Simiao

In addition to being a pioneer of surgery in the history of Chinese medicine, it has been suggested that our medical students should learn from the humanistic side of Hua Tuo.

Em… I shouldn’t say I beg to disagree, but the information we could find in formal historical record is actually limited, and there  are certainly better ones to set a role model. For example, how about Dong Feng (董奉), who was famous for asking his patients to plant apricot trees in his garden?

But, seriously, the pioneer of teaching medical ethics and professionalism in Chinese medicine was Sun Simiau (孫思邈). In his classical textbook Manual of Emergency and Essential Formulary (備急千金要方), there was a chapter dedicated on medical ethics: Humanistic quality of a great doctor (大醫精誠).

Let me show you two paragraphs from this chapter:

凡大醫治病，必當安神定志，無欲無求，先發大慈惻隱之心，誓願普救含靈之苦。若有疾厄來求救者，不得問其貴賤貧富，長幼妍媸，怨親善友，華夷愚智，普同一等，皆如至親之想。亦不得瞻前顧後，自慮吉凶，護惜身命，見彼苦惱，若己有之，深心淒愴，勿避險巇，晝夜寒暑，飢渴疲勞，一心赴救，無作功夫形跡之心。如此可為蒼生大醫。反此則是含靈巨賊。

夫為醫之法，不得多語調笑，談謔喧嘩，道說是非，議論人物，炫耀聲名，訾毀諸醫，自矜己德。偶然治瘥一病，則昂頭戴面，而有自許之貌，謂天下無雙，此醫人之膏肓也。