit of Western
medicine and used a lot.” In 1961, when he followed his master Zheng Buying to study
Chinese medicine, they were already using thermometers, blood pressure meters, and
stethoscopes for diagnosis. He said, “We were Chinese medicine doctors, but we used
thermometers to measure body temperature.”3 As early as 1953, official documents had
already criticized some Chinese medicine doctors for misunderstanding Chinese medicine’s
great contribution to public health: “they had the incorrect understanding that Chinese
medicine was not scientific, that it could not treat illnesses, and that it had no future. [They
believed that] it was not acceptable to prescribe Chinese medicine. In these circumstances,
the majority of Chinese medicine doctors started to use Western medicine and stopped
using Chinese medicine.”4 Many students who graduated from the advanced Chinese
medicine training schools also abandoned Chinese medicine.5 Prescribing Western
medicine also became an important way of making money for rural medical practitioners,
both private medical practitioners and union clinic doctors.6 Some union clinics faced
criticism for treating patients with an injection of amidopyrine (a nonopioid analgesic,
antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory) no matter the illness, and a few administered Western

2. medicine injections and powders. History QuestionIt was very common for Chinese
medicine doctors to prescribe streptomycin, penicillin, and anesthetics, regardless of the
disease.7 Although Western pharmaceuticals were scarce in the mid-1960s, some doctors
were already overprescribing them. The neighboring Lin’an County healing styles and
medic al beliefs • 95 Health Bureau suggested in 1966 that “to improve the efficiency of our
medical services, we need to take very seriously the problems [of doctors] disregarding
proper diagnostic techniques and proper principles for prescribing medicine in order to
make money.”8 Despite official criticism, the advent of Western medicine became an
irreversible trend. The barefoot doctors’ healing styles were formed against this complex
background and served to further transform the villager’s comparative medical beliefs, with
the result that there was a fundamental change in the pharmaceutical consumption
structure. © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012, Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China
Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN: 9781580467889 The Spectrum of Healing Styles in
Revolutionary Discourse and Daily Practice During the 1970s, the barefoot doctors were
described as “newly emerged things” of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In
particular, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines were described as playing a heroic
role in rural medicine. Equipped with the silver needle and bunch of herbs that symbolized
these two practices, barefoot doctors became the official representations of rural
revolutionary health. History QuestionThese revolutionary images were portrayed in
different kinds of media, including newspapers, radio broadcasts, and films.9 During the
1970s, two propaganda films, Chunmiao (1975) and Hongyu (1975), focused on barefoot
doctors and showed them struggling against “witches (wupo)” and “reactionary doctors.”
Chunmiao is about a barefoot doctor named Tian Chunmiao practicing medicine in a rice
paddy village in Southern China. The film was based on the story of Wang Guizhen, from
Jiangzhen Commune, Shanghai, who was reportedly the first woman barefoot doctor in
China.10 Actually, the name Tian Chunmiao was a metaphor for these “newly emerged
things”: Tian means “soil,” while Chunmiao means “the sprout of spring” in Chinese. This
name alluded to the barefoot doctors’ emergence from amidst the pressures of old
reactionary doctors in the villages.11 Similarly, the film Hongyu is about a sixteen-year-old
boy who became a barefoot doctor in a mountainous village in northern China. Regardless
of the political labels applied to them, the healers other than barefoot doctors portrayed in
these two films represented the gradual change in medical knowledge and healing styles in
villages dating back to before liberation. In the film Chunmiao, the first of the barefoot
doctors’ enemies is an old woman named Jia Yuexian, who was labeled a “witch.” She did
not work in the fields with the production brigade but instead hung a yellow banner with
the character Yi (doctor) outside her house and provided treatment for her fellow villagers.
Another antagonist is Qian Jiren, the medical team leader of the commune clinic and the son
of a former landlord and Chinese medicine doctor. The clinic director Du Wenjie had likely
been a Chinese medicine apprentice, as he said, “I worked hard © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01,
2012, Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge,
ISBN: 9781580467889 96 • heali ng styles and m edic al beliefs and suffered a lot of
hardship starting out as an apprentice prior to liberation.” On the revolutionary side is the
young and handsome commune clinic doctor Fang Ming, who had just graduated from a

3. medical university. Additional characters included nurses and technicians in the commune
clinic, wearing white uniforms and caps and assisting the doctors. A scene in a village
located high on a mountain includes an herbal medicinal man. In the film Hongyu, the title
character’s village is much simpler. Sun Tianfu is the only doctor and the son of the owner of
a Chinese medicine shop before liberation.History QuestionIn addition, there is an old
Chinese medicine doctor in a neighboring county. The barefoot doctors in the films
Chunmiao and Hongyu obtain their medical knowledge against this background. Hongyu
train at a county hospital, where Chinese and Western methods are integrated. Three scenes
in the film indicate his sources and structures of knowledge. In the first, an old man holding
a bunch of herbal medicines is shown lecturing to barefoot doctor students. On the
blackboard is information about two medicinal herbs, Rhizoma coptidis (coptis root,
huanglian) and Herba menthae (mint, bohe), and Mao’s instruction “Chinese medicines are
great treasures” hangs on the wall. In the second scene, a middle-aged doctor is shown
teaching Hongyu how to use a microscope. Finally, a teacher is shown teaching the barefoot
doctor students how to perform acupuncture treatments. The struggles between barefoot
doctors and their enemies are reflected not only in the barefoot doctors’ attitudes toward
the poor and lower-middle peasants but also in their healing styles (see tables 4.1 and 4.2).
The benefits and effectiveness of acupuncture and herbal medicine are emphasized, and
they form the main treatment in the case of a boy named Little Dragon, who has acute
tuberculosis, as well as the cases of Uncle Shuichang’s backache and Xiaolian’s mother’s
serious cold. The commune clinic leader in Chunmiao looks down on these healing methods,
arguing, “Did anyone use grasses and sticks (caocao bangbang) to treat illnesses in the
past?” Likewise, Sun Tianfu openly sneers at Hongyu for daring to administer acupuncture:
“I, Sun Tianfu, have been practicing medicine for thirty years. I have never dared to
administer acupuncture. History QuestionBut Hongyu, a little guy, dares to do so.” In
contrast, the revolutionary healers are the barefoot doctors’ firm allies. When the
revolutionary doctor Fang Ming arrives in a hurry to treat Little Dragon, he finds that
Chunmiao has cured him. Fang Ming is very curious and asks Little Dragon’s mother which
medicines Chunmiao prescribed. The boy’s mother tells him with pride, “What Chunmiao
used was just a silver needle and a bunch of herbal medicines.” In the next scene, Chunmiao
is shown walking through the gate of the yard with a basket of herbal medicines in her
hand, her bare feet covered with mud, while the village folk are waiting for her. The brigade
party secretary proudly exclaims, “This is the doctor for us, the poor and lower-middle
peasants: a barefoot doctor!” Table 4.1. The healing styles of Hongyu and Chunmiao
Barefoot doctor Patients Illnesses Diagnostic technique Hongyu Xiaolian’s mother serious
cold stethoscope Old stone mason chronic leg pain poisoning from Semen Crotonis
Pulveratum (croton seed powder, badoushuang) Zhao Laohuan © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01,
2012, Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge,
ISBN: 9781580467889 Tian Chunmiao Medicines feverreducing injection; a dose of herbal
medicines herbal medicines stethoscope chronic leg pain green bean soup acupuncture
Wang poison Laoqing’s son indigestion stethoscope eight bottles of glucose injections Little
kid stethoscope one pill three times a day cough Villager Uncle Shuichang acupuncture,
poultices backache Little Dragon acute tuberculosis and high fever Old granny Sources: The

4. films Chunmiao and Hongyu. acupuncture, herbal medicines put ear on chest herbal
medicines acupuncture 98 • heali ng styles and m edic al beliefs Table 4.2. The healing
styles of “reactionary doctors,” “bad doctors,” and “witches” Healers Patients Illnesses
Diagnostic technique © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012, Barefoot Doctors and Western
Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN: 9781580467889 Jia Yuexian
Medicines incense ashes Qian Jiren Xiaomei high fever puts on a gauze mask, and a
stethoscope none, referred to county hospital Jia Yuexian Little Dragon acute tuberculosis
takes pulse while claiming he is scared soda, burn paper Qian Jiren Uncle Shuichang
backache presses and kicks the back none, patient told to eat and sleep Sun Tianfu
Xiaolian’s mother serious cold takes pulse pilose antler, rhinoceros horn Sources: The films
Chunmiao and Hongyu. These revolutionary films reflected the government’s preferred
healing styles, foregrounding Chinese medical practices but showing them to be
supplemented by Western (modern) medical methods, such as stethoscopes. This indicated
that the barefoot doctors, like the new village healers, were different from the extant
healers. However, the healing styles used by barefoot doctors in daily practice were
different from those images constructed in revolutionary discourse. History QuestionThe
recollections of two barefoot doctors— Yan Shengyu of Jiang Village and Xu Peichun of
Chun’an County—offer us glimpses of the barefoot doctors’ actual healing styles. Jiang
Village and Chun’an County are representative of the different types of places where
barefoot doctors practiced medicine, since Yuhang County (including Jiang Village) is on the
plains, whereas Chun’an County belongs to a mountainous area. On the other hand, the two
doctors came from different backgrounds and started to work at different stages of the
barefoot doctor program. Xu attended a junior middle school and studied medicine for a
year at a county worker-peasant-soldier school. He started practicing medicine in the early
days of the barefoot doctor program in 1969, when he was 19. By contrast, Yan had a
secondary school education and studied in a county health school for a year, half in
theoretical study and half as an intern in a commune healing styles and medic al beliefs • 99
clinic. He joined the medical station in 1978, when he was 20. The following sections
describe in more detail their recollections of barefoot doctor treatment styles with regard to
diagnostic techniques and the use of Chinese medicine, Western medicine, and acupuncture.
© Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012, Barefoot Doctors and Western Medicine in China Boydell &
Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN: 9781580467889 Diagnosis Physicians in premodern society
relied on three techniques to determine the nature of an illness: the patient’s own
descriptions, the physician’s observation of the patient’s physical appearance and behavior,
and, in rare cases, the physician’s manual examination of the patient’s body.12 Chinese
doctors looked at their patients’ complexion (wang), listened to their breathing (and
smelled their breath and other bodily odors) (wen), asked questions to elicit their account
of their disorder (wen), and touched their wrist during the complex procedure of taking the
pulse (qie).13 Of these procedures, checking the pulse was regarded as the key technique.
According to popular Chinese medical beliefs, the skills of a clinician are demonstrated by
the ability to ascertain what is wrong with the patient from the pulse and a few short
questions—usually the fewer questions the better.14 By contrast, Western medicine
depended on the use of a stethoscope to diagnose illnesses. History QuestionTherefore,

5. manual pulse-taking and the use of the stethoscope represented the basic diagnostic
techniques of Chinese and Western medicine, respectively, in the villages from the 1950s
onward. As a barefoot doctor in the 1970s, Xu Peichun recalled that he mainly used the
Western method of “look, touch, knock, and listen”(wang, chu, kou, ting), rather than the
Chinese medicine method of “look, smell, ask, and check the pulse”(wang, wen, wen, qie). He
mainly used a stethoscope to diagnose illnesses. One of his medical station colleagues could
make a pulse diagnosis because his family had a tradition of practicing Chinese medicine.
However, in Xu’s opinion this technique was not as “advanced” as the stethoscope, because
his colleague nearly caused a few incidents of medical malpractice.15 Yan Shengyu used the
same method as Xu, emphasizing the role of “listening” and “knocking” to make a diagnosis
using a stethoscope.16 Both Xu and Yan knew the basic theory of pulsetaking. According to
Yan, the other two colleagues at his medical station, who did not have family traditions of
Chinese medicine, claimed they could carry out a diagnosis by pulse-taking. But Xu and Yan
also admitted that they did not do so very often because it was quite difficult and less
accurate than using a stethoscope. Chinese Herbal Medicines Xu started prescribing
Western medicines after his graduation from the county worker-peasant-soldier school in
1969, but he recalled that, around 100 • heali ng styles and m edic al beliefs 1971 or 1972,
the higher-level authorities called for the use of herbal medicines. In the mountainous
county where Xu lived, a few brigades were skilled in using Chinese herbal medicines, so Xu
and his colleague went to these model brigades to study from them. The county published
three volumes of herbal medicine recipes, and Xu basically prescribed herbal medicines for
the villagers according to these recipes. However, he recalled that “the situation changed
later” when the higher-ups ceased emphasizing Chinese herbal medicine. As to materia
medica, he claimed that he knew how to prescribe them.17 In contrast, Yan did not
generally prescribe materia medica and herbal medicine after he returned to the village
from the county health school in 1978. But he admitted that they bought some materia
medica from the Hangzhou Pharmaceutical Company in urban Hangzhou. Likewise, they
sometimes took a big pot out into the fields and gathered Flos Loniceraejaponicae
(honeysuckle flowers, jinyinhua), Radix Glycyrrhizae (licorice root, gancao), Herba
Senecionis scandentis (climbing groundsel herb, qianliguang) and goldenrod. History
QuestionThey decocted this to make a medicine which they distributed to the commune
members who were laboring in the fields.18 © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012, Barefoot
Doctors and Western Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN:
9781580467889 Acupuncture Traditionally, acupuncture was a major method through
which folk physicians, especially itinerant healers, cured illnesses. As they usually did not
stay in one place for a long time, they depended on speedy results to make a livelihood.19
However, the practice of acupuncture had already declined in the late imperial era in
China.20 Up to the early 1950s, it was apparently still not very popular, at least not in
Yuhang County, where a Chinese medicine representative meeting was held in December of
1954 to promote acupuncture. According to the survey, only 28 Chinese medicine doctors
could practice acupuncture.21 By 1955, there were still only 55 Chinese medicine doctors
who could practice acupuncture in the whole county, which had a total population of
490,400. The ratio of Chinese medicine doctors practicing acupuncture to the general

6. county population in 1955 was thus 1:8,916.22 However, in the 1970s, the practice of
acupuncture was listed as one of the key medical techniques of the barefoot doctors. As
mentioned in chapter 2, Chen Zhicheng taught acupuncture to barefoot doctor students by
having them practice poking needles into white radishes. In practice, both Xu and Yan
followed “four-character formulas” to treat common rural illnesses: for a headache, look for
the lieque point; for a toothache, the hegu point; for a stomachache, the zusanli point; and
for a backache, the weizhong point (toutong xun lieque, yatong hegushou, dufu sanli liu,
yaobei weizhong qiu).23 However, in old pharmacist Shao’s eyes, the barefoot doctors only
knew how to perform very elementary, unscientific acupuncture. The villagers did not have
much faith in the barefoot doctors’ acupuncture skills, because it is hard to heal ing styles
and medic al beliefs • 101 find acupuncture points accurately, and acupuncture is useless if
the points are not correctly targeted.24 © Fang, Xiaoping, Dec 01, 2012, Barefoot Doctors
and Western Medicine in China Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, ISBN: 9781580467889
Western Medicines Xu and Yan recalled that most of the medicines they prescribed were
Western, such as streptomycin, Analgin, tetracycline, and Terramycin. History
QuestionHowever, Xu particularly mentioned the lack of special medicines for children. In
his words, “The science was as not highly developed as it is today. We had to prescribe adult
medicine for children. For example, for adults, we prescribed two tablets of Analgin per
dose, while a two-year-old child would be given one-twelfth of the adult dosage. So I would
crush the tablet into powder and then divide it.”25 Injections were already very popular
among barefoot doctors. Xu described the procedure as follows: “Since there was no tap
water in the village to sterilize the injection needles, we had to use well water. We put many
needles into an aluminum lunch box, and then we put the lunch box on the stove and let the
water boil for 15 minutes. It is really amazing that no accidents ever occurred at that time.
You would never dare to do that now.”26 Meanwhile, the use of saline and glucose
intravenous drips was introduced into China’s villages by the barefoot doctors after 1970,
though these were performed using quite simple procedures. In Jiang Village, saline
intravenous drips were first used in 1970. Initially, Chen Zhicheng dared not adm
…Purchase answer to see full attachment.History Question