Hua Tuo's death and the loss of ancient medical knowledge

During the Three Kingdoms period, the physician Hua Tuo proposed a revolutionary surgical treatment to address Cao Cao’s chronic headaches. Hua Tuo suggested using anesthesia to perform a craniotomy to remove the source of the pain.

Suspicious of the proposal and fueled by Hua Tuo’s previous delays in returning to service after visiting his sick wife, Cao Cao interpreted the surgical suggestion as an assassination attempt. Consequently, Cao Cao ordered Hua Tuo to be imprisoned.

Before his death in prison, Hua Tuo attempted to pass his medical writings to a jailer, but the jailer refused out of fear. Hua Tuo ultimately burned his books, resulting in the loss of advanced medical knowledge, including early surgical techniques and anesthetic practices, that might have preceded modern medicine by centuries.