Cao Cao died of a serious illness or a curse from a demon?

In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao was one of the three most powerful forces at that time (the other two were Liu Bei and Sun Quan). With his wisdom, resourcefulness and ability to use people, Cao Cao gradually built a powerful force with the ambition to unify the world.

After ordering Guan Yu's beheading in 220, Sun Quan sent the head of the fierce Shu Han general to Cao Cao. When he opened the box and saw Guan Yu's head with his mouth open, eyes wide open, and hair and beard standing on end, Cao Cao was so scared that he collapsed to the ground and only regained consciousness after a long time.

Legend has it that from then on, every night when Cao Cao closed his eyes and went to sleep, he would recall the terrifying image of Guan Yu. Knowing that Cao Cao could not eat or sleep well, the officials advised him that the palace in Luoyang was full of ghosts and demons, so he needed to build a new palace.

Cao Cao thought this was quite reasonable so he decided to have someone cut down a huge pear tree to make the roof of the palace, but he accidentally offended the gods. Because of being tormented by the pear tree spirit, Cao Cao's headaches became more severe despite being treated by many talented doctors. Demons in the palace in Luoyang also disturbed Cao Cao's life.

Meanwhile, another hypothesis suggests that Cao Cao may have been "hit by the wind" when he had to exhaust himself to solve political and military problems, participate in many battles... An unbalanced diet, work and rest regimen often made Cao Cao stressed, prone to headaches and difficult to cure.

Among those who treated Cao Cao's headaches was the famous physician Hua Tuo. Whenever Cao Cao suffered from headaches, he asked Hua Tuo to perform acupuncture and the pain was greatly reduced.

Cao Cao wanted to cure his illness so he asked Hua Tuo for a cure. The divine doctor replied: “This illness is difficult to cure. If you take care of it, you can prolong your life.”

After Hua Tuo returned home, Cao Cao summoned him, but the physician refused on the pretext that his wife was sick. Cao Cao sent letters many times and sent officers and soldiers to invite him. Finally, Hua Tuo had to follow the soldiers and come to treat Cao Cao.

This time, Hua Tuo suggested opening Cao Cao's skull to cure his chronic headaches. After hearing this, Cao Cao was angry and thought that Hua Tuo wanted to kill him, so he ordered him to be imprisoned.