Hua Tuo

Hua Tuo (flourished c. late 2nd century ce–early 3rd century) was a Chinese physician and surgeon who is best known for his surgical operations and the use of mafeisan, an herbal anesthetic formulation made from hemp.

Ancient Chinese doctors felt that surgery was a matter of last resort, and little time was spent teaching or describing surgical techniques. What surgery was done was usually carried out by a lower grade of medical worker. However, around the beginning of the 3rd century Hua Tuo began to change Chinese surgery. As a young man, Hua Tuo traveled and read widely. He probably first became interested in medicine while trying to help the countless soldiers who had been wounded in the many wars of that violent period.

As a young surgeon, Hua Tuo believed in simplicity, using only a few prescriptions and a few points for acupuncture. Using a preparation of hemp and wine, he was able to make his patients insensitive to pain. Hua Tuo is believed by some to have been the discoverer of anesthetics, although it is possible that the Chinese physician Bian Qiao, who lived in the 5th century bce, had used them. Hua Tuo engaged in a wide variety of surgical procedures including laparotomy (incision into the abdominal cavity), removal of diseased tissues, and even a partial splenectomy (removal of the spleen). To treat gastrointestinal diseases Hua Tuo’s favourite procedure was to resect the viscera and wash the inside. He probably even performed end-to-end anastomoses (connections) of the intestines, although it is not known what substance he used for the sutures.

Of the stories told of Hua Tuo, one—possibly apocryphal—is that General Guan Di (Kuan Ti), one of the great military heroes of the time who eventually became the god of war, came to Hua Tuo because of an arrow wound in his arm that had become badly infected. The surgeon prepared to give his patient the usual anesthetic drink, but General Guandi laughed scornfully and called for a board and stones for a game of go. While Hua Tuo scraped the flesh and bone free of infection and repaired the wound, Guandi and one of his military companions proceeded calmly with their game.

Surgery, although his main interest, was only one of Hua Tuo’s pursuits. He pioneered in hydrotherapy, and he did innovative work in physiotherapy. His series of exercises known as the frolics of the five animals, in which the patient imitated movements of the tiger, deer, bear, ape, and bird, was well known and widely adopted.

The end of Hua Tuo’s life is hidden in a mist of conflicting and doubtful stories. A likely set of these has him late in life becoming court physician to Cao Cao, king of Wei. The surgeon temporarily relieved the ruler of his giddiness by acupuncture. When the king asked him to do something to remove this annoyance permanently, Hua Tuo said he would have to cut into the royal skull. Cao Cao’s wife was in favour of surgery as a desperate hope, but the king became suspicious that his enemies had bribed Hua Tuo to kill him. In a fit of rage, perhaps triggered by his headaches, the king had the surgeon thrown into jail and executed. Hua Tuo’s major book, Qingnang shu (Book of the Blue Bag) was burned, either by the jailer who wanted to remove all traces of the prisoner or by the surgeon’s wife acting in accordance with Hua Tuo’s wishes expressed before he was jailed.

Hua Tuo earned his place as the greatest surgeon in Chinese history. Unfortunately, the destruction of his writings and the Confucian dogma against mutilation of the human body combined to prevent the growth of surgery that might have been expected to follow the life of such a remarkable pioneer.