Hua Tuo was a famous doctor in the Han Dynasty, and he was widely respected. His name and image decorated many products (for example, as the brand name of acupuncture needles and medical stickers) and a set of commonly used acupuncture points (called Huatuo Jiaji point, see appendix). He is famous for his early qigong exercise set The Play of Five Animals, which imitates the movements of tigers, deer, bears, apes and birds. These practices were later incorporated into various health promotion martial arts practices, such as Tai Ji Chuan. His name is always associated with surgery, because he is regarded as the first surgeon in China and one of the last famous surgeons in ancient China. In this respect, he was compared to the Givaka of India. He lived in the Buddha's era (about 500 BC) and was famous for his surgery. But it was not until modern times that surgery was reintroduced by western doctors that an important successor appeared.
Legends about Hua Tuo's work are mentioned in historical novels, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Taiping Guangji. In the past, there was a tradition that when a patient recovered due to the efforts of a competent doctor, his family would present a congratulatory board to the doctor, which read: The Second Hua Tuo.
Hua Tuo was born in Qiao County (today's Hao County or Bo County) in about 1 10. In today's Anhui Province, Hua Tuo is one of the four major distribution centers of medicinal materials in modern China. He lived about 100 years and died around 207 AD. He is the older generation of Zhang Zhongjing, a famous herbalist in China, who died around 220 AD. In the chronicle of the later Han Dynasty, there is a saying: "Hua Tuo knew how to keep healthy, but he still appeared in his heyday when he was nearly 100 years old, so he was considered immortal." It is said that Cao Cao, the ruler of Wei, executed Hua Tuo for unknown reasons. Cao Cao summoned him as his personal doctor. When Hua Tuo suggested brain surgery to treat his severe headache, he was either angry at Hua Tuo's indecision or suspected that someone was trying to assassinate him. According to Wei's records, in 207 AD, 97-year-old Cao Cao killed Hua Tuo. Cao Cao's second son, Cao Pi (A.D. 187-226), became Emperor Wei and took over China after Emperor Xi 'an was forced to abdicate. China then fell into chaos, leaving only Wei, which had been ruled by Cao Pi for several years, and the "Three Kingdoms" of the North broke down.
According to the limited reports about his life, it is said that Hua Tuo studied and mastered various classics when he was young, especially those related to medical and health measures, but also involved astronomy, geography, literature, history and agriculture. After seeing so many people die from epidemics, famines and war injuries, he was stimulated and began to engage in medical career (Zhang Zhongjing also mentioned that epidemics led him to engage in medical career). When Hua Tuo was seven years old, his father died. His family lives in poverty, and his mother wants him to pursue a career. So he walked hundreds of kilometers to Xuzhou, looked up all the medical classics preserved there, and learned from a famous doctor named Cai. He studied tirelessly while practicing medicine and became an expert in several fields, including acupuncture, gynecology, pediatrics and surgery. For the latter, he invented various herbal anesthetics. One is called numbing powder, which is taken with alcohol before operation. His ancient prescription has been lost, but the ingredients are thought to include marijuana and Datura stramonium, which was later recorded as an anesthetic in the Song Dynasty.
Hua Tuo's official biography recounts two specific cases of abdominal surgery:
A patient who went to see a doctor in Huatuo was told: "Your illness is a chronic disease, and you should undergo abdominal surgery, but even this can only prolong your life span by no more than 10 years." The patient was in great pain, agreed to the operation and was cured immediately, but he died ten years later.
A patient with abdominal pain for more than 10 days and hair loss of beard and eyebrows sought Huatuo treatment. The doctor diagnosed his abdomen deterioration, let him drink anesthetic, then explored his abdomen and removed the deteriorated part, stitched the abdomen and put plaster on it, and took some herbs. The patient recovered after 100 days.
The latter story is considered to be the treatment of acute appendicitis. In "Wei Zhi" (5), it is reported that for intestinal diseases, Hua Tuo "will cut them out, wash them, sew up the abdomen, and apply ointment; If it takes four to five days, the condition will be relieved. " There is also the story of General Guan Yu. In a battle, his arm was pierced by a poisonous arrow. General Guan sat quietly playing board games. He asked Hua Tuo to wash his meat to the bone to eliminate necrosis, and there was no anesthetic. This event is a popular historical theme in China's art.
Hua Tuo is called "imperial doctor" (also translated as imperial doctor; Shen Yi), because he emphasized the use of a small amount of acupuncture points or a small amount of herbs in the prescription to achieve good results. Some proverbs are attributed to him; For example, when advocating people to exercise to keep healthy, he said: "The body needs exercise, but it should not be excessive. Exercise consumes the energy generated by food and promotes blood circulation, so that the body will not get sick, just like the hinge of the door will not be eaten by insects. " As an accomplished Taoist (Anhui is also the birthplace of legendary Taoist founders Laozi and Zhuangzi) and following its principles, he did not pursue fame and fortune, although he received many praises. He is now a doctor in Jiangsu Province and Shandong Province, which are adjacent to his hometown of Anhui Province. He refused the invitation of the government department.
It is said that Hua Tuo wrote several books, but none of them have been handed down, so his teachings are still largely unknown. One story is that when Hua Tuo was waiting for death in prison, he gave his book (collectively called "The Book of Black Sacks") to the prison ward and asked him to use his medical books to help save people's lives, but the warden refused to accept it and Hua Tuo burned it. Another story is that the warden took the book home, but his wife burned it for fear of causing them trouble. In any case, the lasting story is that his written teaching went up in smoke. It is believed that some of Hua Tuo's teachings were preserved in other books published in the following centuries, such as Pulse Sutra, A Thousand-Daughter Recipe and Medical Secrets of Officials. An existing book is believed to have been written by him, but it has been determined to be written by a later writer; It was translated into English with the title of "The Central Tibetan Scripture" by Master Hua. It is unconfirmed that only one scroll of Hua was burned, and this is intact (6). Similarly, a book called Surgical Prescription is believed to have been written by Hua Tuo, but it is believed that it was not completed until at least a century or two after his death (7).
Despite Hua Tuo's reputation in this field, the loss of his works led to the first surgical monograph being wrongly attributed to others. From the end of Han Dynasty to the 5th century A.D., many short documents appeared, one of which is called Liu Junzi's Secret Recipe. Like other documents of this era, it mainly focuses on cutting carbuncle and cleaning deep ulcer, as well as other superficial operations, rather than abdominal surgery that Hua Tuo is said to have done.
Hua Tuo has several disciples, including Upp, Fan E and Li Dangzhi. They are all excellent doctors. They also practice qigong, acupuncture, herbs and other things they learned from Hua Tuo. It is said that he wrote a guide to herbal medicine, and Fan lived 100 years old because of regular exercise.