History of Moxibution Therapy in China and Japan / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

Moxibution therapy, along with acupuncture and herb therapies, has long been one of major traditional therapies in East Asia. It has history of over two thousand years. Since ancient days Artemisia, the material of moxa was gathered up in early May and used for the purpose of protection against outer evil materials.Some of the medical texts excavated from Mawangtui tomb _??__??__??__??__??_ in 1973 suggest that around 2 B.C.fumed moxa was used for disinfection of the operated parts in body. We can also find in the Mawangtui medical texts the first description on moxibution therapy based on meridian theory. But it is not until the publication of Zhenjiu Jiaouyijing _??__??__??__??__??_ that detailed correspondence between diseases and treating points (acupoints) was made clear.<BR>Qianjinyaofang _??__??__??__??_ and Waitaimiyaofang _??__??__??__??__??_, both published in Tang period, left a strong in-fluence over the practice of moxibution therapy in later period. Qianjinyaofang has a lot of articles indicating superiority of moxibution to acupuncture therapy. It also gave moxibution therapy a new concept, ’Yangsheng (prophylaxis) _??__??_’.Wangtao_??__??_, the author of Waitaimiyao, depended much on Qianjinyaofang for hiswriting, and recorded only moxibution therapy. Ishinpo _??__??__??_, the first comprehensive medical text in Japancompiled by Tanba Yasuyori (_??__??__??__??_) in the late 10th century, is wealthy of excerpts from these twobooks. In medieval Japan, moxibution therapy achieved dominant position in the cure of disease while acu-puncture was applied mostly for surgical operation.<BR>The influx of medical books from Ming China since the 16th century enabled Japanese physicians to domore detail and careful analysis of moxibution therapy. Leijingtuyi _??__??__??__??_ and Huangdimingtangjiujing_??__??__??__??__??__??_ were the main objects of their research. It is also notable that in Edo Japan, the therapy waspracticed not only by physicians, but practiced also among the commonality for the purpose of their health care. Actually, in many parts of Japan moxibution therapy has been practiced among families as an annual event in community.<BR>The discovery of the New Continent in the late 15th century brought many Westerners to East Asia. The knowledge of moxibution therapy was transmitted to Europe by the Jesuit priest and physicians who were in-terested in the natural history of Japan. In Nippojisho _??__??__??__??_, a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary printed in1603 at Nagasaki, we can find some words regarding moxibution. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician who did botanical research in Japan in 1690-92, published in 1712 Amoenitatum Exoticarum in which he in-troduced moxibution therapy. In this best selling book, he made very interesting comparison between Japanese moxibution and the similar therapies practiced in Arabic world. He also inserted a chart of moxibution points, reprinted from a kind of pamphlet on moxibution, Kyushokagami _??__??__??_.<BR>Erwin von Baeltz, a German physician who stayed in Japan for more than thirty years in the second half of the 19th century and contributed much to the foundation of western medicine in Japan, left a photo of a male patient with Hansen’s disease with many burning dots of moxibution on his body. Though it was already reported in the 17th century by Willem ten Rhijne that moxibution was applied to Hansen’s disease in Japan, Baeltz’s photo is quite rare proof of the practice.