Hua Tuo Bust
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

In January I was contacted by a (I think German) Publisher in order to use this photo of Hua Tuo, one of the father’s of Chinese medicine, in a book they’re publishing. of course I said yes, the book has gone to print and can be bought here: Publisher’s Homepage and now I’m a published photographer. Who’d have thought?

This bust is located near my home in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China, in pretty hospital grounds. Which also had a Florence Nightingale Bust. I took the photo on the way home from a tutoring session I had with an upper middle class Chinese family.

According to Wikipedia: Hua Tuo (died 208) was a renowned physician during the Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. He was described as looking like “an immortal who had passed the gates of this life” and “a man with the complexion of a youth and a snowy beard”. The Book of Later Han records Hua Tuo as the first person in China to use anesthesia during surgery. He used a general anesthetic combining wine with an herbal concoction called mafeisan (麻沸散 lit. “cannabis boil powder”).