The earliest image of barefoot doctors.

Wang Guizhen, the former barefoot doctor of Jiangzhen Commune in Chuansha County, and Qin Xiangguan, the founder of rural cooperative medical system in Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, Hubei Province, are the earliest barefoot doctors in China. The life trajectories of the two men of the hour are similar.

On September 2nd, 2008, in an ordinary dormitory building of the Health Bureau of Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, Hubei Province, Ni Bingwan, a retired cadre known as the "living file" of the cooperative medical system, took out his historical data collected and treasured for many years and introduced the first two "barefoot doctors" in China to the author.