Who are Barefoot Doctors?
There's a good article written about Barefoot Doctors on
Wiki, which says – " Barefoot doctors were healthcare providers who
underwent basic medical training and worked in rural villages in China. They
included farmers, folk healers, rural healthcare providers, and recent middle
or secondary school graduates who received minimal basic medical and
paramedical education."
Is Can Xue's novel about those Barefoot Doctors? Yes, indeed.
Xue pays homage to the legacy of the Barefoot Doctors. In fact, Xue was also a
Barefoot Doctor once, when she was young.
Can Xue's Barefoot Doctor is set in three villages—Yun
Village, Deserted Village, and Blue Village. Mrs. Yi is the central character
in the novel and is a Barefoot Doctor of Yun Village. Mrs. Yi is getting older
and is concerned about finding a successor who will serve the rural people.
Throughout the novel, we find the inner struggle of a new generation of
Barefoot Doctors: Mia from Deserted Village, Gray from Yun Village, and
Angelica from Blue Village—these are the new generation of Barefoot Doctors.
Mrs. Yi provides health services to rural villagers. In
addition, she has become a profound herbalist in the area, growing her own
herbs of medicinal value, which she administers to her patients. Seen as an
ideal Barefoot Doctor by the new generation of rural doctors and even by her
former tutors, Mrs. Yi smells the herbs even in her dreams.
People in Yun Village
didn’t count the passing years. Many villagers, especially seniors, didn’t know
exactly how old they were. They were too busy enjoying life to reflect on past
mistakes.
People and things would never get lost in Yun Village.
We find a strange connection between the three villages in
the way they communicate and help one another. It seems they are bound by some
ancestral and spiritual force. Xue makes the supernatural a natural occurrence,
and transforms the magical into the real. The magic realism used in the novel
makes the narrative fluid, and it seems so necessary, for it forms an arc of
brilliance in the story. In the novel, the characters can hear voices from far
beyond; the dead appear, communicate, deliver messages, and disappear. Surreal
events—such as the playfulness between the weasel and the chickens—add a
mysterious tone to the text, and Xue maintains it throughout.
Just then, the ancient
mountain dragon in his basket stirred and made a rustling noise. What lively
herbs! Where were they so impatient to go? The herbs calmed him.
Talking with Tauber was
Mrs. Yi’s favorite thing to do, and she wished she could be like him someday.
In general, Tauber’s terminal illness was not a punishment for him but rather a
reward for his hard work in life. How contented and grateful he had been during
his last ten years on the mountain! The mountain had already seeped into his
body and soul before he melted into it. With such a full life, what else could
one want?
Mountains and herbs fill the story with a strong essence. The
mountains seem to be thriving with ancestral spirits, residing in and
protecting the herbs. The personification of herbal medicines and plants—which
seem to exist to heal the people—serves to create a sense of affection and love
for the natural world.
We might be tempted to look for a central conflict in the
novel. There are no antagonists, nor any external forces that disturb the way
things are. However, the sense of unsettlement comes only with a question: will
this tradition continue? Will the new generation follow the path of the old and
of the ancestors? Nature, spirit, and the well-being of rural people—this is
the triad. This is what must be preserved and kept in balance. And what will
these bring to you as a reader? Love and gratitude for nature.
“Yun Village is not the
only place with barefoot doctors. The old director told me that barefoot
doctors were once practicing in every corner of the vast countryside. Although
many places are better off now, and villagers can go to the cities for
treatment, the old occupation hasn’t disappeared.”
Subtlety is key in Xue's novel, which can also be seen in the
characters’ eccentricities. We and the world are made up of small fragments,
and Xue does not ignore this. The intricacy of the novel is not meant to make
the story complex, but rather to point to its simplicity.
Historically, it must never have been easy to become—or to
live—as a barefoot doctor. The characters in the novel reflect both the
struggle and the motivation to become one. They would visit patients, or the
patients would come to them. Some of them would master methods of
treatment—acupuncture, treating calluses, cupping, moxibustion, and more.
“Chinese herbs do have
feet. They can walk into people’s lives by themselves.”
Coming back to the story, Mrs. Yi would go to Niulan Mountain
to gather herbs, and she has also harvested herbs in her garden. The rarest
herbs would be found in the mountains when they are most needed, and by those
with the inspiration and aspiration to find them. Niulan Mountain or Blue
Mountain is like a sanctuary for the doctors and villagers—a sacred place where
herbs are available for the cure of diseases; one only has to find them.
Besides, Niulan Mountain and Blue Mountain are places where the spiritual realm
exists, and where ancestors settle after they die.
Since we celebrate the herbs in the novel, let's take a moment to mention some of them: banlangen, coralberry, brocade, polygonum, clematis, mountain cypress, birthwort (for rheumatic heart disease), patch-the-bones, ancient mountain dragon, Aspilia Africana, snake-beard, purple ginseng, lily of the valley, crystal flowers, and many others.
When the wind blew, they
always heard a lot of people walking toward the mountains and some people
singing as they walked. They knew these people weren’t real people, but close
enough. Mrs. Yi once again felt that Niulan Mountain was “the land of joy.”
“No one buried here will
be lonely.”
“Death is not so
terrible, my dear. You’re wrong!”
The people celebrate collecting herbs as if it were a sacred
act, in the mountains where noise on the hill means the ancestors who has
settled there after their death are happy. The novel seems to transpire during
the transition of the beginners, whose lives are soon to change.
In the process of becoming a barefoot doctor, people develop
values. Their experience changes their aspirations, strengthening them. As the
novel unfurls and the beginners learn more, it seems almost all the old people
had once been herbalists themselves. The connectedness between herbs and humans
is generations old.
I know you want to go to
the village, but it isn’t a place you can go just because you want to. Ah, it’s
a long story . . . To tell you the truth, Angelica, we have
no fixed abode. Our Blue Village is such a secret place that it can’t be found
on the map. Only the clinic is always here. It is the mark of Blue Village, and
the treasure of Blue Mountain . . . Dr. Lin left, and you
came. You now belong to Blue Mountain.
In Barefoot Doctor, you'll meet Mr. Yi, Old Director, Mr.
Tauber, Mrs. Fish, Mrs. Blue, Grandpa Onion, Ginger, Spoon, Kay and many other
profound characters. You'll meet a python spirit who resides in the mountain,
centenarians who closely resemble mountain gods, and Dr. Lin Baoguang, one of
the elders who is elusive, revered and supernatural in a sense. In this world,
mountains are like living creatures, and patients understand their illness and
help the doctors understand it. Xue writes it so faithfully that we are
convinced that all three villages, all the people, and the mountains do exist. In
this world, don't be surprised if you hear voices in the wind—of your
ancestors, of people and animals below the mountains. The sacred are not meant
to be disturbed!
I’m thinking about the baby and its mother. No matter how long a person’s life is, it should be considered complete.
A medical journal circulated among the rural villages stirring
passion among those who are, and those who are to be, barefoot doctors is
really fascinating. It seems as if the barefoot doctors were the chosen ones,
the gifted ones, the courageous ones. You establish a harmony with the
mountain, not a forceful relation. You wait for the mountains to accept you and
your endeavors. And, isn't it fascinating that dying people could smell their
ancestors and families?
Barefoot Doctor evoke a sense of realm in which nature, spirit
and human all thrive together in harmony. Nature provides for the diseased and
nature provides for the departed. Healing herbs, mysterious mountains, spiritual
sanctuary, magical moments… all these come to your mind as you flip the pages
of this novel – a true homage to the legacy of rural healer and health workers.
Original Text: Chinese
Translator: Karen Gernant and Zeping Chen
Publisher: Yale Press https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274035/barefoot-doctor/
