Xia Quan’s Tomb

Xia Quan’s Tomb

Xia Quan’s Tomb, located at Chen Dian Bridge in Jingdong, Changjing, Jiangyin, was excavated and cleared by the Jiangyin County Cultural Center in 1947.

Xia Quan, styled Shudu and also known as Xuezhou, was a native of Xilüshu in Jiangyin. He practiced medicine during his lifetime and was particularly skilled in acupuncture and surgery, earning recognition as a renowned doctor in Jiangyin during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.

The tomb is a vertical shaft-style lime-sealed grave. Among the burial items were a set of 15 surgical medical instruments once used by the deceased, divided into two categories: surgical tools and medical implements. Surgical tools included willow-leaf-shaped surgical knives, flat-blade surgical knives, iron round needles with ox horn handles, iron forceps, iron scissors, wooden medical needles, and ox horn–handled bristle medicine brushes. Medical implements comprised a cobalt-blue glazed porcelain washing pot, porcelain medicinal fumigation jars, and wooden medicine containers. In addition, the tomb also yielded writing brushes, ink sticks, inkstones, Chinese chess, Go pieces, backgammon sets, porcelain teapots, wooden bowls, wooden plates, tin ritual vessels, and one epitaph case.

The set of surgical instruments unearthed from this tomb represents a significant discovery in the field of medicine in China during the late Yuan and early Ming periods, providing valuable physical evidence for the study of the history of surgical procedures and treatment methods during that era.