(Handout via Xinhua Daily)

Among China’s 327 national first-class museums, about a dozen are located at the county level, including four from Jiangsu Province. One of them is Jiangyin Museum.

Jiangyin is a renowned center of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with a long and rich history. The city’s museum houses valuable TCM artifacts, including surgical tools unearthed from the tomb of Xia Quan (1348-1411), a famous surgeon during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.

The instruments include a willow-leaf shaped surgical knife, featuring a longer blade on one side for cutting larger areas of skin, and a flat-bladed knife designed for smaller incisions. Iron needles, tweezers and scissors were also excavated from the tomb.

Notable for their comprehensive classification and exquisite design, this set of Ming Dynasty surgical devices showcases the long history and advanced level of TCM surgery 600 years ago.

The museum’s curator, Weng Xuehua, said that over 10,000 artifacts, including 35 first-class cultural relics, are housed in the museum, illustrating the city’s rich cultural heritage. Among the exhibits are Neolithic pottery, jade artifacts of the Liangzhu Culture, ceramics and lacquerware from the Song and Yuan dynasties, and gold and silverware from the Ming Dynasty.

Between 1999 and 2000, archaeological excavations at the Gaochengdun Site in Jiangyin unearthed a large number of jade objects. This discovery was named one of the “Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries of 1999”.