Often used "Hua Tuo is alive" to describe a doctor's superb medical skills, from ancient times to the present, people who study Chinese medicine, will learn Hua Tuo, in the ancient feudal society, Hua Tuo's position in the hearts of doctors is even more unshakable.
Nowadays, professor Tsinghua pointed out that "Hua Tuo is not Chinese, but Indian", and behind the grandeur, he even listed a lot of evidence.
Hua Tuo was born in 145 AD, the specific year of death is unknown, one of the most commonly recognized by historians is that around 208 AD, Cao Cao suspected Hua Tuo's loyalty, arrested and imprisoned, and finally tortured to death in prison.
However, some historians believe that the existence of Hua Tuo as a person is still worth examining, after all, the description in the Later Han Shu Hua Tuo Biography is too deified. "He is a hundred years old, but he is still strong, and he thinks of people as immortals", from this record, it can be seen that the ancients at that time already regarded Hua Tuo as a god-like existence.
In modern times, some people have also questioned the true origin of Hua Tuo, who is Chen Yinke, a famous Chinese historian, classical writer and professor at Tsinghua University.
Chen Yinke has a considerable prestige in the history of modern Chinese literature. Born during the Qing Guangxu period, influenced by the family style, since childhood familiar with the scriptures, received a good education, graduated from Harvard University, the talent is amazing, is one of the "four philosophers" in the history of Tsinghua University in the past hundred years, proficient in the four books and five classics, geography and humanities and arithmetic and other knowledge, is a rare talent in a hundred years.
However, it is such a talent who has raised the question that "Hua Tuo is not Chinese, it may be Indian", and even pointed out his own three pieces of evidence, from which each piece of evidence is arguing that Chen Yinke's question is completely correct.
Isn't Hua Tuo really Chinese?
The reason why Chen Yinke questioned whether Hua Tuo was Chinese was because when he studied the Hua Tuo Biography and the Cao Chong Biography, he found that these two works contained a lot of Buddhist content, and because of his research and understanding of Buddhism, he could almost conclude that these two were inextricably linked to the Indians.
Chen Yinke pointed out: "The story of Cao Chong calling an elephant is likely to be fictional, because according to the time of Cao Chong's death and the place of elephant inches, Cao Chong did not have elephants at all in the Eastern Han Dynasty during his infancy. ”
Of course, in addition to questioning the story of "Cao Chong calling himself an elephant", Chen Yinke also questioned the authenticity of Hua Tuo's existence. We all know that Hua Tuo has the reputation of "surgical holy hand" and "surgical originator".
There is also a relevant record in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "I cut off my intestines and washed, sewed my abdomen, and the difference between four or five days was not painful... Between January, that is, calming down". Judging from this record, Hua Tuo has begun to use the surgical treatment of Western medicine, and it takes four or five days to make the body recover.
Chen Yinke pointed out: Western medicine only flowed into China during the Republic of China period, if Hua Tuo did not adopt the Western medical method, then relying solely on Chinese medicine, it is almost impossible to recover the body within four or five days.
Secondly, from the analysis of Hua Tuo's name, there is a myth in India, which is almost the same as Hua Tuo, and in Hindi, Hua Tuo means "medicine", from this point of view, Hua Tuo is likely to be Indian.
Second, most of the experiences and biographies we can learn about Hua Tuo are from the two books "The Biography of Hua Tuo" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Among them, a large number of myths and fictions were added to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which made Hua Tuo's medical skills myths a lot, which also led to hua Tuo's many experiences can not be verified, is his medical skills so high? No one knows.
Third, according to the records in the historical records, the most commonly used medicine used by Huatuo to save people is "Ma Boiling Powder", according to Chen Yinke's explanation, the composition of Hemp Boiling Scatter is almost the same as that of mandala flowers, and the origin of mandala flowers is the Western Regions, as early as before the introduction of mandala flowers to China, in fact, India already had a "Hu medicine" Chinese herbal medicine, and its main ingredient is also mandala.
In summary, Chen Yinke boldly put forward the idea that "Hua Tuo may be An Indian", he felt that it may be that Hua Tuo came to China because of the Silk Road or some other unknown reasons, it just so happens that he is superb in medical skills, and the reputation in the market is getting better and better, and slowly, it has become a "divine doctor" in the historical records.
However, regardless of whether Hua Tuo's medical skills are as clever as those recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Biography of Hua Tuo, it is undeniable that Hua Tuo is indeed the "originator of surgery", and his contribution to medicine is also beyond doubt.