Five returned doctors "to" Yan'an

In China in the 1930 s and 1940 s, doctors were rare with Sui Zhizhen. At that time, domestic universities could not train doctors, so all doctors returned from studying abroad. After returning home, they could easily find their favorite jobs and live a carefree life. However, some doctors who returned from overseas voluntarily gave up their superior conditions and came to Yan 'an, where they ate millet, wore coarse clothes and lived in caves, and devoted themselves to the great cause of national independence and people's liberation. Chen Kangbai, Qu Bochuan, Gao Shiqi, Chen Xuezhao and He Mu are their names.

　　How did they get to Yan'an
"Oath to live and die with Marxist-Leninist". This is June 1944. Chen Kangbai went to Jiangnan with the 359th brigade from Yan'an to open up a new base area. On the way, Brigadier Wang Zhen wrote a poem specially for him, which also truly expressed the lofty pursuit of Chen Kangbai, Qu Bochuan, Gao Shiqi, Chen Xuezhao and He Mu.
Chen Kangbai, born in 1903 in malinqiao Township, Changsha County, Hunan Province, was the first doctor of science and engineering and scientist to come to Yan'an. His father, Chen Danyuan, was a well-known local private school teacher. In 1916, Chen Kangbai was admitted to Changsha County Normal School and became a student of his father's close friend and famous educator Xu Teri. In 1922, Chen Kangbai went to Shanghai to study chemistry at Hujiang University. In the summer of 1925, Chen Kangbai entered Xiamen University to study. In 1927, Chen Kangbai graduated from the school and began his academic career. In 1933, one of his chemistry papers was published in an authoritative academic journal in the United States, which attracted the attention of Adolf Windos, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 and a professor of chemistry at the University of Gottingen in Germany, and was invited to the school. Be a researcher at the Institute of Chemistry.
On July 7, 1937, the Lugouqiao Incident broke out. After hearing the news, Chen Kangbai was filled with indignation, declined his mentor's repeated retention, and immediately decided to return home. After a month of sea turbulence, Chen Kangbai returned to his hometown in Hunan and met Xu Teri. Xu teli told him: it is the Communist Party of China that resolutely resisted Japan, and it is the Communist Party of China that can really save the people from water and fire. If we want to save the country, we must go to Yan'an to participate in the revolution. Therefore, in the winter of 1937, Chen Kangbai came to Yan'an. Mao Zedong was very excited to see this little fellow and "Doctor Yang" and said to him excitedly, "I can give you 20,000 yuan. Please see if there is anything you can do." In Yan'an, "20,000 yuan" is definitely a huge sum of money. At that time, a central committee member's allowance was only 5 yuan.
Qu Bochuan was born in 1909 in Luxian County, Sichuan Province. In the spring of 1928, he was admitted to the preparatory course of Jinling University, and in the summer of the same year, he was admitted to the Department of Chemistry, College of Science, National Central University. In September 1934, Qu Bochuan, who was dedicated to the ideal of education and science to save the country, traveled across the ocean and went to Germany to study at his own expense. He successively studied at Dresden University of Technology, Munich University of Technology and Berlin University of Technology. After the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War in July 1937, Qu Bochuan, who was in a foreign country, was so worried that he accelerated the completion of scientific research and wrote his doctoral dissertation. At the end of 1937, 28-year-old Qu Bochuan successfully passed the examination and received a doctorate degree in German chemical engineering.
In April 1938, Qu Bochuan, full of ambition to serve the country, returned to the motherland. In 1939, he met Lin Boqu, chairman of the border government, who was attending the National Political Participation Conference in Chongqing. Lin Boqu told him that the border area was carrying out production and construction, and there was an urgent need for scientific and technical personnel, so he suggested that he go to Yan'an. In October of that year, Qu Bochuan came to Yan'an.
Gao Shihe was born in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province in 1905. Gao Shiji graduated from Tsinghua University in 1925. With the ideal of saving the country by science, he was admitted to the University of Wisconsin in the United States, and then transferred to the Institute of Medicine of the University of Chicago to study bacteriology. In 1928, he was severely infected in a virus experiment at the University of Chicago Medical Research Institute, leaving an incurable sequela of encephalitis virus, but he still insisted on finishing the doctoral program of the Medical Research Institute. He returned to China in 1930 and served as the director of the laboratory in Nanjing Central Hospital, but he was not even approved to apply for the purchase of a microscope. He resigned angrily and came to Shanghai. At this time, he had contacts with Communists such as Ai Siqi and progressive cultural figures. Ai Siqi introduced some works of Marxism to him, which made him see light and hope in the midst of difficulties. Since then, he picked up the pen with trembling hands and used it as a weapon to write hundreds of popular science works and papers in just a few years, making a pioneering contribution to the birth of Chinese scientific and literary works. After the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance, under the influence of Ai Siqi, he overcame many difficulties and arrived in Yan'an with a paralyzed body.
Chen Xuezhao was born in 1906 in a teacher's home in Yanguan Town, Haining, Zhejiang Province. In 1920, she entered Nantong Women's Preparatory School and transferred to Shanghai Patriotic Women's School for Liberal Arts in 1922. In 1923, he published his debut novel "The New Woman I Hope" and participated in literary groups such as Asakusa Society and Yusi Society. In the summer of the same year, she attended Peking University, during which she published a large number of essays in Beijing and Shanghai newspapers. In May 1927, Chen Xuezhao went to France to study. He also served as a special correspondent for Tianjin Ta Kung Pao in Europe and a special contributor to Shanghai Life Weekly. He also wrote for more than 10 newspapers including Guowen Weekly. In 1931, he entered the liberal arts at the University of Clermont in France and received a doctorate in literature from the University in November 1934. In 1935, he returned to China with his husband.
What she saw after returning home made Chen Xuezhao very disappointed and painful. She refused to attach herself to the Kuomintang and refused the invitation to teach at Central University. After the outbreak of the all-out Anti Japanese War, Chen Xuezhao, unwilling to be a slave of subjugation, came to Chongqing, found the party organization of the Communist Party of China, and put forward the request to go to Yan'an. At this time, Guoxun Weekly asked her to write a newsletter in northern Shaanxi. Taking this opportunity, she came to Yan'an with He Mu as a special correspondent of the magazine.
He Mu was born in 1905 in an ordinary family in Langxia Town, Jinshan County (Jinshan District), Shanghai. At the age of 15, he was admitted to the affiliated high school of Aurora University to learn French. After graduation, he entered the school's pre-medical course. In July 1926, He Mu entrusted his mother to sell a share of the land she had earned when she split up and raise funds to study in France at her own expense. In January 1935, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toulouse with a doctorate. He then returned home with his wife, Chen Xuezhao. After being introduced by Li Ji'an, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, He Mu came to the office of the Eighth Route Army in Chongqing and formally applied to go to Yan'an. Wu Yuzhang, director of the office, immediately wrote to recommend. He Mu, carrying a military X-ray machine and a personal letter from Wu Lao, overcame many difficulties and finally came to Yan'an in August 1938.
The new atmosphere brought by the Communist Party of China to the border region has strengthened the choice of the five young returned doctors. They have devoted themselves to the economic construction and the cause of science, education, culture and health in the border region, and gradually established the communist belief. Gao Shiqi joined the party in December 1938, and Mao Zedong personally wrote to congratulate him. In February 1939, Chen Kangbai joined the Communist Party of China, Qu Bochuan joined the Communist Party of China in September 1940, Chen Xuezhao joined the Communist Party of China in July 1945, and He Mu joined the Communist Party of China in August 1945. In Yan'an, five returned doctors realized a major turning point in their lives in the melting pot of the revolution, from passionate patriotic intellectuals to staunch communist fighters.

　　What did they do in Yan'an?
"Working is beautiful", this is the name of one of Chen Xuezhao's works. It is not only a title, but also a common belief of the five returned doctors. When they came to Yan'an, they began to work, and they were closely related to the great cause of the party and the people.
As soon as he arrived in Yan'an, Chen Kangbai, Gao Shike and other well-known people in the scientific and educational circles initiated the establishment of Yan'an's first science and technology organization, the "Border Region National Defense Science Society". In April 1939, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to hold a large-scale industrial exhibition in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and appointed Chen Kangbai as the director of the Preparatory Committee. The exhibition has been open for more than ten days, with tens of thousands of visitors, and there are constant requests to extend the exhibition period. Then, he was ordered to prepare for the establishment of the Yan'an Institute of Natural Sciences, with a team of people to overcome many difficulties, so that the institute was established as scheduled.
Chen Kangbai and Qu Bochuan also participated in the preparation of the Academy of Natural Sciences. On September 1, 1940, Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences officially opened. It has a university department, a high school department and a junior high school department, including a chemistry department, a physics department, a biology department and a geological and mineral department. At this point, the first natural science university founded by the Communist Party of China was finally established. Chen Kangbai and Qu Bochuan looked around for talents, buying books, instruments, equipment and preparing other teaching conditions. He and his teachers and students to overcome difficulties, writing teaching materials, engraving wax paper, printing lecture notes, making experimental instruments, etc. In April 1943, the Natural Academy of Sciences was incorporated into Yan'an University. The Academy of Natural Sciences has trained a large number of outstanding talents with both political integrity and ability, such as Li Peng and Ye Xuanping, for the party and the country.
The trilateral division of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is one of the main salt producing areas in China, and the income from exporting salt accounts for nearly 95% of the income of the border region. At that time, the three-sided division mainly "relied on the sky" to collect salt. In the summer and autumn of 1940, it was rainy and rainy, which not only washed away the salt pile, but also prevented the accumulated water in the salt pond from evaporating, resulting in "salt shortage". In August, the central government appointed Chen Kangbai to concurrently serve as the director of the trilateral salt industry department, allowing him to solve the "salt shortage" problem in the border area in the shortest time. chen kangbai immediately led the scientific research team to go day and night to the salt ponds on the three sides of the mao wusu desert. After scientific analysis, they found that the salt here was deposited in low-lying areas after the ancient ocean was depleted. In-depth investigation of the masses, the "sea eye" mentioned by the salt farmer aroused his concern. Through investigation, Chen Kangbai found several "sea eyes" and judged that they were "air vents" formed by water vapor flushing sand under the salt crust ". He organized manpower to dig the "sea eye" into the size of a well, built a number of standardized salt fields, and obtained high quality refined salt through drying. Since then, the new method of salt beating has been rapidly popularized in three sides, and the salt production in the border area has increased by nearly 10 times, which has greatly alleviated the financial difficulties in the border area.
After November 1944, Chen Kangbai left Yan'an and joined the southward detachment led by Wang Zhen. On July 31, 1981, Chen Kangbai died in Beijing, completing his lifelong pursuit of "swearing to die with Ma-Leninist.
Qu Bochuan in May 1941 was transferred to the Central University of marxist-Leninist study. After studying in early 1942, he was assigned to the Industrial Bureau of the Construction Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government as deputy director. At the beginning of 1944, our army received a match factory in northwest Shanxi and moved to Yan'an. Qu Bochuan, as a representative of the Construction Department, presided over the construction of the factory and started production. At that time, the "abundant matches" produced by this factory, the "Xinhua soap" produced by the chemical factory and the "Weihua blanket" produced by the wool weaving factory became the three famous brand products in Yan'an, which were sold well in the Kuomintang-controlled areas in exchange for all kinds of materials urgently needed in the border areas. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Qu Bochuan led scientific and technological personnel to engage in military experiments, and devoted the rest of his life to education until his death on February 18, 1997.
Gao Shichi was the first scientist studying in the United States to join the revolution in Yan'an. He was arranged to serve as a teacher at the Northern Shaanxi Public School. Because of his paralysis, he organized a Red Army soldier to serve as his nurse and secretary. Mao Zedong set Gao Shihe as an example for the whole party and the whole army to learn from. At each meeting, the staff carried Gao Shihe on the rostrum and sat beside Mao Zedong. Later, as Gao's condition continued to worsen, he went to Hong Kong for treatment under the escort of the party organization. On September 21, 1949, Gao Shihe attended the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
For half a century, Gao Shiji has written millions of words of scientific sketches, scientific fairy tales and various forms of popular science articles under the condition of total paralysis, leading batch after batch of teenagers to embark on the road of science. The children affectionately call him "Grandpa Gao Shiji". On December 19, 1988, Gao Shihe died of illness.
After Chen Xuezhao came to Yan'an, he wrote a group of newsletters with passion and published "Yan'an Visits" in July 1940. In May 1942, she attended the Yan'an Forum on literature and art. Mao Zedong greeted her to sit beside her when taking a group photo. She first worked and studied in the Anti-Enemy Support Association of literary and art circles, and then served as the editor of Liberation Daily. In the freezing rural cave dwellings in northern Shaanxi, during the march of Yan'an retreat, the first volume of the autobiographical novel "Working is Beautiful" was written on the "tables and chairs" made of bedding. On October 10, 1991, Chen Xuezhao died in Hangzhou at the age of 85. Chen Xuezhao is a famous writer with achievements and influence. He has left a wealth of works for readers throughout his life, leaving a shining footprint in the history of my country's new literature.
After He Mu came to Yan'an, he was assigned to work in the Border District Hospital under the General Health Department of the Military Commission. Because He Mu is an expert in the treatment of tuberculosis, the Border District Hospital specially set up a pulmonary department and appointed him as the director of the pulmonary department. In 1939, it was entrusted by the central government to "prepare a hospital directly under the central government as modern as possible". After two months of hard work, the hospital was finally basically completed on a barren mountain. On November 7, the Central Hospital was officially established.
He Muin went on a special mission to Chongqing and returned to Yan'an in December 1941, where he was immediately appointed president of the Central Hospital. The trust and trust of the Party Central Committee excited the medical scientist who returned from studying abroad. He took no time to rest and took the new comrades to the Central Hospital where he had shed hard work. After a year of expansion, the number of staff has increased to 350, with internal, external, gynecological, pediatric and infectious departments, as well as pharmacy, laboratory, X-ray and other rooms, with 180 beds, basically meeting the needs. Outpatient service, treatment and nursing work were in good order, and the medical and nursing technology was close to the domestic advanced level, making it the most advanced general hospital in Yan'an at that time.
In order to concentrate on disease prevention and treatment, He Mu resigned as dean. From 1941 to 1942, due to the pollution of the Yanhe River system, Typhoid fever was prevalent in Yan'an. He Mu led the medical staff to overcome the difficulties of material shortage, put forward the slogan of "three-point treatment, seven-point care, and treat patients as relatives", and did everything possible to treat patients. With everyone's efforts, the cure rate of typhoid patients in the Central Hospital is very high, and the mortality rate is lower than that in the Kuomintang-controlled areas. On April 11, 1990, He Mu died in Beijing.

　　What does their life experience tell us?
The life experiences of the five returning doctors in Yan'an period provide us with profound historical enlightenment.
Respecting knowledge and talents is the magic weapon for our party to continue to win. During the Yan'an period, the party formulated a series of principles and policies to respect knowledge and talents, brought together a large number of elites from all walks of life at home and abroad, and formed a mighty revolutionary and construction army for the realization of national independence and the liberation of the people. it has laid the talent foundation for the great victory of the new democratic revolution. The five returned doctors who went to Yan'an were not only personally taught and guided by the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries such as Xu Teri, Wu Yuzhang, and Lin Boqu, but also received the cordial care of leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Chen Yun. In order to play their role, arrange and take care of their work and life, and promote their ideological progress, the party organizations and leaders at all levels have done a lot of specific work in every possible way, and set up a model of "sincerely loving talents, carefully cultivating talents, attracting talents and carefully using talents.
To share the same breath and destiny with the party and the state, with the nation and the people is the only way for intellectuals to make contributions. Patriotic struggle is the core and distinctive background of the traditional spirit of Chinese intellectuals. The five returned doctors who went to Yan'an resolutely abandoned all the generous treatment that was readily available to them, and firmly rushed to Yan'an. Their motivation is to breathe and share destiny with the country, nation and people, and realize national liberation and people's happiness. In the great practice of the revolution, they accepted Marxism again, changed from patriots to communists, became revolutionary intellectuals, closely linked their life course with the cause of the party, the state and the people, sacrificed the "small self" and achieved the "big self".

Source: Learning Times