Hua Tuo heals the sick

Cao Cao was defeated at Chibi and returned to Xudu, depressed and unhappy. At this time, his beloved youngest son, Cang Shu, became seriously ill, and the family asked doctors everywhere for medicine, but nothing worked. Seeing that the child was hopeless, Cao Cao said sadly, "If Hua Tuo were here, the child would not have died so early."

Hua Tuo, as Cao Cao called him, was a famous medical doctor in China's history, and he was from the same town as Cao Cao. Hua Tuo was familiar with scriptures since childhood and was especially proficient in medicine. No matter what difficult and complicated diseases were in his hands, most of them were cured. When local officials and the court lieutenant heard of Hua Tuo's fame, they called him to be an official. But Hua Tuo refused to go.

Hua Tuo was extremely accurate in diagnosing diseases. Once, two officials had a headache and fever and sought treatment from Hua Tuo. After Hua Tuo asked them about their conditions, he prescribed a laxative for one and a sweating medicine for the other. Someone was watching Hua Tuo's prescription and asked him why he used different medicines for the same condition. Hua Tuo said, "This disease looks the same on the surface, but in fact it is different. The former one was internally ill and should take laxatives; the latter one was only suffering from some external sensation, so let him sweat and he would be fine." These two men went back and took the medicine, and they were both cured.

Another general named Li asked Hua Tuo to treat his wife. When Hua Tuo went there, he felt her pulse and said, "The fetus was left in her belly because she had hurt herself during pregnancy." General Li said, "My wife has already had a miscarriage and the fetus has already come down." Hua Tuo said.

"According to my judgment, the fetus is still in the patient's belly."

General Li did not believe it. After Hua Tuo left, after more than a hundred days, his wife became sicker and sicker, so he had to ask Hua Tuo to treat her again.

Hua Tuo said, "There must be a necrotic fetus in the belly. Probably your wife had twins, and one of them was born in miscarriage first, and the other was left in her belly."

Hua Tuo gave the patient some soup and medicine and stuck needles into her, and she was able to deliver a stillborn fetus.

Hua Tuo was not only good at internal medicine but also good at open surgery. He prepared a kind of anesthetic called Ma Bo San. A patient was suffering from belly pain and the pain was so severe that after ten days, his beard and eyebrows all fell off. When Hua Tuo made a diagnosis, he said, "This is an ulcerated spleen, so we must open the abdomen quickly." Hua Tuo told the patient to take Ma Bo San, opened the abdominal cavity, removed the necrotic spleen, sewed up the wound, and put on ointment. After four or five days, the wound healed and he recovered in a month.

There are many other legends recorded in history books about Hua Tuo's healing. It is said that a governor was sick and had many doctors to treat him, but he was not cured. After the treatment, Hua Tuo thought that the only way to cure this disease was to make the patient angry. After a few days, he left without saying goodbye and left a letter scolding the governor that he had brought this disease upon himself.

The governor was really angry and immediately sent his men to hunt down Hua Tuo. The son of the sheriff knew Hua Tuo's intention and secretly told his family not to catch him. When the shogun heard that Hua Tuo could not be caught, he became even more furious and vomited some black blood in his anger. He was so angry that he vomited some black blood, but when he vomited, he was cured.

Cao Cao had been suffering from the head wind. When he was under work pressure, his head wind attacked and the pain was unbearable. He heard that Hua Tuo was a good doctor, so he invited him here. Cao Cao refused to let him go and kept him as a medical officer so that he could treat him at any time.

Although Hua Tuo was happy to help people and eager to cure them, he did not want to stay by Cao Cao's side all the time and manage the medicine chest for one person. Once, on the pretext of going home to visit his relatives, he stopped by to pick up some medicine. Cao Cao did not suspect anything and let Hua Tuo go.

When Hua Tuo returned home, he sent a letter to Cao Cao, saying that his wife was very sick and could not return to Xudu for a while. Cao Cao urged him repeatedly, but Hua Tuo still dragged his feet.

Cao Cao also ordered the county officials to urge him, but he also met with a soft nail.

Cao Cao ordered the county officials to do the same, but they also met with a soft nail. This annoyed Cao Cao. Cao Cao sent a messenger to Qiao County to investigate. He told the messenger that if the investigation showed that Hua Tuo's wife was really sick, he would send him forty dou (dou, pronounced hú, in ancient times ten dou was one dou) of small beans and let Hua Tuo postpone his vacation; if Hua Tuo lied and prevaricated, he would be arrested.

As a result of the investigation, Hua Tuo was taken away.

Cao Cao took Hua Tuo to Xudu, where he considered Hua Tuo's deliberate disobedience to his orders an act of treason and ordered Hua Tuo to be executed.

Xun Yu, a strategist, thought this execution was too severe and advised Cao Cao, "Hua Tuo is an excellent doctor, and his death will involve many lives, so I hope the prime minister will be lenient."

Cao Cao was also a man who cherished talent, and since he had defeated Yuan Shao, he had become a bit proud of himself; besides, he was in the midst of his anger, so he would not listen to Xun Yu's advice and said in a huff, "Humph, I am not afraid that there are no doctors like him in the world." After saying this, he sent someone to kill Hua Tuo.

When Hua Tuo was arrested and left his hometown, he still had a medical book with him, which he had written based on the experience he had accumulated over the years. He didn't expect that offending Cao Cao would lead to his death. He felt that his crime could not be undone, but it was a pity to let the book go into oblivion. The day before his execution, he invited the jailer and said to him, "Please keep this book well, so that you can save the patients in the future."

The jailer was timid and was afraid that if he took the book from Hua Tuo, he would be implicated if Cao Cao pursued him in the future, so he refused to keep it.