Text: Old Werther (author original authorization)
Throughout the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty, social turmoil, displacement of people, and natural health became a big problem. The health problem was not only because of war, but also because of the frequent epidemic of epidemics, which caused great problems for the ruling groups and the common people everywhere, but the doctors at that time also made a great contribution to it. This article is to tell the story of Hua Tuo, a divine physician in the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty.
1 Unclear origin
Among the famous doctors of the Three Kingdoms era at the end of the Han Dynasty, the most famous one was Hua Tuo. Later generations sent pennants and plaques to doctors, calling each other "Hua Tuo's rebirth", which shows its influence. But this doctor's life is really a little tragic, what is going on?
Hua Tuo (Chinese: 華佗; pinyin: Wáng Tuo), a native of PeiGuo County (沛国谯县, in present-day Bozhou, Anhui), was a native of Cao Cao,000, and Pei Songzhi believed that "旉" was his real name. However, historians in modern times have been talking about his origins. For example, Mr. Chen Yinke believes that the Chinese pronunciation of the name Huatuo is similar to the pronunciation of "agada" in Sanskrit. The Japanese scholar Matsuki knew that he had also written an article entitled "Recent Knowledge in the History of Anesthesia Science, the Famous Doctor of Han Hua Tuo is a Persian", in which Matsuki throws out bold and controversial research, Hua Tuo is a Persian who came to China with the Silk Road, and the name Hua Tuo means Mr. and Excellency in Persian. Modern historians are skeptical of this, mainly because ancient Chinese medicine has a lack of record of the surgical aspect, and the later, the surgical aspect has become more and more clumsy. This is mainly because surgery is more about technology than theory, so it is not easy to teach. In addition, the reason for the injury of patients treated by surgery is mainly due to the trauma caused by production labor and battle, and after the strict separation of civil and military routes in the Tang Dynasty, the wenchen who mastered the right to speak were less affected by such injuries, and the doctors who naturally served them no longer valued surgery. Those who study surgery are mainly some half-witch and half-doctor traveling doctors. Therefore, many of Hua Tuo's deeds are simply miracles in the eyes of folk healers and the general public who have suffered from trauma in the future, and he himself has become the spokesman of the divine doctor.
However, the author does think that perhaps Hua Tuo's medical skills have been influenced by some Western medicine since the opening of the Silk Road, but Hua Tuo is definitely a person from the Central Plains of the Han Dynasty. Indeed, the cultural influence of the West is reflected in the social life of the upper and lower classes of the Two Han Dynasties and the Three Kingdoms. Cao Pi loves to drink wine, and this technique was transmitted from the Western Regions; Jiao Zhongqing, a young official, was reprimanded by his mother-in-law, who also sat on the "Hu Bed" (Maza) from the Western Regions. However, I think he is probably not a foreign visitor. Because Hua Tuo's surname "Hua", its main source is still the Hua clan formed by the song state branch in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Hua Tuo's hometown is also the place where the former Song State is located, and his clan is probably derived from this source. Moreover, Hua Tuoqi himself was also from a scholar family, and he himself "also passed through the Classics of Numbers" (the Six Classics of Confucianism). If he were a foreign visitor, he would never have such a deep cultural foundation in the Central Plains. He himself had also resigned from the recommendation of Pei Xiang Chen Gui's filial piety and the conquest of Tai wei Huang Wan, probably to concentrate on the study of medical technology. Although he later regretted that he had engaged in the "unworthy business" of "medical skills".
2 Immortals? Divine healer?
When Hua Tuo was alive, because he was good at the art of health maintenance, he became an old immortal in people's eyes. People at the time thought he was "100 years old and had a strong appearance." In fact, Hua Lao Immortal was also a mortal, and he lived for more than 60 years before he went to Huangquan.
Hua Tuo's most famous invention is the general anesthetic "Hemp Boiling Dispersion" before surgery. Legend has it that it is composed of 1 pound of mandala flowers (also called sheep flowers, peach blossoms, drunken flowers, dog walnuts), raw grass Wu, Xiangbaizhi, Angelica, Sichuan Root 4 yuan each, Tiannanxing 1 yuan, a total of 6 herbs; Another theory consists of 3 cents for sheep heels, 1 cent for jasmine root, 1 pair of angelica, and 3 cents for calamus. In fact, the surgical technique was not the first of Hua Tuo, nor was it anesthetic, but this general anesthesia was probably his invention, which is also a major contribution of Hua Lao Shen Doctor. Another major contribution of Hua Tuo to medical technology is the healthy gymnastics of "Five Birds Play". This is a kind of gymnastics that imitates the movements of tigers, deer, bears, apes and birds, and has the effect of strengthening the body. This is probably also the result of Hua Tuo's summary of the experience of his predecessors, because as early as the Western Han Dynasty, there were doctors who invented some gymnastics movements that were conducive to strengthening the body, and the "Guide Map" excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb was its record.
(Mawangdui Han Tomb unearthed "Guide Map")
3 Hua Tuo's medical case
As I mentioned earlier, Hua Tuo was good at surgery, but in fact, in that era, the division of medical disciplines was not yet clear. Therefore, Hua Tuo is also very successful in the diagnosis and treatment of internal medicine. For example, he once saw a person on the road with indigestion and could not digest anything he ate, hua Tuo saw it, and opened a dietary remedy, saying that there was a vendor selling cakes in front of him, go to his side and take three liters of garlic paste and vinegar, try it. The patient did as he said, and indeed spit out a "snake" (presumably a tapeworm).
Among Hua Tuo's patients, not all of them were unknown people, but there were also prominent figures at that time. For example, a county taishou once called on Hua Tuo to come to him for diagnosis and treatment, and Hua Tuo thought that he could get better with this disease as long as he lost his temper, so he asked for a lot of medical fees, and then left soon after, leaving a letter to scold Taishou. Taishou was really angry and asked people to go after Hua Tuo. But Taishou's son also learned of this, so he sent someone to tell him not to do so. Tai Shou had a big temper, and sure enough, he "vomited black blood and healed it by several liters." This is also in line with the ungrateful verse of Ericus Cordus, a famous physician in medieval Europe, who satirized the ungratefulness of patients: The healer should know that there are three doctors / The only one is to ask the gods / The second is to ask for money from the healer / The third is worse than Satan. But compared to Cao Chengxiang, who finally sent the Hua Divine Doctor to Huang Quan, Satan was nothing at all.
Of the patients Hua Tuo had been exposed to, the first famous was Cao Cao, and the second most famous was The generation of Hao Jie in Liu Bei's eyes who "should seek from the ancient", that is, Chen Deng Chen Yuanlong, who trapped Sun Ce's brother Sun Quan's footsteps in the north (it is worth mentioning that in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Hua Tuo scraped the bones of the famous Guan Yu, which is fictional by the novelist).
Chen Deng's father was none other than Chen Jue, who had wanted to raise Hua Tuo as a filial piety in the past. Although Chen Deng is extremely heroic, he has a major fetish in diet, that is, he loves to eat "fish fillets", and after eating for a long time, he has given birth to illness, and the symptom is that he is bored in his chest and cannot eat. After seeing Hua Tuo, Hua Tuo gave him a diagnostic report: "There are several liters of worms in the stomach of the emperor, and he wants to become internal gangrene, and he also eats fishy things." After that, Chen Deng took the anthelmintic drug prescribed by Hua Tuo, and after taking one liter each, he spit out three liters of red-headed parasites (probably liver flukes), and "half of his body is raw fish", which can be seen that it is indeed the scourge caused by sashimi, and later Hua Tuo made a diagnosis, saying that "when the disease occurs after three stages, it can be saved by a good doctor." Unfortunately, Chen Deng's life was not good, and he did not meet Hua Tuo again after three years, and died directly from the onset of parasitic disease, which may be because the previous parasite eggs could not be removed, or because Chen Deng was still greedy for appetite and did not quit sashimi caused problems.
4 Cao Cao's medical troubles and Hua Tuo's stubbornness
After Cao Cao sent troops to Liucheng in the White Wolf Mountain, surrendered the Wuhuan people, and destroyed the Yuan Yu Dang, he also felt that his health was not very comfortable, so he summoned Hua Tuo, hoping that Hua Tuo would become his special doctor. After all, Cao Cao's old problem has always been the head wind, although he was cured once by Chen Lin's text, but he always had seizures in the back, and he was dizzy as soon as he had a seizure. However, Hua Tuo was not a big problem as soon as he came, and every time Cao Cao had a seizure, Hua Tuo acupuncture could solve the problem. However, once, after Cao Cao fell ill, Hua Tuo said that the disease could not be cured in a short period of time and could be delayed (in the famous book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao suspected that Hua Tuo avenged Guan Yu, which is the novelist's words).
In fact, Mr. Hua Lao's idea is that, first, Cao Chengxiang's disease is really difficult to treat; Second, he was also homesick and wanted to go home to see. After Hua Tuo returned home, he shirked to the officials that his wife was ill, and Cao Cao repeatedly recruited him not to go back. Later, Cao Cao couldn't see it, so he asked Hua Tuo's county to recruit him on the road, but Hua Tuo was conceited and talented, and still refused to leave. Cao Cao was very angry, so he sent someone to check it out; If his wife is really sick, he gives four thousand liters of beans and relaxes the holiday period; If deceived, arrest and escort.
As a result, Hua Tuo lied.
Therefore, Hua Tuo was deported to Xuchang Prison by a teleport, and after interrogation and verification, Hua Tuo confessed to the crime (Han Law: 1. The crime of deception; 2. Not to be conscripted). Xun Yu pleaded with Cao Cao, saying: "Hua Tuo's medical skills are indeed brilliant and have a bearing on human life, so we should include and tolerate him." Cao Cao said, "Don't worry, there is no such incompetent rat in the world?" Finally, Hua Tuo was tortured to death in prison. Before his death, Hua Tuo took out a medical book and gave it to the prison guard, saying, "This book can be used to save the living." The jailer was afraid of breaking the law and did not dare to accept it, so Hua Tuo had to endure the pain and ask for a fire to burn the book. I have left a great regret for the cause of medicine.
Although Hua Tuo's death is a bit unclear, his disciples Fan A, Wu Pu, and Li Dangzhi also have their own writings and legends, which can be regarded as making up for the regrets of the master. However, the combination of Cao Cao's medical behavior and Hua Tuo's excessive self-conceit is the real reason for the death of this old divine doctor, which is enough for the doctors and patients of later generations to admonish.