Chapter 65 3. Blossoming Mandala

For Cao Cao, the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208) was destined to be a sad season, not only because he was about to suffer a fiasco in Chibi this year, but also because he continued to lose his favorite people this year.Guo Jia died, Cang Shu died.This is a season in which the flower of life keeps wilting.Are there no good doctors?Can't they be rejuvenated? There are good doctors, and there are top doctors, not only the best doctors in that era, but also the best doctors in the entire ancient history. The Jian'an period was a time of many disasters. Frequent wars and rampant plagues brought pain and disasters to people living in that era.Such an era is usually also an era in which famous doctors emerge in large numbers, among which Dong Feng, Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo are the most famous.

Although Dong Feng sounds a bit unfamiliar, everyone must know the word "Xinglin". Now it has become synonymous with doctors and the medical profession, and this allusion is related to Dong Feng. According to the book "The Legend of Immortals" written by Ge Hong from Jin Dynasty, Dong Feng practiced medicine in Lushan Mountain for many years. apricot. More and more patients were cured, and more and more apricot trees were planted on the hillside, and finally there were more than 100,000 apricot trees.Dong Feng didn't want to be a fruit farmer himself. He sold the apricots and exchanged them for grain to help the poor and hungry.

To commemorate Dong Feng's medical skills and ethics, later generations use Xinglin to refer to doctors. If a doctor is said to be not only superb in medical skills but also noble in medical ethics, he will be said to be "famous in Xinglin". Zhang Zhongjing is known as the "Medical Sage". He is from Nanyang County, and he is from the same hometown as He in "Friends of Running". He, who is good at knowing people, saw that Zhang Zhongjing likes to read medical books and is willing to study, so he encouraged him to take the road of medicine. , You don't have to be a famous minister or general, you can also be famous in history as a famous doctor.

Zhang Zhongjing later devoted himself to the study of medical skills and had outstanding attainments in both medical practice and theory.He studied "Huangdi Neijing" assiduously, collected and sorted out various prescriptions, and wrote "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases", which became the peak of Chinese medicine prescriptions.The principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment proposed by him is still the basic principle of TCM clinical practice. Compared with the two of them, Hua Tuo's reputation in later generations is greater, his stories are more legendary, and his personality is more distinctive, so his fate is more difficult.

Hua Tuo was from Qiao County, Peiguo, the same county as Cao Cao.Now Bozhou City, Anhui Province is playing two cards while engaging in tourism, one is the hometown of Wei Wu, and the other is the hometown of genius doctors.For the people in his hometown, Hua Tuo brought them no less pride than Cao Cao. Both "Three Kingdoms" and "Hou Han Shu" have Hua Tuo's biography.The date of Hua Tuo's birth is unknown. According to his life deeds, he was probably born in the first year of Yongjia (145), ten years older than Cao Cao. Like most scholars at that time, Hua Tuo devoted himself to Confucian classics when he was young. He once went to Xuzhou to study and was able to master several classics at the same time, which is similar to obtaining several diplomas at the same time now.Chen Deng's father, Chen Deng, elected him as Xiaolian when he was Prime Minister of Pei, and Huang Wan, the Taiwei, recruited him to be an official, all of which were rejected by Hua Tuo.

Hua Tuo was already concentrating on medicine at this time, and had no intention of career.This transformation process is still a mystery. It is generally believed that it was due to Hua Tuo's love of medicine and sympathy for the poor people.But recently, there are different opinions. They think that Hua Tuo's practice of medicine is really helpless. From the bottom of his heart, he also loves official career. Hua Tuo's outstanding contribution is in clinical medicine, and at the same time he has high attainments in surgery, health preservation and acupuncture. He invented "Mabosan", an early anesthetic, with which surgical operations can be performed on patients.

"Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" recorded many stories about Hua Tuo, showing how superb his medical skills are. There was a Duyou surnamed Dun, who was the leader of the work supervision team sent by the county government. He got sick and thought he had been cured. If you haven’t recovered, you should rest and wait until you fully recover, or your life will be in danger.” Team leader Dan Dun didn’t listen, and was a little tired, and soon fell ill and died. There was also a patient surnamed Xu who was bedridden because of a stomach problem. Hua Tuo went to make a diagnosis. He said to him: "That's a mistake. The acupuncture is not accurate. Instead of piercing the stomach, it pierced the liver. If you eat less and less every day recently, something bad will happen in five days." Sure enough, this man The appetite became less and less, and he died after five days.

Therefore, everyone thinks that Hua Tuo is very magical, and he can predict life and death. In order to save a life, Hua Tuo sometimes used some special means.There was a county magistrate who was suffering from an intractable disease. Many doctors were not optimistic about it, so he invited Hua Tuo to have a look.Hua Tuo looked at his condition, he didn't say how to cure it, and he didn't prescribe a prescription. Instead, he had an arrogant attitude, demanded a huge amount of medical expenses, and left a letter afterwards, scolding the prefect for no reason. The eunuch was already displeased, and now he couldn't bear it any longer. In a fit of rage, he sent someone to kill Hua Tuo, but they couldn't find anyone.Unexpectedly, the disease was cured.

It turned out that this was a treatment method specially adopted by Hua Tuo. By provoking the prefect, the blood that could no longer circulate in his body could be discharged. This method Hua Tuo used could be regarded as psychological therapy. Although some people are seriously ill, it doesn't have to cost too much money to buy expensive medicines for treatment. Hua Tuo often treats ordinary people without money, and he has made a lot of explorations in this regard. Once, Hua Tuo found a very sick man on his way to practice medicine. There seemed to be something blocked in his throat, and he couldn't eat. He looked very painful.Hua Tuo went up to have a look, and asked him to go to a small restaurant on the side of the road to order some vinegar. He made some aquatic plants and mashed them into powder (Ping 齑), mixed them with vinegar and drank them.As a result, the person vomited out a snake-like parasite, and the disease was cured.Later, the patient's family members went to Hua Tuo's residence to express their gratitude and found dozens of such insects hanging on the wall.

There are also many famous people who have sought Hua Tuo for treatment. Most people know that he scraped Guan Yu's bones to cure poison, but there is no such record in official history.It is recorded that there are two celebrities who visited him for medical treatment, one is Chen Deng and the other is Zhou Tai. Chen Deng's visit to Hua Tuo for medical treatment has already been mentioned before, and it happened when Chen Deng was the prefect of Guangling County.Zhou Tai was Sun Wu's general. Once he was seriously injured, Hua Tuo cured him. This incident had a great impact, even Cao Cao knew about it.

As mentioned earlier, due to long-term psychological pressure and fatigue, Cao Cao suffered from a headache and the pain was unbearable. Many doctors around him have seen it, but the effect is not good, let alone eradicate the root.Someone introduced Hua Tuo to Cao Cao. When Cao Cao saw Hua Tuo, he was from his hometown, and because he heard that he was very famous, so he respected him very much.The first thing Cao Cao said when he saw him was: "Is the sir the one who cured Jiangdong Zhou Tai?" Hua Tuo saw a doctor for Cao Cao and decided to treat it with acupuncture. He inserted the needle from the diaphragm acupoint on Cao Cao's thoracic vertebrae. Without much effort, Cao Cao felt his brain cleared up and his head pain disappeared.Cao Cao was very happy.Hua Tuo said: "Your disease is a stubborn disease of the brain, which cannot be eradicated in a short period of time. It must be treated for a long time, and it will take effect gradually in order to prolong life." What Hua Tuo said may be the truth, but Cao Cao was a little displeased when he heard it. He thought Hua Tuo was playing tricks in front of him, and he could quickly cure his illness, but he didn't do that. The purpose was to ask for credit and reward.However, in order to be able to cure someone next time I have a headache, I will keep Hua Tuo by my side and become the chief health care doctor. At the beginning, in addition to seeing a doctor for himself, Cao Cao also allowed Hua Tuo to show it to the common people.After Cao Cao became prime minister, he asked Hua Tuo to concentrate on seeing a doctor for himself and no longer serve others.As an aspiring doctor, he can't improve his medical skills without frequent contact with patients. This is a very distressing thing for Hua Tuo, and Hua Tuo is a little emotional. Hua Tuo later made an excuse, saying that he had received a letter from his family and wanted to go home to have a look. Cao Cao granted him leave, but Hua Tuo never returned.Cao Cao wrote letters several times to urge him, and sent local officials to visit, but Hua Tuo still had no intention of leaving. Cao Cao was furious and sent someone to verify that if Hua Tuo's wife was really ill, Hua Tuo would not be held accountable, and he would reward Xiaodou with forty hu and extend her vacation.If there is a fake, arrest him.The sent people saw that Hua Tuo's wife was not sick.Hua Tuo wanted to be an individual practitioner, not a full-time doctor for the leader, so he lied. Cao Cao hated people who lied to him the most, so he arrested Hua Tuo and put him in the prison of Xu County.After Xun heard about it, he pleaded with Cao Cao: "Hua Tuo is an honest man with great abilities. Please deal with it leniently." Unexpectedly, Cao Cao's anger has not subsided, not only refused to forgive, but also called Hua Tuo a rat, and ordered Hua Tuo Tuo was executed. "Three Kingdoms" records that before Hua Tuo died, he took out a book to the jailer, saying that the things on it could save people's lives, but the jailer was too timid to ask for it, and Hua Tuo didn't force it. it burned. Hua Tuo left many stories and legends, but not a single medical work.If the jailer took the risk of accepting Hua Tuo's book and passing it on to his descendants, it might be another "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases". After Hua Tuo died, Cao Cao suffered from another headache. Cao Cao said: "Although Hua Tuo can cure this disease, this person is not cured well, and he drags it on slowly. Break the root of the disease." Hua Tuo was already dead when Cao Chong fell ill, but this time Cao Cao no longer insisted, and he sighed: "I really regret killing Hua Tuo and making my son die of illness!" After Hua Tuo died, he was buried in Xu County instead of returning to his hometown Qiao County for burial. This may be due to the fact that he was a prisoner before his death.However, Hua Tuo's tomb has been preserved. It is located on the west bank of the Nanshiliang River in Suqiao Village, Chengbei, Xuchang City, Henan Province. According to the local chronicles of Bozhou, Hua Tuo's hometown in Qiao County is located in Hua Tuo Village, more than 20 kilometers northeast of Bozhou City. There used to be a Hua Tuo Temple in the village, but it has been destroyed now.According to reports, a few years ago, when villagers built houses on the old site, they accidentally discovered a beautiful pink flower blooming very vigorously.This kind of flower is Mandala, which has the effect of analgesia and anesthesia. Back then, Hua Tuo made "Mabosan", and its main ingredient was Mandala. It is said that mandalas are planted everywhere in Huatuo Village. Seeing these flowers can't help but bring people's thoughts back to more than a thousand years ago, making people feel nostalgic for this great medical scientist.