Hua Tuo

Hua Tuo,with a style name Yuanhua, also called Fu,was born approximately at the beginning of the second century AD and died before the 13th year of the Jian'an reign (208). He was from Qiao County of the Pei Kingdom (now Bo County of Anhui Province). He was an eminent medical scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), especially good at surgical operation using anesthesia.

When Hua Tuo was young, he studied in Xuzhou City of Jiangsu Province,and was skilled in several branches of learning. But he declined the conscription of the court to work as an officer and kept practicing medicine among the common people for a long time, and his footprints covered many places including present-day Anhui, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and other provinces. He was deeply respected and loved by the common people.

In his late years, he was summoned by Cao Cao, a prominent legislator during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), to Xuchang of Hannan Province to treat the latter's wind syndrome of the head. Unwilling to work as Cao Cao's private doctor, Hua Tuo found an excuse to ask for leave and return to his home. He refused several times to come back to Xuchang, which angered Cao Cao. Finally, Cao Cao found an excuse to have him killed.

Hua Tuo advocated cure illness through exercise. He insisted that physical exercise was the key to strengthening the body, and movement could promote blood circulation and speed up metastases. And he used the sport of five animals created by himself to cure illness.