Cao Cao killed Hua Tuo because of the chaos of medicine, and the Later Han Book recorded Cao Cao correctly
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Hua Tuo is known as a miracle doctor who saves all beings. He bravely carried out the operation of scraping bones to cure poison for Guan Yu of Shu State, and successfully pulled Zhou Tai of Wu State, who was shot twelve times, back from the line of life and death, but in the end he died at the hands of Cao Cao, a patient of Wei State.
Some have questioned Cao Cao's decision to kill Hua Tuo as a major mistake, but in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo's death proved to be Cao Cao's wise decision.
According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo was a native of Bozhou, Anhui Province, and left his hometown to study in Xuzhou when he was young. After years of hard study, he not only studied the Confucian classics, but also mastered the medical skills of curing diseases and saving people.
At that time, the medical skills had been standardized, there was a scientific and rigorous diagnosis and treatment process, and the origin and pathology of pharmacology and pathology were becoming more and more abundant. On this basis, Huatuo has created a unique medical method.
It is said that he is proficient in traction and grooming, and even created his own set of five bird plays, and although he is nearly 100 years old, he still looks like a young man.
Hua Tuo is good at in-depth communication with patients during diagnosis and treatment, understanding the patient's condition and feelings, and performing acupuncture in the process, so that the patient can feel the improvement of the body in a relaxed atmosphere.
In addition, he is also good at obstetrics and gynecology, and has successfully treated an official's wife who has abdominal pain due to more than six months of pregnancy. Finally, Hua Tuo is known for his exquisite surgical skills, and the "Ma Boiling San" can make the patient unconscious during the operation, and he can even perform internal lesion resection, and his surgical technique is quite close to modern surgical methods.
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhou Tai was shot twelve times in order to protect the young Sun Quan, and his life hung by a thread. Hua Tuo rushed to hear the news, and it only took a month for Zhou Tai to recover as before. And in the seventy-fifth chapter, the story of scraping bones to cure poison is widely known.
Guan Yu was injured by a poisoned arrow when he attacked Fancheng, and the poison penetrated deep into the bone marrow, and Hua Tuo took the initiative to be Guan Yu**. Originally, he wanted Guan Yu to drink the hemp boiling to relieve the pain, but Guan Yu talked and laughed and let Hua Tuo scrape his bones.
This scene fully demonstrates Guan Yu's heroic spirit and Hua Tuo's superb medical skills.
Although these two stories are fascinating, Hua Tuo did not record gunshot wounds and arrow wounds for Zhou Tai and Guan Yu**. In fact, the historical documents "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and "Book of the Later Han" show that Hua Tuo did give Cao Cao ** a headache, but he did not suffer arrow wounds for Guan Yu**.
In addition, because Hua Tuo has been dead for many years, he was unable to scrape Guan Yu's bones to cure the poison at that time.
Cao Cao is known as a hero of troubled times, and although among the people, his image may be seen as an authoritarian, treacherous, and suspicious "white-faced" traitor, but this is mostly due to the influence of romance stories and folklore.
If we put aside these prejudices, from the perspective of history books and history, Cao Cao is actually not as "traitorous" as people imagine, but a "male" with the characteristics of the times.
In terms of judgment, Cao Cao can judge the situation and grasp the opportunity. During the period of chaos in the world, he was able to make contributions in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, dared to assassinate Dong Zhuo, and promoted the princes of the Eighteenth Route to discuss the plan.
These decisions and actions of his have fully demonstrated his resourcefulness and courage, and have made his position in history irreplaceable.
Despite the fact that victories and defeats were not uncommon in terms of strategy and tactics, he continued to expand his power in times of dusty chaos. Although he failed to unify the three kingdoms, his exploits still outweighed his faults in pacifying the chaos in the Central Plains.
Cao Cao's uniqueness also lies in his thirst for talent. Yu Ban, Dian Wei and other veterans were promoted and reused by him, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and other generals were also willing to serve him, Xun You, Wang Lang, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and other small officials and ordinary people, but also because of his support, became a generation of famous ministers.
Judging from Cao Cao's performance, he can be called a capable minister in troubled times, but this does not prevent future generations from distorting his image for various reasons.
Cao Cao's hands were stained with the blood of many innocent people, including Kong Rong, Ma Teng, Yang Xiu, Lu Bohao, and Hua Tuo. He killed Kong Rong because of his pretension to clear the stream, Ma Teng for the needs of the war, Yang Xiu for the punishment of arrogance, and Lu Bohao because of excessive suspicion.
However, what was the reason for killing Hua Tuo? According to the record of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao asked Hua Tuo to have a headache for him, and Hua Tuo suggested using an axe to split the head and remove the lesion.
This constant suggestion led the suspicious Cao Cao to send him to prison, where he eventually died.
According to the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Hua Tuo was left by Cao Cao as his **headache. At the beginning, Hua Tuo's acupuncture and moxibustion skills were rejuvenated, but they failed to **. Hua Tuo asked for leave to go home on this ground, and Cao Cao approved his application.
However, when Cao Cao sent someone to Hua Tuo's home to check, Hua Tuo lied and used this as an excuse to delay his return. This made Cao Cao very angry, which eventually led to Hua Tuo's death.
Cao Cao got a "deceitful" reply, he is a person who "can't bear me in the world", of course he can't let Hua Tuo deceive himself. As a result, Hua Tuo was arrested by Cao Cao and eventually died in prison.
Although the records in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty are somewhat similar, it can basically be confirmed that Hua Tuo's death was caused by Cao Cao. So, which nerve did Hua Tuo touch to cause such a catastrophe?
Is it really Cao Cao's fault? After all, people have been saying that Hua Tuo, who has noble medical ethics, has not done anything wrong. However, the famous acupuncture doctor of the Jin Dynasty, Fu Mi, described Hua Tuo's bad personality in the "Acupuncture A and B Sutra", which eventually led to his death.
Could it be that Hua Tuo's death really has something to do with his character? Chen Shou once described Hua Tuo's inner regret in the "Legend of Fang Ji" in "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", he originally became a professional through reading, but now he is practicing medicine, and he often regrets it.
Why does Hua Tuo, as a doctor with "wonderful hands and benevolence", regret it?
Since the Qin Dynasty, doctors have been relegated to the social hierarchy"Middle Nine Stream", and the status of qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, fortune tellers, monks, etc., is significantly lower than that of the Shinong industrial and commercial class.
Qin Shi Huang believed in the monks and was keen to find the art of immortality, so that the profession of doctors was also considered part of the monks. Therefore, in the historical event of book burning and Confucianism, the doctor's books were spared and continued to circulate among the people.
However, with the prevalence of Confucian culture in the Han Dynasty, medical skills were once again neglected from"taxi"level falls directly to"work"level, so much so that in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the biography of the doctor is classified in the "Biography of Fang Ji".
In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu still listed doctors, witch doctors, musicians, and craftsmen in the "Shi Shuo"."Lower occupations", despised by the gentleman.
Some people may wonder why Hua Tuo had the opportunity to become "filial piety" and "be an official", but did not accept it? Perhaps, when Hua Tuo was a young doctor, he did not fancy the two magistrates.
After decades of medical research, he may regret his past decisions. If Hua Tuo himself is hesitant about the profession of doctors, then what will Cao Cao do?
Although Cao Cao reused Ban, Zhang Liao, Xun You, Guo Jia and others, these people were all "usable talents" who had made a difference in the military and political fields, not "talents" such as "doctors".
This view is not due to Cao Cao's professional prejudices, but to the general view of the profession of doctors at that time.
Cao Cao just kept Hua Tuo by his side as a doctor and gave him the task of ** headache. This positioning does not show the status of Hua Tuo and Kong Rong, who was born in the clan, Yang Xiu, and Ma Teng, who was born in the military.
However, when Hua Tuo deceived Cao Cao with the lie that his wife was seriously ill, Cao Cao's reaction showed that Hua Tuo had become a worthless "tool man" in Cao Cao's heart.
It is recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty that Cao Cao thought that Hua Tuo was a "villain", and even if he didn't kill him, Hua Tuo would not be for him.
The real reason for Hua Tuo's death, in addition to being accused of "deceiving his superiors", also has a key factor, that is, his "disobedience". According to the Book of Han, "disobedience" is also a crime of "great disrespect."
Hua Tuo's disregard for Cao Cao's repeated orders after returning home undoubtedly touched this taboo. Whether it is from personal emotions or to set a model, Hua Tuo's death is the inevitable result of Cao Cao's treatment of him.
Cao Cao had Yang Xiu executed for revealing his talents, uncovering his fig leaf, and shaking the morale of the army. Now Hua Tuo has made the same mistake, and if Cao Cao does not deal with him, it will definitely have a negative impact on the morale of the army.
Hua Tuo's death is undoubtedly a kind of grief in that special era. However, the main reason for this was that Hua Tuo was overconfident and did not know Cao Cao well enough, which caused Cao Cao to feel a loss of face.
This can be seen from reference materials such as the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo and Cao Cao, and the Acupuncture and Moxibustion A and B Sutras.