In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", hua Tuo's story of "scraping bones and curing poison" for Guan Yu is impressive and fresh in memory. It is mainly about the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219 AD), when Guan Yu led his troops to besiege Fancheng, he was shot in the right arm by Cao Ren's poisonous arrow, fell on his horse and landed on the ground, and Cao Ren took the opportunity to lead his troops out of the city and defeated the Shu army. Fortunately, under the hard cover of Guan Xing, Zhou Cang and others, Guan Yu was able to escape from danger. Later, Hua Tuo learned of Guan Yu's injury and came to the camp alone to scrape Guan Yu's bones to cure the poison.
The most wonderful part of this is that when Hua Tuo scraped his bones, Guan Yu's face did not change color, and he still drank while playing chess with Ma Liang. This is also a core part of the whole story. The reason why Mr. Luo Guanzhong wrote this is nothing more than to express the meaning of two aspects: the first is to show that Guan Yu is not only strong in martial arts, loyal and righteous, but also an iron-blooded tough man, who is really worthy of the honorific title of "Martial Saint"; the second is to express that Hua Tuo's divine doctor Gai Shi had such superb medical skills in that barbaric era.
As a literary work of historical interpretation, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is undoubtedly very successful, and its influence on future generations is also great. However, when we delve deeper into this story, there are still many questions.
First of all, it is a matter of common sense, which has been discussed in our middle school history textbooks. Hua Tuo was not only a master of medical skills, but also the first person in the world to invent and use "Hemp Boiling Scatter". This invention predates the European ethanol anesthesia by more than 1,600 years. While the West was still struggling with pain, Hua Tuo had begun to use anesthesia in the process of treating the disease. So since there was hemp boiling and scattering, why was Hua Tuo useless when scraping Guan Yu's bones?
Secondly, according to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms? Wei Shu? According to the Fang Ji Biography, Hua Tuo was imprisoned by Cao Cao for deception as early as the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208 AD), and finally executed. If according to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", how could a person who had been dead for eleven years, even if his medical skills were superb, crawl out and scrape Guan Yu's bones? In fact, these two questions pointed to a key point, that is, Hua Tuo had not treated Guan Yu at all.
Since Hua Tuo had not treated Guan Yu, did Guan Yu really have the experience of "scraping bones to cure poison"? According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms? Book of Shu? Guan Yu's biography records that when Guan Yu was fighting, he was once penetrated by a stray arrow through his left arm, and after the wound healed, whenever it rained, the bones inside were still painful and unbearable, and later asked a doctor to diagnose it. The doctor said: "The arrow is poisonous, and it has penetrated into the bone, 'when the broken arm is wounded, the bone is scraped to remove the poison', so that the arm is completely recovered." After Guan Yu listened, he immediately stretched out his arm to let the doctor cut the poison, and the blood flowed down the arm in a basin, "and Yu Cut and drank, laughing freely."
Through this passage of account, it is explained that the matter of "scraping bones to cure poison" is real, but not the right arm, but the arrow in the left arm. And the description of Guan Yu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is also consistent with the actual situation at that time. When the doctor was scraping his bones, he was drinking wine and eating meat with his generals, talking and laughing, and was not affected in the slightest. It's just that this doctor is definitely not Hua Tuo, because Hua Tuo was very famous at that time, and if it was him, it would be impossible not to record it. In addition, in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is no mention of anything related.
Since it really exists, the last question is, when did the "bone scraping cure" occur? The exact time of this incident is not mentioned in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but one thing is certain: it occurred before the Battle of Xiangfan in the twenty-fourth year of Jianyuan, and it is not too far away from this time period. So, we can only push forward from this time and look for answers in it.
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, the closest time to this time period was in the 20th year of jianyuan (215 AD). In this year, Sun Quan unsuccessfully demanded Jingzhou from Liu Bei, and in a fit of rage, he sent Lü Meng to lead his troops to conquer the three counties of Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang, while Lu Su led his troops to block the Shu army at Yiyang. After Liu Bei heard the news, he personally led his troops into the public security and sent Guan Yu to compete for the three counties. This time, although the swords between Wu and Shu were fierce, and even Guan Yu staged a "single knife to the meeting", but did not really fight. Finally, because of Cao Cao's intervention, Liu Bei took the lead in making overtures with Eastern Wu, and the two sides reached a reconciliation and jointly governed the land of Jingxiang. Therefore, guan yu is unlikely to be injured during this time.
Then if you push it further, it is the end of the seventeenth year of Jianyuan (212 AD) and the beginning of the eighteenth year of Jianyuan (213 AD), during which Guan Yu experienced two defeats. At the end of the seventeenth year of Jianyuan, Guan Yu and the Wei general Le Jin confronted each other at Qingni (青泥, in present-day eastern Zhongxiang, Hubei Province), and the two sides attacked each other equally. However, after a period of confrontation, Guan Yu gradually fell behind. By the beginning of the eighteenth year of Jianyuan, the Shu army was defeated, and Guan Yu led his troops to retreat to Xunkou (陳口; southwest of present-day Zhongxiang, Hubei Province).
Later, Wei led Wen Ping's troops to join Lejin, and the two joined forces to engage Guan Yu, and the Shu army was defeated again, and Guan Yu led his troops to continue to retreat. In the process of retreating, Wen Ping led his troops to pursue a certain distance in the rear, annihilating the Shu army, burning countless grain and grass and ships, and returning home victorious. Wen Ping was also promoted by Cao Cao to the rank of Marquis of Yanshouting and a rebellious general because of his heroic performance in this battle.
If you push it further, until the Battle of Chibi in the thirteenth year of Jianyuan (208), during this time, Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu jointly ruled Jingzhou, everything was calm and calm, Guan Yu did not experience any battles, and the time period from the twenty-fourth year of Jianyuan was too long. Therefore, the biggest possibility is that in the early eighteenth year of Jianyuan, after Guan Yu's soldiers were defeated, they were injured by poisonous stray arrows in the pursuit of Wen Ping. Later, after medical diagnosis, the incident of "scraping bones to cure poison" occurred.
Reference book: Romance of the Three Kingdoms