The application of massage in preventing and treating diseases, strengthening the body and prolonging life has a long history in China, and it was highly valued by China medical scientists and health preserving scientists thousands of years ago. For example, the earliest existing medical works in China, the Internal Classic of Qin and Han Dynasties, recorded that massage can treat joint pain, flaccidity, mouth-eye deviation, epigastric pain and so on. China's first massage monograph, Ten Tuina of the Yellow Emperor and Seven Bos (Lost), was also written in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
It is pointed out in Huangdi Neijing: "Massage can't be released, acupuncture can't be blamed, and qi can be moved to deficiency, and it can be recovered with pride." It shows that massage has become an important means of medical treatment and health preservation in Qin and Han Dynasties. Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty mentioned that there are ten volumes of massage instructions in Yu Anlan, the inner chapter of Bao Puzi, but it has been lost. However, in the Record of Keeping Healthy and Prolonging Life, there was a quotation: "... Ping Dan rubbed his eyes three times with his palms and scratched his eyes four times with his fingers, which was very eye-catching. ..... and Dharma warrants hot face rubbing, from top to bottom, it is glorious to ward off evil spirits. Also called top-down dry bath, it can overcome cold and heat headache and eliminate all diseases. " The above contents of the classic guide are praised and quoted by many books. At the end of each volume of Etiology in Sui Dynasty, there are methods of guided massage. At that time, self-massage was very popular as a part of massage, and its extensive development showed that massage therapy attached importance to prevention and gave full play to patients' subjective initiative in fighting diseases. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when massage techniques were applied to the human body surface, ointment made of traditional Chinese medicine was applied. Therefore, an ointment rubbing method was developed, which can not only prevent the patient's epidermis from being damaged, but also make the medicine and technology complement each other. There are many kinds of ointments, such as Mangcao ointment, Danshen ointment, Aconitum carmichaeli ointment, Pueraria lobata ointment, Chen Yuan ointment and Mufangji ointment, which are selected and applied according to different situations. Moreover, ointment can also be used to prevent and treat children's diseases. It is pointed out in Qian Jin Fang Yao: "Although children are not ill, they often wipe their hands, feet and hearts with ointment in the morning to avoid the cold wind." During this period, there were massage specialists, massage doctors, masseurs and other titles, which showed that massage was quite popular at that time. Especially the famous medical scientist Sun Simiao spoke highly of massage instruction. He mentioned in "Prepare for Emergency": "Massage three times a day, and after one month, all diseases will be eliminated, and running and horse racing are the ways to keep fit." Sun Shi's theory is not only the inheritance of health preservation before the Tang Dynasty, but also the summary of his own experience, which has a great influence on later generations.
In the Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, massage was more widely used. For example, Pang Anshi, a doctor in the Song Dynasty, said, "When a woman is pregnant, she will have children. After seven days, she stopped giving birth, and all her skills failed ... so that her family could warm their waist and abdomen with soup and massage themselves up and down, and pregnant women would feel slight pain in their stomachs and groan and give birth to a man. "She induced labor with massage. In Song Dynasty, Chen Zhi's book "Offering for the Aged" suggested that the old people often rub Yongquan point, which can make them walk lightly and be full of spirit in their later years.
The development of health massage in Qing Dynasty is characterized by numerous books on children's massage, rich in content, illustrated with pictures and texts, simple and easy to use, and widely circulated among the people.