According to the physical conditions of different users, ancient physicians filled pillows with corresponding Chinese herbal medicines to make medicinal pillows. After years of use, users can achieve the purpose of preventing and treating diseases and maintaining health.

In Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen repeatedly mentioned the principle of treating diseases with medicated pillow in Compendium of Materia Medica. In Qing Dynasty, Mr. Wu Shang recorded the clinical application of various medicinal pillows in Li Long Parallel Prose, and put forward that "external treatment means internal treatment; The medicine for external treatment, that is, the medicine for internal treatment, is different. " It is pointed out that external treatment can cure all diseases, that is, the mechanism of external treatment and internal treatment is the same, but the route of administration is different. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in ancient times, had the saying of "smelling incense to get rid of diseases" and used medicine pillows all his life, at the age of 102. Lu You, a patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, loved medicine pillows all his life and lived to the age of 85, leaving a lot of poems for medicine pillows. In Fu Jian's Poems, he wrote: He is 20 years old and still writing chrysanthemum pillow poems. Picking chrysanthemums to sew pillows, the fragrance fills the room. Eighty years old, still sleeping with mulberries. The flute caresses under the banyan tree, and the spirit is white and spring.