Frequent attacks on health workers in China: social changes or historical origins?

Editor Group of Traditional Medicine Research

Updated：2020-12-09?DOI：10.12032/TMR20191030144

According to a message posted by the official Weibo account of Chengguan Sub-bureau of the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau in Gansu Province of China, on the morning of October 22, 2019, a suspect named Yang (male, aged 54 years, a native of Lanzhou City of Gansu Province) attacked a doctor Feng (female, aged 42 years, a native of Lanzhou City) with a knife at Gansu Provincial Hospital. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to rescue her, Feng passed away. After the incident, Public Security Institutions immediately took control of suspect Yang. According to the preliminary investigation, Yang once underwent a surgery for rectal cancer at Gansu Provincial Hospital, in which Doctor Feng was his attending physician. The case is currently under further investigation [1].

History book entitled?Shi Ji (the Grand Historian) combines the biographies of famous doctors Bian Que and Chunyu Yi into the Bian Que Cang Gong Lie Zhuan (Biography of Bian Que and Cang Gong) [2]. According to the record of?Shi Ji, as early as in the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 B.C.E.) of China, Bian Que (407-310 B.C.E.) died from murder. When the chief physician of Qin State Li Xi—learned that his medical skills were not as good as Bian Que’s, he sent an assassin to kill him.

In the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.-8 C.E.) of China, Chunyu Yi (215-140 B.C.E.) once served as the magistrate of the Taicang County in Qi Princedom. The 25 medical cases under his charge, known as the?Zhen Ji (Case Records), are currently the earliest existing medical records in China [3]. Chunyu Yi was sentenced to three types of corporal punishment, namely,?Qing (face tattooing), Yi (cutting off the nose), and Yue (cutting off the feet). According to the history book entitled Han Shu·Xing Fa Zhi (the Criminal Annals·History of the Former Han), during the Han Dynasty, Chunyu Yi once gave medical treatment to a dowager who was already critically ill and was unable to cure her. After the dowager died, the latter’s family falsely accused Chunyu Yi of murder. Officials convicted him and sentenced him to corporal punishment. Chunyu Yi’s youngest daughter, Ti Ying, wrote to Emperor Wen that she was willing to be a maidservant at the government house (203 B.C.E.-157 B.C.E.) in exchange for exempting her father from the cruel torture. In the fifth month of the 13th year of the Han Dynasty (167 B.C.E.), Emperor Wen ordered that Chunyu Yi be exempted from the punishment and that Ti Ying need not serve as a maidservant. The next day, he also ordered that the three types of corporal punishment be abolished [2,?4].

The history book entitled?San Guo Zhi·Wei Zhi·Hua Tuo Zhuan (the Records of the Three Kingdoms·Records of Wei·Biography of Hua Tuo) recorded that Doctor Hua Tuo (around 145 C.E.-208 C.E.) had treated Monarch Cao Cao’s head-wind syndrome many times. Eventually, he was executed by Cao Cao under two charges of violating the Han law: 1. the crime of deceiving the monarch and 2. the crime of refusing to go on a military expedition. Before he died, Hua Tuo gave a medical book to the prison officer and said, "This book can be used to save people." The prison officer was afraid of breaking criminal law and dared not accept it. Hua Tuo had no choice but to burn this book [5].

The cause of death of Doctor Huang Yuanyu in the Qing Dynasty (1705 C.E.-1758 C.E.) is not known, but it has been said that he died of a panic attack. In his early years, Ma Ruiting (1903-1997), the fifth-generation successor of Huang Yuanyu, heard an anecdote about Huang’s diagnostic practice from his teacher, Li Dingchen. When Huang Yuanyu was an imperial physician, the son of a royal highness in Shenyang City grew seriously ill.?"When I enter the house, I hear a groan in the east wing. Is that your son? There is no need to diagnose the disease. His lungs are rotten and there is no medicine that can cure them," Huang Yuanyu asked the patient’s father. When the royal highness heard this, he killed and dissected his son and put the rotten lungs on a plate for Huang Yuanyu to see. Huang was so frightened that he fell to the ground. He soon returned to his hometown in a hurry, later falling ill and remaining in bed since. When his son asked about the cause of his illness, Huang Yuanyu said: "My spirit has been shattered by horror. No medicine can cure me. I still have a hundred days to live. Please invite my friends and acquaintances to bid me farewell!" As was expected, he died a hundred days later at the age of 54. [6]

In 2012, the case of a doctor in the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine being chopped to death in the hospital’s consultation room became a point of widespread concern in society. Patient Wang (aged over 50 years) insisted that acupuncturist Kang Hongqian deliberately messed up in treating him. After a little over a month of treatment, Wang entered the consultation room with an axe he had prepared for a long time and hacked her head several times. Kang Hongqian died of severe craniocerebral injury despite rescue efforts [7].

An ancient Chinese saying goes,?"If you can’t be a good prime minister, you’d better be a good doctor." The source of this old saying is unknown, but there is a story about Fan Zhongyan, a famous Confucian in the Song Dynasty (960 C.E.-1279 C.E.), who once visited the ancestral temple to draw fortune sticks. When he asked if he could be a prime minister in the future, the stick suggested that he could not. He drew another stick and prayed, "If I can’t be a prime minister, I wish to be a good doctor." The result still suggested otherwise. He then sighed and said, "If an undertaking cannot benefit the people, it is not worthy of a man’s dedication of his entire life." Later, someone asked him, "It is natural for a man to aspire to be a prime minister. Why do you wish to be a good doctor? Is this a bit too humble?" [8]. The frequent occurrence of killing and injuring doctors from the ancient times until the present warrants our reflection on the social status and treatment doctors should receive [9].

Abbreviations

symbol——definitionShi Ji——The Grand HistorianBian Que Cang Gong Lie Zhuan——Biography of Bian Que and Cang GongZhen Ji——Case RecordsQing——Face tattooingYi——Cutting off the noseYue——Cutting off the feetHan Shu·Xing Fa Zhi——The Criminal Annals History of the Former HanSan Guo Zhi·Wei Zhi·Hua Tuo Zhuan——The Records of the Three Kingdoms·Records of Wei·Biography of Hua Tuo

Cite this article:

Editor Group of Traditional Medicine Research. Frequent attacks on health workers in China: social changes or historical origins?.?Tradit Med Res. 2020;5(1):1–3. doi:10.53388/TMR20191030144