After Fire Was Tamed

Roughly 1.7 million years ago, early humans in what is now Yunnan—collectively known as Yuanmou Man—had already learned to control fire. While using it for warmth and cooking, they noticed that localised heat could ease pain; this observation marks the earliest, albeit rudimentary, use of moxibustion.

Antiquity to Early Empires

• Shang-dynasty oracle bones (c. 1250–1040 BCE) contain pictographs interpreted by many scholars as a person lying prone while herbs are applied to the abdomen—an early depiction of therapeutic burning.

• By the Western Han period, traditional Chinese medicine had begun to systematise its theories. The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon provided the first comprehensive discussion of moxibustion, detailing indications, contraindications, and the principles of reinforcement and reduction.

• From the Eastern Han through the Yuan dynasty, both theory and practice grew more specialised; by the Ming and Qing periods, moxibustion was widespread across China and had spread throughout East and Southeast Asia.

• After 1840, large-scale Chinese emigration carried moxibustion—and other TCM practices—into global Chinatowns.

Science and Standardisation

• Beginning in the 1950s, China published academic textbooks such as Chinese Acupuncture and Chinese Moxibustion, formally incorporating the therapy into higher medical education.

• Since 2010, national standards (e.g., GB/T 40976-2021 for moxa sticks and moxa wool) have been issued, and moxibustion has been safeguarded as intangible cultural heritage.

• Contemporary clinical research has expanded the indications for moxibustion beyond “warming the meridians and dispelling cold” to immune modulation, pain management, and post-operative gastrointestinal recovery. The number of randomised controlled trials continues to rise each year.

Conclusion

Across millennia, moxibustion has remained focused on two fundamentals: mastering fire and refining mugwort. Today, lighting a moxa stick—whether in a clinic or at home—extends a medical tradition whose roots stretch back well over a million years.