Lê Hữu Trác (

Chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region ...

: 黎有晫, 1724 in

Hưng Yên Hưng Yên () is a city in the Red River Delta of the Northern Vietnam. It is the old capital of Hưng Yên Province and is a third-graded city according to Vietnam's urban classification table. History Hưng Yên city was originally the expansion ...

– 1791 in

Hà Tĩnh Hà Tĩnh () is a city in Vietnam.Atlas of the World', Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 236. It is the capital of Hà Tĩnh Province, and lies in the North Central Coast region. It is located on National Highway 1A. The Vietnamese capital Han ...

) or alias Hải Thượng Lãn Ông (海上懶翁), was an 18th-century Vietnamese physician who was the best known and most celebrated doctor in Vietnamese history. Hữu Trác was conscripted into the army in 1740 at the age of sixteen. In 1746 he withdrew from the army after his eldest brother died and lived in Hương Sơn District with his elderly mother. His own son died in a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

epidemic in 1758 when he was five years old. He then spent the next fifteen years learning medicine, with a particular focus on curing smallpox. He traveled to

Đông Kinh Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

in 1782, by order of lord

Trịnh Sâm Trịnh Sâm (, 9 February 1739 – 13 September 1782) ruled northern Vietnam from 1767 to 1782 AD. He ruled with the title "Tĩnh Đô Vương" () and was one of the last of the powerful Trịnh lords. Trịnh Sâm defeated the ancient enemy of t ...

, to treat the Crown Prince.

Personal background

"" Lê Hữu Trác, originally called Huân (薰), was born on November 11, 1720, in the village of Văn Xá, Liêu Xá region, Đường Hào district, Thượng Hồng

Phủ Fu () is a traditional administrative division of Chinese origin used in the East Asian cultural sphere, translated variously as commandery, prefecture, urban prefecture, or city. They were first instituted as a regular form of administrative d ...

, Hải Dương province (the current Liêu Xã commune,

Yên Mỹ district Yên Mỹ ən˧˧:miʔi˧˥is a former Huyện, rural district of Hưng Yên province in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam. History Yên Mỹ was the Huyện, district-level administrative unit what was established at the latest in the Red ...

Hưng Yên province Hưng Yên (/hɨŋ˧˧:iən˧˧/) is a province in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam. History Dynastic period The area of the province of Hưng Yên has been inhabited for millennia. Under the Ngô dynasty, it was called Dang Chau. It wa ...

). "" He was the seventh son of the family.

Works

* ''Practice of the Lazy Master of Hai Thuong'' (Hải Thượng y tông tâm lĩnh) * ''Confused Attempts at Diagnosing Smallpox'' (Mộng trung giác đậu) * ''Thượng kinh ký sự''

References

* * 1724 births 1791 deaths People from Hưng Yên province 18th-century Vietnamese physicians Acupuncturists {{Vietnam-med-bio-stub