What are the ancient records of medicated bath therapy?

Medicinal bath therapy belongs to the category of bath therapy in traditional Chinese medicine natural therapy. Medicinal bath is a kind of treatment method that a single traditional Chinese medicine or a compound traditional Chinese medicine is boiled with water, filtered to get liquid, adjusted to a proper temperature, and soaked in feet or whole body. Its forms are various: bathing the whole body is called "medicinal bath"; Local baths are also called "scalding", "fumigation", "sitting bath" and "foot bath", especially scalding.

China's earliest classic of traditional Chinese medicine, Huangdi Neijing, promoted bubble bath therapy to the theoretical level. For example, Su Wen's theory of Yin and Yang should be like a big picture that "evil spirits collapse in sweat" and "those who are cold are hot, those who are hot are cool, and those who rub their feet"; Su Wen Zhi Zhen Da Lun said "spleen wind, furuncle, abdominal fever, worry, Huang Ke bath"; Yu Suwen pointed out the indications of medicinal bath and foot bath in "On the Collection of Market Towns". The Holy Chapter of the History of Ling Bai Shu also points out the taboos of bath therapy such as "excessive exertion, sweating indoors, and taking a bath will hurt the kidney". All these have laid a theoretical foundation for medicated bath therapy.

Changsha Mawangdui's medical literature "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" records the external treatment methods of internal diseases, such as warm ironing, medicine rubbing and external washing, and records eight fumigation and washing prescriptions, such as thunder pill water bath for infant pain and hot gas fumigation with leek wine for trauma, which is the earliest written material about medicine bath in China.