❓ What do the Chinese believe about acupuncture? (2)
❓ What do the Chinese believe about acupuncture? (2)
– The Case of Hua Tuo and Surgery in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
When exploring traditional Chinese beliefs about acupuncture, we often focus on flow, balance, and harmony. But acupuncture did not exist in isolation—it was part of a much broader and more integrated medical worldview. And one of the most revealing stories about that worldview comes from an unexpected place: the legendary physician Hua Tuo, as he appears in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Although Hua Tuo was a historical figure from the Han dynasty, he is inserted into the Three Kingdoms narrative in a way that’s almost mythic. He appears twice:
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once to remove a poisoned arrow from Guan Yu’s arm,
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and once to propose brain surgery for Cao Cao’s chronic headaches.
What’s striking is that in both cases, Hua Tuo performs—or at least recommends—surgical procedures involving anesthesia. This suggests that as early as 2,000 years ago, concepts of surgery and pain management were already understood and practiced in the East.
But here’s the deeper point:
👉 If physical surgery was already known and available, why did acupuncture come to occupy such a central and elevated role in East Asian medicine?
The answer lies in the philosophical orientation of traditional medicine.
🔍 Acupuncture was not the only method—it was the most philosophically demanding one.
As discussed in How Acupuncture Works: Energy Flow, Channels, and Harmonization, acupuncture is not simply about inserting needles. It’s about reading the body as a field of relationships, where change is achieved by adjusting flows rather than targeting parts.
In Hua Tuo’s time, physical intervention like surgery existed alongside energetic intervention like acupuncture. But in the traditional worldview, what required the most training and insight was not the knife—it was the ability to understand and influence unseen patterns:
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the rhythm of the seasons
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the patient's constitution
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the emotional landscape
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the cosmic configuration of Qi (energy flow)
Thus, acupuncture was viewed as more subtle, more abstract, and ultimately more difficult than direct mechanical treatment. In that sense, it wasn’t an “alternative” to surgery—it was considered a higher-order method, guided by philosophy.
🧭 A Reversal of the Modern View
Today, Western medicine often treats surgery as high-tech and sophisticated, while acupuncture is seen as soft or symbolic. But in traditional East Asian medicine, it was the opposite:
| Modern View | Traditional View |
|---|---|
| Surgery = Advanced | Surgery = Practical |
| Acupuncture = Alternative | Acupuncture = Philosophical Mastery |
In Western science, knowledge grows from material observation to abstract theory.
But in East Asian medicine, theory—especially cosmological theory—came first, and practice followed its logic.
So when Hua Tuo appears in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he is not just a doctor.
He represents the unity of technique and philosophy, of the body and the cosmos.
His presence reminds us that acupuncture was never meant to be isolated from the rest of medicine—but that its difficulty and beauty come from working within a framework of meaning.
📎 Related Reading
📖 For more information and clinical insights, please refer to:
- CALee Acupuncture (Website):
https://caleeacu.com - Grandpa's Tales (Blog):
https://blog.caleeacu.com