Cao Cao had his physician Hua Tuo put to death, and Hua Tuo burned his book of methods in prison when the jailer would not take it

The Sanguozhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms), written by Chen Shou in the third century, says Hua Tuo came from Qiao in the state of Pei. Cao Cao suffered attacks of head wind, with confusion and dizziness, and Hua Tuo relieved them with needles. Cao Cao kept him at his side. Hua Tuo went home and stayed there, saying his wife was ill. Cao Cao wrote to him several times and ordered the local officials to send him back. He did not come. Cao Cao sent men to check: if the wife was truly ill, Hua Tuo would receive forty measures of small beans and more leave; if he had lied, he would be arrested. He was taken to the prison at Xu and confessed. Xun Yu asked Cao Cao to spare him, saying people's lives depended on his skill. Cao Cao refused. Before his death Hua Tuo offered the jailer a scroll and said it could keep people alive. The jailer feared the law and refused it. Hua Tuo asked for fire and burned it. Later Cao Cao's favourite son, Cao Chong, fell gravely ill. Cao Cao said he regretted killing Hua Tuo, because it had made the boy die. Cao Chong died in 208. The book is lost. The recipe for mafeisan, the anaesthetic credited to Hua Tuo, is lost.