Yu Fu (Five thousand years ago)

was a legendary physician according to "Records of the Grand Historian." The name "Yu Fu" indicates that he had miraculous healing abilities and could even bring the dead back to life. It is speculated that his name might be a homonym for "healing" or "recovery." Another supporting piece of evidence is that the character "跗" in "俞跗" can also be written as "附" or "拊" in different texts.

His diagnostic skills were extremely remarkable. He not only could discern the state of a person's internal organs but also see the root cause of diseases at a glance, including the pathways of meridians, organs, and acupoints through which the diseases would spread. Unlike later physicians such as Bian Que and Hua Tuo, Yu Fu didn't use the traditional methods of herbal decoctions, medicinal wines, acupuncture needles, massages, or medicinal heat treatments. Once he accurately identified the location of the disease, he would directly make incisions on the skin, open the muscles, clear the meridians, connect tendons, treat the brain marrow, remove the pathogenic factors between the heart and diaphragm, cleanse the pleura, clean the intestines and stomach, and ensure proper functioning of the five organs, or perform other necessary surgical procedures.

Moreover, he employed the method of fumigation to determine the pathways of disease transmission, using the refined essence to transform the form of the patients. People said he could bring the dead back to life, making "dead people recover and come back to life." Some even referred to him as "the one who guarantees cure, the spirits and ghosts avoid him" (meaning he could treat all kinds of illnesses, even spirits and ghosts would stay away from him).

Yu Fu performed various major surgical operations, including craniotomy, thoracotomy, and laparotomy. Few people in later generations could perform such extensive surgeries, and the ones we know for sure are Bian Que and Hua Tuo. While Hua Tuo used "Mafeisan" to anesthetize patients during surgery, Yu Fu did not use any medication at all. However, it does not mean that the patients remained completely conscious and with normal sensations during the operation. That would be impossible for such major surgeries. The most probable situation is that Yu Fu used non-medical anesthesia, such as acupressure anesthesia, which is as effective as modern needle anesthesia but with a much higher safety factor. We also cannot rule out the possibility that he used acupressure to stop bleeding and immobilize the patients' movements. Such methods have been studied and used in later generations.

There is a legend about Yu Fu when he crossed a river and found a woman who had drowned and been recovered by several people, preparing to bury her. Yu Fu stopped them and inquired about how long the woman had been in the water. The people carrying the body replied that she had just fallen into the water and died. Yu Fu asked them to lay the body on the ground and proceeded to check the woman's pulse and look into her eyes. Then, he asked someone to fetch a grass rope and tie the woman's feet together, hanging her upside down from a tree. Initially, everyone was puzzled by Yu Fu's actions. However, as soon as the woman was suspended, she began to vomit water vigorously until she stopped. Yu Fu then had the woman carefully taken down and laid on the ground with her face up. He pressed and released her chest with his hands. Finally, he plucked a few hairs from his own head and placed them on the woman's nostrils to observe them. When he noticed the hairs moving slightly, he told the woman's family with relief, "She's alive now. Carry her back home and take good care of her!"

Legend has it that once, while walking in a mountain valley, Yu Fu witnessed a young hunter accidentally falling from a cliff. The hunter got stuck by a vine around his neck and couldn't climb up or down, nor could he shout for help. Yu Fu was anxious when suddenly, a limping old man appeared. Yu Fu asked the old man to find a way to rescue the young hunter suspended in mid-air. Without hesitation, the old man took out his bow and arrow, and with a "swoosh," he shot and broke the vine, causing the hunter to fall to the ground, seemingly lifeless.

Yu Fu squatted down and checked the hunter's pulse. He then picked some wild grass from the ground and inserted it into the hunter's nostrils. Next, he tightly covered the hunter's nostrils with his hand. After a short while, the grass used to block the nostrils was expelled. Only then did Yu Fu breathe a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "He's saved!" The limping old man, witnessing this medical technique, couldn't stop saying, "He's like a living immortal, a living immortal!"

In "Records of the Grand Historian," it is recorded that Yu Fu treated illnesses without using herbal decoctions, medicinal wines, acupuncture needles, massages, or medicinal plasters. Instead, he simply identified the specific acupoints related to the illness and used "bian" and "qiao" techniques to unblock the meridians. This way, he could remove the causes of diseases in the internal organs and the fascia beneath the skin, thereby eliminating discomfort in the five organs and six viscera and restoring the health of the limbs and bones.

In Yu Fu's later years, Emperor Huangdi sent Cang Jie, Lei Gong, and Qi Bo to spend a considerable amount of time compiling and organizing Yu Fu's medical techniques into a volume. However, before it could be published, Cang Jie passed away. Later, Yu Fu's son, Yu Zhi, brought the book back and asked his father to revise it. Unfortunately, a great fire broke out, and their house, medical books, and Yu Fu's family, including Yu Zhi, all turned to ashes.

Editor: Zhu Weimin, July 17, 2023.

You might also be interested in the article below :

Miao Fu

In ancient China, there were no medical radio scanners to locate the position of brain tumors. However, how did surgeons operate on brain conditions?