Interpretation of a treatment method in traditional Chinese medicine, burning moxa sticks are used to smoke and roast certain acupoints.

Moxibustion refers to a treatment method that strips or columns made of moxa or Chinese herbal medicines are ignited with fire and treated on the meridians to achieve the efficacy of expelling diseases and protecting the human body. It is called moxibustion.

Moxibustion therapy is a major feature of ancient medical therapy in China.

Moxibustion therapy is one of the oldest therapies in traditional Chinese medicine. Although there is no reliable data to prove the origin of moxibustion therapy, most scholars believe that this therapy will appear no later than the primitive society. According to modern archaeological research, as early as the ape-man period in Beijing, our ancestors knew how to use fire and moxibustion. Shuowen Jiezi is interpreted as "burning", which means burning with fire. In the process of using fire, ancestors may accidentally burn, but as a result, the pain in another part of the body has been unexpectedly relieved or healed for many times, so they took the initiative to treat some diseases with burns, and gradually produced moxibustion therapy. The literature records of moxibustion therapy can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. 1973, the silk manuscripts "Moxibustion Sutra of Eleven Veins in Foot Arms" and "Moxibustion Sutra of Eleven Veins in Yin and Yang" unearthed in Mawangdui No.3 Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province are not only monographs on meridians, but also the earliest medical classics that record moxibustion methods. All kinds of meridian diseases mentioned in the book are treated by moxibustion. And found that some of these diseases can even be "long (moxibustion) a few (both) rest, the disease is gone" ("Yin and Yang Eleven Pulse Moxibustion Classic A"). At the same time, the unearthed silk book "Fifty-two Diseases" also mentioned moxibustion and ironing.

The first monograph on moxibustion in the history of China is "Cao Shi Moxibustion Prescription" written by Cao Ming (son of Cao Cao) in the Three Kingdoms period, with seven volumes in total, but it has been lost. Nine Classics of Xinji Beiji in Dunhuang was copied in the second year of Tang Weitong (AD 682) at the latest, which not only confirmed that the book was written very early, but also showed that there were special books on moxibustion in early periodicals in China. In addition, there is a volume of "Steaming Bone Disease Moxibustion Prescription" written by Tang Cuizhi, which records the experience of moxibustion treatment for special diseases. Although the original book has been lost, it is still kept in secret in foreign stations and Liang Fang, Su Shen. In the Song Dynasty, there were more and more monographs on moxibustion, such as three volumes of Huangdi's Moxibustion Classic, one volume of Wenren's Moxibustion Classic for the Aged, eight volumes of Xizi Moxibustion Classic, and one volume of Zhuang Chuo Moxibustion Sticker and Blood Dispelling Method. These monographs recorded and summarized the moxibustion experience of ancient doctors from different periods and angles.

Moxibustion is listed as an important content in some important medical works and acupuncture books in Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties. Elbow Urgent Prescription compiled by Hong Zhi of Jin Pavilion has collected a large number of effective and simple moxibustion prescriptions that people treated at that time and before. There are 109 acupuncture prescriptions in the book, and moxibustion prescriptions account for as many as 94. In addition to inheriting the direct moxibustion method in Neijing and Acupuncture A-B Classic, it also pioneered the moxibustion method of separating objects, including salt moxibustion, garlic moxibustion and Sichuan pepper moxibustion. In addition, wax therapy is also used, with tile retort instead of moxibustion apparatus, and moxa fumigation moxibustion is burned in the tube. Chen, a physician in Jin and Sui Dynasties, was one of the earliest advocates of moxibustion. His Xiao Pian Fang (now lost) is an important prescription in ancient China, and there are many discussions on moxibustion. He pointed out that "husband acupuncture must be practiced by teachers, and its moxibustion is applied by ordinary people." For the teacher to interpret the classics, acupuncture goes hand in hand; Those are not explained by the teacher, but can be moxibustion according to the detailed text of the picture; There are no pictures or words in the wild, but moxibustion is a good method according to the condition, which shows that moxibustion is simple and effective and easy to popularize. From nearly 30 old moxibustion prescriptions scattered in other medical books, we can see that he advocates selecting fewer but more precise points and emphasizes removing evil blood before moxibustion. The number of strong moxibustion is as high as 50 ~ 100, and it is also useful to get stronger with the growth of years. In particular, regarding the prohibition of moxibustion, it is considered that the prohibition of moxibustion in 18 places in Neijing is not absolute, and it is proposed that direct moxibustion should "avoid the exposed parts of the face and limbs to hurt the ears with scars". Many of these views are still desirable today. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, also described a lot of moxibustion contents in his works "A Thousand Women in Emergency" and "A Thousand Women". In terms of moxibustion, he added a variety of moxibustion methods, such as lobster sauce cake moxibustion, mud cake moxibustion, patch moxibustion and Shang Lu cake moxibustion. The scope of moxibustion has been greatly expanded. First, the content of moxibustion for disease prevention has been added. As pointed out in Volume XXIX: "Ordinary people in Wu Shu often need moxibustion at three or two places, so the sores have not healed temporarily, and the poisonous gas of warm malaria does not hurt people." Secondly, the number of diseases treated by moxibustion has increased compared with the previous generation, especially in the use of heat syndrome, such as carbuncle caused by heat toxin, which is popular and dissipated through moxibustion; In addition, moxibustion is also used to treat jaundice, stranguria, isohyperthermia, thirst quenching, nocturnal emission and blood loss. This is obviously the correction of some biased formulations in Treatise on Febrile Diseases, and it is also the supplement and perfection of moxibustion therapy. At the same time, Wang Dao emphasized that moxibustion is more important than acupuncture, and put forward that moxibustion is "a great skill of medicine, which should be deeper than the body and more important than the middle, and there is no such skill" (Fourteen Prescriptions of Stroke and Various Winds Outside Taiwan). In the book "Tips Outside Taiwan", almost all acupuncture therapies use moxibustion prescriptions. This view of abandoning needles and re-moxibustion is of course biased, but it can prove that moxibustion was valued at that time.

The book "Classic of Acupuncture" written by Wang Zhizhong, a famous acupuncturist in the Song Dynasty, also focuses on moxibustion methods, and records moxibustion methods such as fatigue, hemorrhoids, intestinal wind, back hair, plaster relief and fetal hernia in children. The book also contains a lot of moxibustion therapy for myself or their relatives, such as "Give a taste of benefits, don't go to the toilet the next day, moxibustion for several nights, and don't go to the toilet for several days" (The Third Classic of Acupuncture). In addition, Wang Zhizhong also made a more in-depth observation on the feeling of moxibustion: "I felt very distressed in the future. When I was in urgent moxibustion, the number of tubes (sputum) was strong, and I felt cold air on both sides of my lower abdomen from bottom to top, and it dispersed at the moxibustion place (Four Classics of Acupuncture). There are many moxibustion contents in important medical prescriptions such as Taiping Sheng Huifang, Puji Fang Jing and Shengji Zonglu in Song Dynasty. For example, Uncle Xu emphasized that moxibustion is the most suitable method for yin toxicity, yin syndrome and yang deficiency, and created moxibustion methods for Croton and Coptis chinensis. The method is to "make a paste with saliva, fill it in the umbilical heart, and moxibustion on it to make the abdominal sound go away" (Volume 9 of Puji Skill Prescription). Because of the pain of burning moxibustion, people are afraid of moxibustion. In Bian Que's Heart Book written by Dou Cai in the Southern Song Dynasty, it was first recorded that "Sleeping San San", moxibustion after taking it, "I don't know the pain" (Bian Que's Heart Book).

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the specialization of moxibustion, a master of moxibustion appeared. For example, Tang Hanyu's poem "Curse the miasma ghost" said: "A moxibustion master who hunts around the fire will be cold" ("Collected Works of Mr. Changli Volume 7"), which vividly depicts the scene of a big fever on schedule. Gao's "medical theory" was once known as the master of moxibustion. In addition to the master of moxibustion who specializes in moxibustion technology, in view of the prevailing moxibustion method at that time, non-medical people also used moxibustion. It is recorded in Qi Benji Nan Shi that some people learned moxibustion from the north, which was once very popular because of its effective treatment and rapid promotion. It is called the sacred flame, and even forbidden. Volume 29, "The Key to Emergency 1000 Yuan" also mentioned: "Wu Shu multi-line moxibustion." This shows that this law is very popular among the people. In addition, in the Song Dynasty, "Taizong was seriously ill, and the emperor (referring to Song Taizu) looked at him and was close to him." . In the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo wrote burning moxa sticks and Tang Li painted moxibustion pictures, which further confirmed the widespread spread of moxibustion in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

"Medicine is not as good as acupuncture, it must be moxibustion" —— Sun Simiao "Moxibustion is also equal to the ground, so we should examine the acupoints, examine their acupoints and bring them back to life immediately" —— Wu Shen Moxibustion.

"Ordinary people traveling in Wu Shu often need moxibustion in three or two places. If you don't heal the sore temporarily, you can't kill people with warm miasma. " -"Prepare for Emergency" Volume 29

"When people are not sick, they will moxibustion Guanyuan, Qihai, Mingmen and Zhongtong for a long time. Although you can't live forever, you can live for a hundred years. " -"Bian Que's Heart Book"

"Three treasures of traditional Chinese medicine: a bowl of soup, a needle and a moxibustion."-Study on modern moxibustion therapy