Cupping therapy is also called angle therapy in ancient books. This is because in ancient China, doctors used animal horns as tools for drawing and pulling. 1973 In the silk book "Fifty-two Diseases Prescription" unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, there has been a description about treating angle: "Large hemorrhoids live near the mouth of the pipe, and small hemorrhoids are like dates, so they can be treated with small angles, such as opening the angle." Among them, "with a small angle" means pulling with a small animal angle. According to the research of medical history and literature experts, Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases is the oldest existing medical book in China, which was written in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, indicating that Chinese doctors have adopted cupping as a treatment method at least in the 6th-2nd century BC.

Jin and Tang dynasties

Ge Hong, a native of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, wrote an elbow backup emergency prescription. It is mentioned that the angle method is used to treat swelling; The horn used is a horn. In view of the prevalence of this law at that time, improper application is easy to cause accidents. Therefore, Ge Hong specially reminded that we should carefully choose the symptoms. The book emphasizes: "carbuncle, tumor, stone carbuncle, tendon knot, scrofula, etc. should not point to the angle." Few people are inferior to those in trouble. Volume "). This is obviously reasonable. Even from today's perspective, most of the diseases listed are really not indications for cupping.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the tools of cupping had a breakthrough improvement, and bamboo pots were used instead of animal horns. Bamboo pots are widely available and cheap, which greatly contributes to the change and popularization of this therapy; At the same time, the bamboo pot is light in texture and strong in absorbency, which also improves the therapeutic effect to some extent. Among the medical books in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Wang Tao's Secret of Foreign Taiwan Province is the most important one. For example, The Secret of Foreign Stations. Volume 40 has a detailed description of pulling with bamboo cans: "Then, according to the angle method, make a small corner with bamboo, leaving a section of three or four inches long and dividing the hole into four or five points. If you point at it, you can make it out of fine bamboo. Only when it is cold can it be placed in a pincer-shaped place, that is to say, the angle used is large and the air leakage is not awkward, so the angle should not be too large, and the big one is a sudden difference. Make 54 pieces quickly, put them in the pot, take the horn, and change them when they are cool. " It is pointed out that bamboo pots with different sizes should be used according to different parts. At that time, the method of sucking and pulling was the pot boiling method still used today, or boiling and pulling method. It is worth pointing out that this method is specially introduced in many places in the Secret of Outer Taiwan. In the thirteenth volume, it is mentioned that in the cupping part, "it is written in ink." Take a three-fingered bamboo tube, one and a half inches long, with a knot at one end and no thin sword. Boil this tube several times, heat it out and press it on the ink point of the cage. "Suction painting tools, methods and improvements have had an important impact on later generations.

Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties

If animal horns and bamboo pots were used alternately in Sui and Tang Dynasties, bamboo pots had completely replaced animal horns in Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties. The name of cupping therapy has also changed from "suction tube method" to "angle method" In operation, the simple boiling method has been further developed to the cartridge method. That is to say, put the bamboo pot into the medicine prepared according to a certain prescription and boil it for later use. When necessary, boil the pot in boiling water and pull it on the acupoint with heat, which plays a dual role of drug attraction and external treatment. There is a clear description in the "Experience of Ruizhutang" written by Dr. Sa Qianzhai in the Yuan Dynasty: "A straw breaks the green with kindness. Gallnut (multi-purpose), alum (few seeds), and two flavors are cooked well. When in use, boil the soup again and put it on the affected area with a muscle basket (clip). "

tomorrow

Cupping has become one of the important external treatments in traditional Chinese medicine surgery. Almost all major surgical works at that time listed this method. Mainly used for sucking pus and treating carbuncle swelling. Compared with the previous generation, the drawing mode has been improved. It is often used to put bamboo tubes directly into the juice of many kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, boil them and suck them directly. So bamboo cans are also called medicine boxes. Chen Shigong, a famous surgeon in the Ming Dynasty, has recorded this in detail: the formula of boiling and extubation is: "Notopterygium Rhizoma, Radix Angelicae Pubescentis, Perilla frutescens, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, fresh Acorus calamus, Radix Glycyrrhizae and Radix Angelicae Dahuricae are five yuan each, and even onions are two or two. In advance, use a section of fresh and tender bamboo with a diameter of one inch, two or three minutes and seven inches, tie a knot at one end, scrape off the outside green with force, leaving half of the inside white, about one minute thick, drill a small hole next to the knot and plug it with grating battens. Put the prodrug into the barrel and plug the barrel with onion. Put the pipe horizontally in the pot and hold it down with something, so as not to float. Boil it in ten bowls of clear water for several times until the medicine is cooked. Then put a needle on the top of the sore, let go of the three holes, and go deep into the shallow hole, about a circle of the tube. Before storing the medicine box and soup in the patient's bed with a large magnetic bowl, pour out the medicine, close the sore with the mouth of the tube by heat, press the tube tightly with your hand and naturally suck it down. When the tablets are taken quickly, the drug core is already warm, and when the cork is pulled out, the drug core will come off. " (authentic surgery. The door of carbuncle). This method of decocting and pulling out the medicine box was described in some important surgical works in Ming and Qing dynasties, such as "Surgical Masterpiece" and "Golden Mirror of Medical Records", which shows that this method was very popular at that time.

Besides boiling and cupping, some simple cupping methods are also used, such as Ming. Shen Douyuan's "Surgical Xuan" contains the method of pulling out pus with a bamboo tube: "The abscess has burst, because the pus plug can't be plugged ... so when you suck its pus with a bamboo tube, it will release its poison."

Ching Dynasty

By the Qing Dynasty, cupping had a greater development. The first is another innovation of cupping tools. Although bamboo cans are cheap and easy to get, they have poor suction and are easy to crack and leak after being dried for a long time. In order to make up for this deficiency, in the Qing Dynasty, clay pots appeared, and the word "cupping" was formally put forward. In this regard, Qing. Zhao Xuemin's Compendium of Materia Medica has a detailed description: "There are cups in Jiangyou and Fujian, and kiln households sell them. They are as small as human fingers, and the ends of the abdomen are slightly narrow, which makes the mouth feel alive. Anyone suffering from all kinds of colds must use this pot. " It shows that pottery pots have been bought and sold as commodities and are very popular.

Secondly, cupping has made great progress. "Use a small piece of paper to light the flame and put it in the jar, which is to close the jar to the affected area." Headache is associated with the sun, brain or roof, while abdominal pain is associated with navel. The fire in the jar is kept inside, even the pawn can't get rid of it, and he has to fall by himself, and the meat is washed away, so there is air and water in the jar. "This cupping method is still commonly used at present. At the same time, the focus area is no longer used as cupping site as in the past, but the therapeutic effect is improved by sucking and pulling points.

At the same time, the therapeutic range of cupping therapy has also broken through the boundaries of sucking and pulling purulent blood sores in past dynasties, and it has been applied to many diseases. As the Compendium of Materia Medica says, "Cupping can cure wind-cold headache, dizziness, wind-cold arthralgia and abdominal pain", and it can make the wind-cold exhausted without taking medicine.

In addition, Qing. Medical school golden mirror. The Essentials of Acupuncture also mentions a special cupping method for treating mad dog bites, that is, at the bite, "use a big mouth sand hip flask urgently, which is filled with hot wine, which is extremely hot. Bite with the mouth of the hip flask, like cupping, suck up all the evil blood and decompose it. "