50 Hua Tuo

A Medical Saint

Hua Tuo (145-208) was a household name in history, and people usually took the name “Hua Tuo” as a symbol of “divine doctor”. Hua Tuo, like most of Chinese traditional doctors in history, roamed around from village to village by carrying a box filling with a set of medical tools, as well as holding high a sign banner writting a big character “medicine” to cure diseases for people. It is said, Hua Tuo looked still young and energetic when he was 100 years old, and people considered he was an immortal. Hua was a general practitioner especially adept at surgery. In the novel Tales of Three Kingdoms, there was a story of Hua Tuo carrying out a surgical operation for Guan Yu, who was once hit by a poisonous arrow on the arm. Hua cut open the skin, took away the wounded muscle, and scraped the bone, sending out repeatedly the sound “chi, chi …”, while Guan Yu was playing chess with smiles on his face. When the operation ended, Guan stood up saying to Hua: “You are really a divine doctor”. Also according to the novel, Hua Tuo was at last killed by Cao Cao. Cao Cao once afflicted a bad headache, and asked Hua to cure the disease. Hua found out there was a tumor inside Cao’s skull, and suggested to carry out an operation. On hearing this, Cao Cao said Hua was a killer sent by enemy in an attempt to murder him. Cao Cao killed Hua immediately. But the official history book Records of Three Kingdoms had another story, saying: Cao Cao wanted Hua Tuo to be his private healthcare doctor, Hua refused. Flying into rages, Cao arrested and jailed Hua. Before being executed, Hua asked a prison keeper to transfer out a file of scripts of his medical work, but the prison keeper dare not. Then Hua threw his book script into fire and Hua Tuo’s medical skill was since then broke off.