Mafeitang 麻沸散

Chen Shou records that Hua Tuo was expert in prescriptions and medicines, used only a few ingredients in his decoctions, and applied moxibustion and needles at no more than one or two points, yet his patients recovered. When an illness had knotted and accumulated inside, beyond the reach of needles and medicine, so that it had to be cut out, he had the patient drink Mafeisan, and when after a moment the patient became as if drunk or dead and knew nothing, he cut open the abdomen and removed the diseased part. Records, Wei 29 §2–3

If the illness was in the intestines, he cut the intestines and washed them, sewed up the abdomen and applied ointment. It is said that in four or five days the wound healed and did not hurt, the patient himself was not even aware of it, and within a month he had fully recovered. Records, Wei 29 §4

Hua Tuo's biography records that Cao Cao summoned Hua Tuo and kept him at his side, and that Hua Tuo cured Cao Cao's head-wind ailment with needles. Later Hua Tuo went home and, pleading his wife's illness, did not return, and he was handed over to the prison at Xu County and died under interrogation. Before he died he gave a book to a jailer, saying it could save lives, but when the jailer, fearing the law, would not accept it, he burned it. Records, Wei 29 §18 · 21–23