Anmo has played an important role in the practice of medicine in China since ancient times. Archeologists, studying the inscriptions found on bones and tortoise shells used in divination practice, have found references to massage treatment for illnesses written in jiaguwen, the earliest extant form of writing in China, dating back to as early as the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th centuries BC). For example, on one such bone a question is inscribed: "Can the querent's abdominal pain be successfully treated with massage?" Another asks whether or not a certain female massage practitioner named Zao can cure an illness and thus should be sent for.

During the excavation of the Ma Wang Dui tomb (dated 168 BC) in the Hunan Province, numerous medical texts on silk scrolls and bamboo strips were unearthed. Many of these (including Fifty-two Medical Formulas, Illustrated Health Exercises, Health Preservation Formulas, Formulas for Miscellaneous Illnesses and Concerning the Way of Everything Under Heaven) contain references to anmo, gymnastics and breathing exercises. The Fifty-two Medical Formulas contains references to specific anmo techniques such as compression (an), gliding (mo), scratching (sao), scraping (gua), rubbing (fu) and percussing (ji). Anmo is indicated for illnesses in 17 different branches of medicine, including traumatology, pediatrics, internal medicine and gynecology. For example, one prescription in this text for the treatment of anuria is to massage the sacrum while applying burning moxa leaves to points on the back. Another passage describes the treatment of bleeding disorders by massaging topical agents (specifically, charred human hair!) into the skin. Elsewhere, several anmo instruments are described, including various mallets, pestles, a metal spoon used to treat infantile convulsions, and a feather used to lightly brush the site of an insect bite.