Moxibustion has its own tonifying and reducing conventions. A small cone that burns slowly and is not blown is tonifying; a larger cone, a stronger flame, a longer application or blowing on the ember to intensify it is reducing. The distinction is not merely theoretical, since the two produce different thermal profiles at the skin.
Most clinical moxibustion is tonifying, because most of its indications are cold and deficiency. Reducing moxibustion appears chiefly in the treatment of stasis and of nodular conditions, and in the classical literature on abscesses and swellings.