 He was the first person to perform surgery with the aid of anesthesia, some 1600 years before the practice was adopted by Europeans.Bian Que (Pien Ch'iao) was a "miracle doctor" described by the Chinese historian Sima Qian in his Shiji who was credited with many skills.Another book, Liezi (Lieh Tzu) describes that Bian Que conducted a two way exchange of hearts between people.This account also credited Bian Que with using general anaesthesia which would place it far before Hua Tuo, but the source in Liezi is questioned and the author may have been compiling stories from other works.