But that evening when he retired to rest, he could not sleep. He rose, went into the outer room, and sat there leaning on a low table. Suddenly a man appeared with his hair unbound, dressed in black and carrying a naked sword. The visitor came straight toward Cao Cao, stopped in front of him and, pointing, cried out, “Behold the Spirit of the Pear Tree. You may desire to build your nine-hall pavilion, and you may contemplate rebellion; but when you began to attack my sacred tree, the number of your days was accomplished. I am come now to slay you.”
“Where are the guards?” shouted Cao Cao in terror.
The figure struck at him with the sword. Cao Cao cried out and then awoke. His head was aching unbearably.
They sought the best physicians for him, but they failed to relieve the terrible pain. Sympathy for their lord was universal among Cao Cao's subordinates. Hua Xin one day said to his master, “My lord, have you heard of Hua Tuo?” “Do you mean him of Qiao who cured Zhou Tai?”
“Yes; that is he,” replied Hua Xin.
“I have heard something of his fame, but I know nothing of his capabilities in his art.”
“He is very clever; there are few so skillful. If one is ill and calls him in, he knows immediately whether to use drugs, or the needle, or the cutlery, and the patient finds relief at once. Let one suffer from an internal complaint and drugs are ineffectual, with a dose of hashish he throws the patient into a state of perfect insensibility and then opens the abdomen and washes the affected organs with a medicament. The patient feels no pain. When the cleansing is complete, he sews up the wound with thread, dresses it, and in a month or less the patient is well. This shows you how skillful he is.
“One day Hua Tuo was traveling, when he heard a man by the wayside groaning with pain. 'That is dyspepsia,' said Hua Tuo. And further questions confirmed the diagnosis. He prescribed long draughts of the juice of garlic as an emetic, and the man vomited a worm; after this the man was quite well.
“Chen Deng, the Governor of Guangling, suffered from a heavy feeling at the heart. His face was red and congested, and he had no appetite. Hua Tuo gave him a drug, and he threw up many internal wriggling parasites with red heads. The Governor asked what had caused the trouble, and Hua Tuo told him that he ate too much strong smelling fish. He could cure Chen Deng this once, but in three years the disease would recur, and then nothing could save him. Three later Chen Deng died.
“Another man had a tumor between the eyes, and it itched intolerably. Hua Tuo examined it and said there was a bird in it. The tumor was opened, and, surely enough, a canary flew out. The patient was relieved.
“A dog bit a man's toe, and two tumorous growths ensued, one of which itched intolerably and the other pained severely. Hua Tuo said the painful one contained ten needles, and the other a couple of chess pips, black and white. He opened the two swellings, and the contents were as he had said. Really he is of the same class of physician as masters Bian Que and Zang Kong of old times. He lives at Jincheng, not far away, and could be here very soon.”
Cao Cao summoned him; and as soon as he arrived, Hua Tuo felt the pulse and made careful examination.
“Prince, your headaches are due to a malignant humor within the brain case. The humor is too thick to get out. Swallowing drugs will do no good. But I propose to administer a dose of hashish, then open the brain case and remove the thickened humor. That will be a radical cure.”
“You mean you want to kill me?” cried Cao Cao angrily.
“O Prince, you have heard how I cured Guan Yu of the poison that had got into his bones? I scraped them, and he did not hesitate a moment. Your malady is trifling, and why do you mistrust me?”
“A painful arm may be scraped, but how can you cut open a man's head? The fact is you have conspired with some of Guan Yu's friends to take this opportunity to make away with me in revenge for his death.”
Cao Cao told his lictors to hale Hua Tuo to gaol, and there he was tortured to try to find who were his accomplices.
Jia Xu pleaded for him, saying, “The man possesses rare skills; to kill him is to waste his talents.” But the intervention was of no avail.
“The man wants to get a chance to kill me; he is the same sort of scoundrel as Ji Ping.”
The wretched physician was subjected to worse sufferings.
His gaoler was a certain Wu, nicknamed “The Gaoler” by nearly everybody. He was kindly disposed to Hua Tuo and saw that he was well fed. Hua Tuo conceived a liking for his gaoler and said to him one day, “I am doomed, I know. The pity is that my Black Bag treatise on medicine may be lost. You have been most kind to me, and as I have no other way of recompensing you, I will give you a letter to my wife telling her to send the Black Bag, and I will give it to you that you may carry on my art.”
