Chinese woodcut: Medical/surgical instruments

Woodblock illustration of surgical instruments/ instruments of external medicine from Waike yijing (The Mirror of External Medicine), by the Qing (1644-1911) author Gao Sijing, in a typographic edition of 1917. The three-edged needle (sanleng zhen), pus vehicle (nongche), curved knife (wan dao) and fire needle (huo zhen) were instruments employed in Chinese medicine for surgical or external treatment. The three-edged needle was generally used for letting blood at the wrist and ankle. The pus vehicle was used to release pus that would not readily drain. The curved knife was used to excise decayed and festering tissue. The fire needle was used to needle and cauterize deep-seated boils, 'drifting' abscesses (liu zhu), etc.

Three-edged needle (sanleng zhen), used to let blood at the wrist and ankle. Pus vehicle (nongche), used when pus will not readily drain. Curved knife (wan dao), use in lesions on the back, hand-touching [abscesses] (dashou), and abscesses on the head, to excise decayed flesh. Use of the fire needle (huo zhen): use when the head of the abscess is 1-2 cun (Chinese/proportionate inches) below the surface, for abscesses attached to the bone, pyogenic inflammation at the back of the knee (weizhong du), 'drifting' abscesses (liu zhu), etc.