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Persons in Chinese History - Hua Tuo 華佗

Periods of Chinese History
Hua Tuo 華佗 (d. 208?), also called Hua Fu 華旉, courtesy name Yuanhua 元化, was a famous physician of the late Eastern Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE). He hailed from Qiao 譙 in the princedom of Pei 沛國 (today's Boxian 亳縣, Anhui) and learned as a young man while travelling around. In contrast to most of his peers, he was not interested in a post in the administration, but dedicated his life to learning nature and physic. He studies the diseases of the inner body, that of women, of children, and practiced acupuncture and moxibustion. He was famous for his treatment in the discipline of what would today be called external medicine, and people consulted him on his journey through many provinces. Yet Hua Tuo also used some chirurgical techniques for problems in the abdomen, for which purpose he made use of a medicine with anesthetic effects. It was called mafeisan 麻沸散. By imitating the movements of beasts and birds, he was also able to cure diseases by the "play of the various birds" (wuqin xi 五禽戲), probably a kind of gymnastics.
Hua Tuo was killed when he refused to treat the warlord Cao Cao 曹操.
A medical treatise called Zhongcangjing 中藏經 "On the inner stores (i.e. organs)" (also called Huashi zhongcang jing 華氏中藏經) was said to have been written by Hua Tuo, but was probably written at a later date.


Sources: Zhang Shunhui 張舜徽 (ed. 1992), Sanguozhi cidian 三國志辭典 (Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe), p. 333. ● Zhongguo da baike quanshu zong bianji weiyuanhui 中國大百科全書總編輯委員會 etc. (ed. 1992), Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Zhongguo chuantong yixue 中國傳統醫學 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), p. 170. ● Li Jingwei 李經緯 et al. (ed. 1995), Zhongyi da cidian 中醫大辭典 (Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe), p. 578. ● Feng Kezheng 馮克正, Fu Qingsheng 傅慶升 (ed. 1996), Zhuzi baijia da cidian 諸子百家大辭典 (Shenyang: Liaoning renmin chubanshe), p. 67. ● Zhao Faxin 趙法新 et al. (ed. 2000), Zhongyi wenxianxue cidian 中醫文獻學辭典 (Beijing: Zhongyi guji chubanshe), p. 148. ● Yang Li 楊麗 (ed. 2004), Taijiquan cidian 太極拳辭典 (Beijing: Beijing tiyu daxue chubanshe), p. 261.

June 16, 2016 © Ulrich Theobald · Mail
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