Read Online The Three Kingdoms, Volume 3: Welcome the Tiger: The Epic Chinese Tale of Loyalty and War in a Dynamic New Translation by Luo Guanzhong - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Luo Guanzhong
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again to fell it.
Several aged villagers came to plead with him. “This tree has stood here for centuries and is the haunt of some divine spirits,” they said. “Perhaps you should not cut it down.”
Cao Cao flared up. “For over forty years there has been no one, from the emperor to the commoner, who does not fear me wherever I go. Which spirit is this that dares to oppose my wishes?”
Drawing the sword he was wearing, he went up to the tree and slashed at its trunk. The tree groaned as he struck, and blood spattered all over his robe. Terror-stricken, he threw down the sword, mounted his horse, and galloped back to his palace.
But that night when he retired to rest he could not sleep. He rose at the second watch, went into the outer room, and sat resting by a low table. Suddenly there appeared a man dressed in black and carrying a sword, his hair flying about his shoulders. The man stopped in front of him and, pointing at him, cried out: “Behold the spirit of the pear tree. You intend to usurp the throne so you desire to build the new palace, but how dare you try to cut my sacred tree! I know your days are numbered and I have come to slay you.”
“Where are the guards? Come quickly!” called Cao Cao in terror.
The figure struck him with his sword. Cao Cao cried out and then awoke. It was a dream but his head ached terribly.
The pain was so severe that he could not stand it. The best physicians were immediately called in to treat him but they failed to relieve the terrible pain. All his subordinates were worried for his health.
Hua Qin said to his master, “My lord, have you heard of Hua Tuo?”
“Do you mean the doctor who cured Zhou Tai?”
“Yes, the same,” replied Hua Qin.
“I have heard of his fame, but I do not know how capable he is in his art.”
“His art in medicine has no match. If one is ill and calls him in he knows immediately whether to use drugs, or the needle, or the cautery, and the patient finds relief at once. When one suffers from an internal complaint and drugs are ineffectual, with a dose of anesthesia 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 wound is healed. It is just as wonderful as that!
“One day he was walking along the road when he heard a man groaning with pain. ‘That is dyspepsia,’ he said. Further questions confirmed the diagnosis. He prescribed the juice of garlic as an emetic, and the man vomited a long worm. After this he was quite well. There was also the case of the prefect of Guangling, who suffered from a heavy feeling of the heart. His face was red and congested, and he had no appetite. Hua Tuo gave him a drug, and he threw up many wriggling parasites with red heads. The prefect asked him what had caused the illness, and the doctor told him that he ate too much strong-smelling fish. He could cure him this once, but in three years the disease would recur, and then nothing could save him. And truly enough, three years later the prefect died. Another man had a tumor between the eyes, and it itched intolerably. Hua Tuo examined it and said there was a bird inside it. All laughed at him when they heard his diagnosis. The tumor was then opened, and surely enough, a canary flew out. The patient was relieved. Yet another time a man was bitten on the toe by a dog, and two growths ensued, one of which itched intolerably and the other caused severe pain. Hua Tuo said the painful one contained ten pins, and the other a couple of wei-chi pips. No one believed him until after the two swellings were opened and these exact things were found. He is really of the same class of doctors as Bian Que * and Cang Gong. † He lives at Jincheng, not too far from here. Why not send for him?”
So Hua Tuo was summoned. As soon as he arrived he felt Cao
Several aged villagers came to plead with him. “This tree has stood here for centuries and is the haunt of some divine spirits,” they said. “Perhaps you should not cut it down.”
Cao Cao flared up. “For over forty years there has been no one, from the emperor to the commoner, who does not fear me wherever I go. Which spirit is this that dares to oppose my wishes?”
Drawing the sword he was wearing, he went up to the tree and slashed at its trunk. The tree groaned as he struck, and blood spattered all over his robe. Terror-stricken, he threw down the sword, mounted his horse, and galloped back to his palace.
But that night when he retired to rest he could not sleep. He rose at the second watch, went into the outer room, and sat resting by a low table. Suddenly there appeared a man dressed in black and carrying a sword, his hair flying about his shoulders. The man stopped in front of him and, pointing at him, cried out: “Behold the spirit of the pear tree. You intend to usurp the throne so you desire to build the new palace, but how dare you try to cut my sacred tree! I know your days are numbered and I have come to slay you.”
“Where are the guards? Come quickly!” called Cao Cao in terror.
The figure struck him with his sword. Cao Cao cried out and then awoke. It was a dream but his head ached terribly.
The pain was so severe that he could not stand it. The best physicians were immediately called in to treat him but they failed to relieve the terrible pain. All his subordinates were worried for his health.
Hua Qin said to his master, “My lord, have you heard of Hua Tuo?”
“Do you mean the doctor who cured Zhou Tai?”
“Yes, the same,” replied Hua Qin.
“I have heard of his fame, but I do not know how capable he is in his art.”
“His art in medicine has no match. If one is ill and calls him in he knows immediately whether to use drugs, or the needle, or the cautery, and the patient finds relief at once. When one suffers from an internal complaint and drugs are ineffectual, with a dose of anesthesia 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 wound is healed. It is just as wonderful as that!
“One day he was walking along the road when he heard a man groaning with pain. ‘That is dyspepsia,’ he said. Further questions confirmed the diagnosis. He prescribed the juice of garlic as an emetic, and the man vomited a long worm. After this he was quite well. There was also the case of the prefect of Guangling, who suffered from a heavy feeling of the heart. His face was red and congested, and he had no appetite. Hua Tuo gave him a drug, and he threw up many wriggling parasites with red heads. The prefect asked him what had caused the illness, and the doctor told him that he ate too much strong-smelling fish. He could cure him this once, but in three years the disease would recur, and then nothing could save him. And truly enough, three years later the prefect died. Another man had a tumor between the eyes, and it itched intolerably. Hua Tuo examined it and said there was a bird inside it. All laughed at him when they heard his diagnosis. The tumor was then opened, and surely enough, a canary flew out. The patient was relieved. Yet another time a man was bitten on the toe by a dog, and two growths ensued, one of which itched intolerably and the other caused severe pain. Hua Tuo said the painful one contained ten pins, and the other a couple of wei-chi pips. No one believed him until after the two swellings were opened and these exact things were found. He is really of the same class of doctors as Bian Que * and Cang Gong. † He lives at Jincheng, not too far from here. Why not send for him?”
So Hua Tuo was summoned. As soon as he arrived he felt Cao
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