The discovery of Mawangdui proved that Hua Tuo used "Ma Fei San" for abdominal surgery. What is the recipe?

Hua Tuo, a famous medical scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty, used "Ma Fei San" to perform abdominal surgery. From then on, "Ma Fei San" together with Hua Tuo's name has become famous and well-known throughout the world. But what kind of medicine is "Ma Fei San"? Is it a single prescription or a compound prescription? Although it has been studied and verified by many people in later generations, it is still There are different opinions, and no credible conclusion can be drawn. Therefore, "Ma Fei San" has become a mystery through the ages.

What kind of medicine is "Ma Fei San"?

The name of "Ma Fei San" comes from Chen Shou. The biography of Hua Tuo in "The History of the Three Kingdoms" and Fan Hua's "Book of the Later Han Dynasty". However, the composition of "Ma Fei San" is not specified. Since Hua Tuo has no specific works handed down, there is only a little information about Hua Tuo. It was almost lost, which caused great difficulties for the study of "Ma Fei San." According to Hua Tuo’s biography, after he was killed by Cao Cao, all his manuscripts were burned by the jailer. Hua Tuo’s information is not kept, yes. It is reasonable. However, judging from the bibliography of medical literature of the past dynasties, after Hua Tuo was killed, his writings have not disappeared, and some of the contents have been preserved by his disciples Wu Pu, Fan A, Li Dangzhi, etc. Such as Liang "Seven" The Record contains five volumes of "Hua Tuo's Internal Affairs"; "Sui Shu·Ji Ji Zhi" has 10 volumes of "Hua Tuo Fang", "Hua Tuo's Observation of Form and Color and Three Meridians", "Hua Tuo Pillow" One volume of Moxibustion and Needling Classics; There are ten volumes of "Fahrenheit Prescriptions" in the "True Tang Book · Jing Ji Zhi". When Li Shizhen wrote "Compendium of Materia Medica", he referred to "Hua Tuo Fang".

Unfortunately, these books are It has been lost. Even Li Dangzhi and Wu Pu's own cursive scripts and pharmaceutical works have not been handed down well. The surviving "Fahrenheit Central Tibetan Scripture" may be a work during the Six Dynasties, close to the era of Hua Tuo's life. , But it was falsely entrusted by later generations. There may be fragments of Hua Tuo’s works, but it is impossible to distinguish. It is precisely because for thousands of years, what is the main medicine of "Xu Fei San"? Some people suspect that Hua Did Tuo really use "Ma Fei San"? The Chinese medicine book actually contains "Ma Fei San". Maybe it was made up and speculated by chroniclers who did not understand medicine.

However, in 1973, Changsha Ma In the Han Tomb No. 3 of Wangdui, the medical silk book "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" was unearthed, which is a kind of early medical literature in China. Among them is the "Ling Jin hurts no pain" prescription, which records the properties and usage of anesthetics:

"I have drunk it, but there is no pain. If the pain is recurring, take medicine as many as possible. No pain, no medicine".

This shows that the effective anesthesia time of the anesthetic is known at that time. After the effective time, if pain occurs, you can take it at the original dose. If you have reached the anesthesia requirements, do not take more. From the Eastern Han Dynasty From the "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the book of Shicheng, it can be seen that at that time, the anesthesia effect on the poisonous plants such as sheep scorpion, aconite, Tianxiong, etc., has been understood. The healing time of 囗 is "four or five days", which is consistent with the modern healing time of non-infected wounds. In addition, in the Sui Dynasty Chao Yuan Fang and others, there is a suture called "Lug Ru Fa" The conventional method of bowel cutting. Since the surgical routine has been formed, it is said that the intestinal anastomosis operation has become mature. Therefore, the literature records of Hua Tuo used "Ma Fei San" for abdominal surgery is credible.

Is "Ma Fei San" unilateral or The compound?

descendants have had various speculations about this. The famous doctor Huagang Qingzhou in the late Edo period of Japan believed that "Ma Fei San" is made of mandala, four yuan each of raw grass bird, fragrant angelica, angelica, and chuanxiong. Araceae is one dollar and consists of six medicines. He used this traditional Chinese medicine anesthesia prescription and successfully performed some operations. But many people suspect that this is Huatuo’s "Ma Fei San". Because Datura is a medicine in China. The earliest record can be found in "Lingwai Dai Da" by Zhou Qufei in the Song Dynasty; the earliest record in this cursive script is "Compendium of Materia Medica". Moreover, before the Tang Dynasty, there was no distinction between Chuanwu and Caowu, but collectively called Aconitum .Z1z

Zhang Ji, a close person, said in the Supplementary Notes to the Biography of Huatuo in the History of Huatuo: There are three coins for lamb stalks, one for jasmine roots, three to two for Chinese angelica, and three for calamus. This recipe, It is also found in Zhao Xuemin's "Chuan Ya Nei Bian" (known as Hua Tuo Anesthetic Medicine) in the Qing Dynasty, and "The Secret Biography of Hua Tuo's Divine Doctor". However, except for "The Supplementary Notes to the History of Hua Tuo" and the "Hua Tuo", which has more obvious traces of pseudo-trust The Secret Biography of the Divine Doctor stated that it was Hua Tuo’s "Ma Fei San". The other two books only talked about anesthetics, but did not say that they were Hua Tuo’s "Ma Fei San". Moreover, Jasmine was in Jihan's "Ma Fei San" in the Jin Dynasty. "Southern Grass and Trees" was first published. So, this recipe is Hua TuoThe original formula of "Xu Fei San" is also insufficient. According to

, some people speculate that “Ma Fei San” is the “Ma Lai San” which uses Ma Lai as the main medicine based on the similar sound of the word "Bei" and "La".

was also based on troubles. It is also known as Sheep Hu, which has anesthetic effect. Huatuo's hometown in Bo County, Anhui Province is rich in Lamb flowers. Therefore, it is believed that the main medicine of "Ma Fei San" may be yanghua.

In addition, you can also cite some "Ma boiling powder" recipes. Unfortunately, they were not accepted by everyone due to lack of strong evidence.

However, most people think that Huatuo's "Ma boiling powder" is nothing more than bird head, ranunculus, frankincense, myrrh, mutton flower, hemp, mandala, and glutinous rice.

In short, "Ma Fei San" can be described as a "strange case" of the ages, and it has not been "solved" yet.