Traditional Korean medicine
Traditional Korean medicine (
Hangul: ํ์ํ,
Hanja: ้"้ซๅญธ) developed under the influence of
Chinese medical techniques and procedures. Its techniques in treatment and diagnosis are similar to other
traditional medicine.
Korean medicine originated in ancient times. In
Samguk YusaยทGojoseon (์ผ๊ตญ์ ์ฌยท๊ณ ์กฐ์ ), where the
founding myth of Korea is recorded, there is a story of a tiger and a bear who wanted to reincarnate in human form and who ate
wormwood and
garlic. In
Jewang Ungi (์ ์์ด๊ธฐ), which was written around the time of
Samguk Yusa, wormwood and garlic are described as 'eatable medicine', showing that, even in times when incantatory medicine was the mainstream, medicinal herbs were given as curatives in Korea. Moreover, the fact that wormwood and garlic are not found in ancient Chinese herbology shows that traditional Korean medicine developed unique practices.
In the period of the
Three Kingdoms (์ผ๊ตญ์๋),
Chinese Medicine and
Indian Medicine were adopted in Korea, thereby setting up the foundation of original Korean medicine. In the
Goryeo dynasty (๊ณ ๋ ค), traditional medicine from the
Silla dynasty (์ ๋ผ) and Indian medicine as influenced by
Buddhism were adopted. By the time the
Yuan Dynasty(ๅ
) was established in China, Korean medicine had developed its own techniques. This was because hostile states in southern Manchuria at Korea's borders prevented the exchange of medical knowledge between the two countries. More investigation of domestic herbs took place, and the result was the publication of numerous books on domestic herbs. Medical theories at this time were based on medicine of
Song (ๅฎ) and
Yuan (ๅ
), but prescriptions were based on the medicine of the
Unified Silla period (ํต์ผ์ ๋ผ): see the medical text
Hyangyak Gugeupbang (ํฅ์ฝ๊ตฌ๊ธ๋ฐฉ), which was published in 1245 and can be translated as
First Aid Prescriptions Using Native Ingredients.
Medicine flourished in the period of the
Joseon (์กฐ์ ). By the time of King
Sejong, a book named
Euibang Ryuchwi (์๋ฐฉ๋ฅ์ทจ) was published which integrated knowledge from all extant books on Chinese medicine. After this, many books on medical specialities were published. After the
Japanese invasion in 1592,
Dongeui Bogam (๋์๋ณด๊ฐ) was written by
Heo Jun. This work further integrated the known Korean and Chinese medicine of its time. Sixteenth-century Korean medicine had come to be based on Chinese (Ming dynasty) medicine in theory, and on Korean (Joseon dynasty) herbal drugs (ํฅ์ฝ) in practice. Traditional medical knowledge in this hybrid form has since spread widely to China, Japan and Korea and is still used in these parts of the world.
In the late Joseon dynasty, positivism was widespread. Clinical evidence was used more commonly as the basis for studying disease and developing cures. Scholars who had turned away from politics devoted themselves to treating diseases and, in consequence, new schools of tradition medicine were established. Simple books on medicine for the common people were published. In the early nineteenth century, the
Sasang typology (์ฌ์์ํ) was written by
Lee Jae-ma. Lee classified human beings into four main types, based on the emotion that dominated their personality and developed treatments for each type. There were numerous health crises in 19th-century Korea, including epidemics of measles and dysentery. In the early 20th century, the colonisation of Korea by Japan brought biomedicine from the West and this was a period of decline for traditional medical practices. However, Korean traditional medicine reasserted itself after the end of the Second World War and the consequent Korean independence from Japan.
*
List of Korea-related topics*
Traditional Korean thought*
Sasang typology*
Japanese traditional medicine (Kampo)
*
Chinese traditional medicine*
The association of Korean Oriental Medicine*
All About Sasang typology
