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Portrait of Hua Tuo. Qing Dynasty print.
Names
Simplified Chinese:	华陀
Traditional Chinese:	華佗
Pinyin:	Huà Tuó
Wade-Giles:	Hua T'o
Zi:	Yuanhua (元化)

'Huà Tuó' (d. 208) was a famous Chinese physician during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms eras. He was described as looking like "an immortal who had passed the gates of this life" and "a man with the complexion of a youth and a snowy beard." The Book of Later Han records Hua as the first person to use anesthesia during surgery, over 1600 years before the practice was adopted by Europeans. He used a general anesthetic combining wine with an herbal concoction called ''mafeisan'' (麻沸散 lit. "cannabis boil powder").

Contents

Historical accounts

Fictional accounts

See also

References

External links

Historical accounts

Huà Tuó came from Qiao in the State of Pei. Besides being one of the most respected physicians in Chinese history, Hua Tuo also devised techniques to enhance health. He developed the ''Wuqinxi'' (五禽戲 "Frolics of the Five Animals"), a series of exercises based on movements of the tiger, deer, bear, ape, and crane.
He was well known for being able to diagnose miscarriages by examining a woman's pulse and to tell whether the dead fetus was male or female depending on the position of th fetus. He was also famous for ridding people of parasites that had gotten into their bodies from ingesting uncooked meat. One account was about a snake-like parasite that blocked a man's pharynx and another was about "wriggling red headed" parasites that could cause ulcer. Dong Xi, who had heard of Huà Tuó, introduced him to Sun Ce. Huà healed general Zhou Tai who had been gravely injured in rescuing Sun's brother Sun Quan. Hua used drugs that healed Zhou's wounds within a month, and Sun Ce rewarded him richly.
Cao Cao heard about Huà Tuó and summoned him to court. Henceforth Huà Tuó was often in attendance. Cao Cao suffered from chronic headaches (which many today believe was a brain tumor) and Huà would treat Cao Cao with acupuncture to stop the pain. Later when Cao Cao had taken personal control of the affairs of the state, his pain became worse and more frequent. Huà told Cao Cao that this kind of illness would need long term treatments and thus Huà came to treat Cao Cao exclusively. Having been away from home for a long time, Huà desired to temporarily return and Cao Cao allowed this. Upon arriving however, Huà delayed his return to Cao Cao and made excuses to extend his stay citing that his wife was ill. Cao Cao sent many letters requesting for Huà to return, but Huà found it distasteful waiting hand and foot on others for a living. So he delayed his departure back to Cao Cao. Cao Cao sent agents to investigate the situation and if indeed Huà was telling the truth and his wife was truly ill, he would bestowed upon them forty bushels of 'xiao dou' and be lenient on his return date. If he was lying and making false excuses in order to delay his return, then he was to be apprehended and brought back by force. Huà was then thrown in prison, confessing his fault.
Xun Yu, an adviser of Cao Cao petitioned on behalf of Huà asking Cao Cao to spare him because his skills could save many lives. Cao Cao would pay no heed and ordered for Huà to be executed. Upon his execution, Huà presented a scroll, ''Qīng Náng Shū'' (青囊書 "medical practice book"), to the jailer saying "This can save lives". But the jailer, who was fearful of the law declined to accept it, nor did Huà force it on him. Instead Huà requested for a fire and burned the scroll. This loss to Traditional Chinese Medicine was irreplaceable. Veith (1966:3) notes that, "Unfortunately, Hua T'o's works were destroyed; his surgical practices fell into disuse, with the exception of his method of castration, which continued to be practiced."
Even after Huà's execution, Cao Cao's pain did not go away. Cao Cao cursed "Huà Tuó could have healed me. That rascal didn’t so that he could enhance his own importance on me. Even if I didn’t kill him, he wouldn’t have healed me and rid me of this source of pain." Soon afterwards, Cao Cao's favorite son Cao Chong fell ill and died. Cao Cao in anguished cried out "I regret putting Huà Tuó to death. In doing so I have condemned my son to death!".
Huà Tuó's exact date of death was not specified in the Sanguozhi, but we do know that Cao Chong died in 208 AD, and because of that we know that Huà Tuó could not have lived past that year.
In later times, a set of 34 paravertebral acupuncture points was named the "Hua Tuo Jiaji" (華佗夹脊) in his honor. Hua is considered a ''shenyi'' (神醫 "divine doctor") and is worshipped as a medicinal god or immortal in Daoist temples. "Hua Tuo zaishi" (華佗再世 "Hua Tuo reincarnated") is a term of respect for a highly skilled doctor.

Fictional accounts

In the ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', Huà Tuó supposedly healed Guan Yu, who had been struck with a poisoned arrow during his Battle of Fancheng. Huà offered to anesthetize Guan, but he simply laughed that he was not afraid of pain. Huà used a knife to cut the flesh from Guan's arm and scrape the poison from the bone, and the sounds chilled all those who heard them. During this excruciating treatment, Guan continued to play the board game go with Ma Liang, without flinching from pain. When later asked by Ma, Guan said that he feigned being unhurt to keep the morale of the army high. After Hua's successful operation, Guan allegedly rewarded him with a sumptuous banquet, and offered a present of 100 ounces of gold, but he refused, saying that a doctor's duty was curing patients, not making profits. Despite the historical fact that Hua Tuo died in 208, a decade before Guan Yu fought the 219 battle of Fancheng, this storied operation is a popular artistic theme.
Huà Tuó was later called upon to cure a chronic excruciating pain in Cáo Cāo's head, which turned out to be a brain tumor. Huà told Cáo that in order to remove the tumor, it would be necessary to open up his skull. However, Cáo suspected the doctor intended murder, and ordered that Huà be jailed and executed. This was because Ji Ben, a former royal surgeon, had participated in Dong Cheng's assassination plot on Cáo (this assassination attempt by Ji Ben however did historically happen).
Legend has it that Huà gave his ''Qīng Náng Shū'' (青囊書 "medical practice book"), which recorded techniques for treating patients, to a prison official before his execution. However, this official, or in some versions of the story his wife, burned the book to avoid being implicated. In another version of the story, Cao Cao ordered all of the written medical works of Hua Tuo be burned. In either way, many of Hua Tou 's medical methods were lost forever.

See also

★ List of Chinese physicians

References

★ Fan, K.W. 2004. "On Hua Tuo's Position in the History of Chinese Medicine," ''The American Journal of Chinese Medicine'', 32.2:313-320.

★ Veith, Ilza. 1966. ''Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wen; The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine''. University of California Press.

External links

★ Hua Tuo, Subhuti Dharmananda

★ Hua Tuo: A miraculous healer in ancient China, Association for Asian Research