Description

In one of the prefaces to his works, the author Xu Shuwei (1079–1154) describes a certain Hua Tuo, a scholar born around 140 AD during the Han dynasty, who, after seeing many people die in epidemics, famines, and wars, chose to abandon scholarship to pursue a medical career. Referring to himself, Xu Shuwei writes, “every time I think of the lack of good physicians and of patients who are resigned to die, how could someone with capability sit by and not help? Therefore I have buried my fame as ...