Scott No: 1271-74
Serial number: T12
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: April 9, 1976
Denomination: 32 fen
Designer: Sun Chuanzhe
Size of stamps: 58*31mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 30(3*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T12 "New Achievements in Medical and Health Science" special stamps were issued on April 9, 1976. The set consists of 4 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Sun Chuanzhe, with the original painting of (4-1) by Xia Daoling, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 58 mm × 31 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 30 stamps per sheet (3 × 10), with a total face value of 0.32 yuan for the set, all four stamps at 8 fen, and a circulation of 3.9 million copies each.

Theme of the Set

This set selects four landmark medical achievements independently developed in China through the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, showing at home and abroad the breakthroughs made in China's medical and health scientific research in the 1970s. New China vigorously developed the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, explored simple, efficient diagnostic and treatment techniques suited to grassroots promotion based on national conditions, and both inherited traditional Chinese medical skills and absorbed modern medical theory. With realistic pictures, the stamps display the appearance of China's medical workers researching and tackling key problems and serving the workers and peasants, embodying the direction of medical and health undertakings facing the masses and preventing and treating disease.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Acupuncture Anesthesia

The picture shows an operating room where a medical team uses acupuncture anesthesia to perform surgery on a patient: silver needles stimulate the acupoints, and the patient's expression is calm, without reliance on traditional anesthetic drugs. Acupuncture anesthesia is an anesthetic method uniquely created in China; it attracted widespread attention from the international medical community at the time and is a major achievement of the integration of Chinese and Western medicine.

Replantation of Severed Limbs

In the foreground of the design is a recovered worker driving a walking tractor back to his production post; in the background, in an operating room, doctors are nervously carrying out replantation surgery on a severed limb. Replantation of severed limbs is a highly difficult microsurgery operation; this technique successfully saved a large number of trauma victims and is a landmark achievement in China's surgical field.

Treatment of Fractures with Small Splints through Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine

In the near part of the design, a doctor guides a fracture patient in moving the affected limb, showing the rehabilitation effect; behind, medical staff reduce the injury and apply small splint fixation. The small splint fixation method originates from traditional Chinese bone setting and is combined with Western medicine's reduction concepts; the fixation is moderate and does not bind the joints, facilitating early functional exercise, with simple materials suited to grassroots promotion in rural areas.

Treatment of Cataracts by Needle Couching through Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine

In the distance of the design, in an operating room, a doctor is performing needle couching cataract surgery; in the foreground, an elderly patient who has regained sight after surgery is threading a needle, intuitively embodying the surgical effect. Needle couching is improved from the ancient traditional ophthalmological method; the surgery causes little trauma and allows quick recovery, suited to grassroots popularization and helping large numbers of cataract patients see the light again.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal long stamp format, all in a realistic poster style, with soft, steady colors. Using operating rooms and diagnostic and treatment scenes as the carrier, the narrative approach is unified: behind, the surgical process is reproduced; in front, the rehabilitation results are shown—contrasting front and back and intuitively embodying the value of medical technology. The photogravure printing gives delicate layers to figures, instruments, and light and shadow, and the pictures are clean and restrained. There is no souvenir sheet for this set. It is a classic special stamp set on the theme of integrated Chinese and Western medicine in medical and health care of the JT period.