In China, when a patient wants a good doctor, he or she would most probably say: "If only there's a Second Hua Tuo!" Hua Tuo is a famous physician of the Han Dynasty some 2000 years ago who is considered a magic-working doctor or divine physician who can cure almost any ailment.

It's not very clear of the doctor's time of birth, only he was killed around 207 A.D. by Tsao Tsao, a ruler of the state of Wei.
History books has it that Hua Tuo had lived for about 100 years and still appeared in the prime of his life because he knows well the way to keep one in good health. He was not interested in either fame or money and had declined offers for court services on several occasions. Later, Tsao Tsao summoned him to treat his severe headache and serve as his personal physician. Later Hua Tuo asked for leave and was reluctant to come back. Tsao Tsao got angry and put him to death. 

Hua Tuo was expert in several fields, including acupuncture, gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery. For the latter, he invented various herbal anesthetics. One, known as numbing powder, was taken with alcohol before surgery. He was one of the earliest surgeons to employ anesthetics to alleviate patients' pains. Unfortunately his ancient prescriptions are lost.

Once Hua Tuo had operated on the knee of a girl of twenty, whose left knee had suffered chronic ulcer for seven years. He got out a snake-shaped thing from the knee, applied some medicine on wound and the girl was cured in a week.

Today's doctor believes the girl was most probably suffering from steomyelits and the snake shaped thing taken out of the girl's knee was a piece of dead bone. 

Another time, an old man who went to Hua Tuo was told: 'Your disease has been chronic, and you should receive an abdominal operation, but even that could lengthen your life by not more than ten years. On the other hand, the disease won't shorten your life. You can choose living with it.' The patient, being in great pain, asked for a surgery and was relieved from pain immediately, but he died exactly ten years later.
 
Hua Tuo was also good at internal medicine. He could judge the illness from the patient's facial color, voice and outside physical condition.
 
Once he met a man drinking wine in a restaurant. He told the man to stop drinking and go back home as soon as possible. On his way back, the man fell off his carriage and dead not long after he reached home.

Correct diagnose is the prerequisite for doctors to treat a patient. Hua Tuo could always make the sound diagnose. Once there were two patients both had fever and a headache. Hua Tuo gave them entirely different medicines and each recovered soon. When asked why, Hua Tuo explained one had caught a cold and the other had indigestion. 
 
Hua Tuo also advocated people to exercise to stay healthy, because he says "motion consumes energy produced by food and promotes blood circulation so that the body will be free of diseases just as a door hinge is never worm eaten." He invented the exercise set known as the frolics of the five animals, in which one imitates the actions of tigers, deer, bears, apes, and birds.

Today, there are still many Temples exist commemorating Hua Tuo in places where he had been practicing medicine.