The goals of this article are to survey American scholarship of medicine in Korea during the modern period and to suggest perspectives such studies offer to the fields of Korean history, Asian studies, and "mainstream" history of medicine. Until recently, the history of medicine in modern Korea has been peripheralized in the larger fields within which it is subsumed for various reasons. Earlier researchers tended to operate from "Orientalist" frameworks or were informed by "modernization theory," and thus have focused generally on American interventions in Korean public health and medicine (through missionaries, the US military, and other aid organizations) or that which has been conventionally perceived as "traditional" medicine. Critical scholarship in fields of STS and post-colonial studies, however, have recently inspired new research that reassess polemic issues such as technology transfer, translation of knowledge, cultural encounters, governmentality, processes involved in the revitalization of Hanui, construction of gender, and nexus among medicine, science, and technology. As such the field as expanded beyond Korean history to include anthropology, sociology, STS, and linguistics. Moreover, given the transnational nature of academia and possibilities for productive comparative research, Korean history of medicine may soon no longer remain in the margins.
History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Republic of Korea

King Jungjo who introduced the advent of cultural renaissance of Chosun Dynasty as little been known about his work in medicine. With a wide knowledge in medicine, he was the only one among the kings who wrote a book on medicine, called "SueMinMyoJeon". In this paper, his perspective on medicine will be looked into based on "The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty", "Seungjeongwon Ilgi", "Hong Je jun Se", "KukGoBoGam", "Ildkrok", "JeJungShinPyun", "SueMinMyoJeon" etc. King Jungo valued empiricism in the field of medicine. He deepened understandings in medicine while taking care of King Youngjo, the late king. And it led him to author "SueMinMyoJeon" himself, and further ordered the publications of "JeJungShinPyun" "MaGuaHeoiTong". These two books were conducted to include empirical cases of folklore remedy. King Jungjo's medical philosophy can be epitomized in filial piety and realization of people-serving politics, which are the essentials of Confucianism. His filial piety towards the late king, Youngjo and his mother is shown in his devotion when taking care of them. Especially the way he examined the differentiation of diseases and corresponding treatments is well described in "The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty". "JeJungShinPyun" was also published and it came handy for folk villagers in times of medical needs. Later this book influenced "BangYakHaepPyun" by Hwang Do Yeon. King Jungjo emphasized pragmatism in spreading medical knowledges, thus removing the theoretical contents that are related to Taoism, especially the ones on alchemy from "DongEuiBoGam", when publishing "SueMinMyoJeon". Even the excerpts from "SoMun" were taken out, if not practical. King Jungjo, however, discussed the importance of healthy regimen and mentioned himself practicing it from the book "IlDeukLok", which seems to be the only book that derailed from the pragmatistic track. King Jungjo put emphasis on consistency between diagnosis and treatment. In diagnosing, Meridian pulse was taken important as a means of finding the origin of disease, while deploring how doctors then neglected to study.
History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Korea ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Philosophy, Medical/*history ; Reference Books, Medical

In this study, I aim to reveal how Lee Gyoojoon's medicine has given birth to a current of learning, the supporting yang current of learning, and describe its historical significance. Before anything, I'd like to throw the question of whether if there were any currents within the traditional Korean medicine. There are no records of medical currents being widely discussed until now in medical history of Korea; however, the current of Lee Jema's sasang medicine is the most noticeable one. Among the contemporaries of Lee Jema, during the late Chosun, there was also another famed medical practitioner called Lee Gyoojoon. Lee Gyoojoon mainly practiced his medicine within Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do area, his apprentices have formed a group and have succeeded his medical practice. Based on the analyses of Lee Gyoojoon's apprentices and the Somun Oriental Medical Society, which is known as a successor group to Lee Gyoojoon's medicine today, they are fully satisfying the five requirements to establish a medical current: first, they held Lee Gyoojoon as the first and foremost, representative practitioner of their current; second, they advocate the supporting yang theory suggested by Lee Gyoojoon, which is originated from his theory of Mind; third, books such as the Major Essentials of Huangdi's Internal Classic Plain Questions, and the Double Grinded Medical Mirror, were being used as the main textbooks to educate their students or to practice medicine. Fourth, Lee Gyoojoon's medical ideas were being transcended quite clearly within his group of apprentices, including Seo Byungoh, Lee Wonse, and the Somun Oriental Medical Society. Fifth, Lee Gyoojoon's apprentices were first produced through the Sukgok School, however, nowadays they are being produced through medical groups formed by Lee Wonse, the Somun Oriental Medical Society, regarding the propagation of medical theories, compilation of textbooks, publication of academic journals, etc. Then, what do the existence of the supporting yang current have their significances in history? First of all, Heo Joon, the great medical practitioner in 16th century Chosun, have revealed through his book the Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (TMEM), that the essence of Eastern medicine differentiated from South and North medicine of China is being transcended in Korean medicine. However, we have not got a clear conclusion on what his views of the essence of Eastern medicine is. The TMEM is the legacy of Neo-confucianism, dominant in the Chosun at the time, and is considered the reference which covers from Taoism to Korean Medicine, that is practical as well as systematical in categorizing illnesses, their respective prescriptions, and herbs. Maybe, it seems that such characteristics of the TMEM naturally led the medical practitioners and Confucian scholars, Lee Jema and Lee Gyoojoon to adopt its principles, and furthermore, possibly contributed in materializing the tradition of Eastern Medicine. Secondly, both currents appeared in the late period of Chosun dynasty. Then, weren't there any preceding medical currents before them? The bureaucratic and centralized government of the Chosun dynasty demanded and supplied talents through a nationwide examination system. However, since the late-16th century, a few family from the Chungin class have come to dominate the important medical positions as inheritance doctors, bringing about the expansion of the private medical sector, as well as growth in the number of medical practitioners. This naturally brought about fierce competition among the practitioners, and it is probable that the competition sparked the need for standardized groups and societies that follow a single medical doctrine or theory, to differentiate from the others. Probably, the birth of current of learning, which succeeded to Lee Jema and Lee Gyoojoon's medical theory, exists as an extension of this social background. The major changes in systems to build a new Chosun in 1894 brought about the abolitions of old and antique institutions. Inheritance doctors naturally collapsed, and every medical practitioners had to compete in an open market. However, Lee Jema and Lee Gyoojoon, as a medical practitioner and Confucian scholar, weren't from medical families; instead, they have successfully established and led their medical groups. The Sasang medicine current, which first began in the Hamhung area, had creative medical theories and excellent practices, naturally led the discourses traditional medicine in the center areas of the Korean peninsula. In contrast, the supporting yang current, more popular in the Youngnam area at one time, struggled to keep their current during the period of Korean War, National Industrialization and Modernization. And it was only Lee Wonse's personal dedication to the current that made it survive through the times. It was not until the late 1990s, when the apprentices have gathered Lee Gyoojoon's accomplishments, that formed the Somun Oriental Medical Society as well as the supporting yang current. In summary, the birth and the succession of the supporting yang current clearly depicts how the various traditional medical groups and societies on the periphery have survived and transcended through difficult times. And at the same time, they can provide chance to ruminate the historical flow of traditional medicine in Korea.
History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Korea ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history

In Korean traditional medicine, though herbal decoction, acupuncture, and moxibustion are all used to treat diseases, restorative medicines are the most widely preferred treatment method. This paper explores the historical background of restorative herbal medicines and ginseng among the Korean public and Korean traditional medicine practice. It also seeks to clarify how social and cultural perspectives on drug use have changed since restorative medicine became mainstream during the Joseon era. Drug use tendencies were affected by the medical system of the Joseon Dynasty, patients' desires for reliable treatment, and perceptions of the human body and the causes of disease. In the late Joseon Dynasty, medicine, an industry originally monopolized by the government, began to be manufactured and traded on the free market, and medical personnel began to participate in medical activities on a large scale. As the healthpreserving theory became more popular and medical personnel became more accessible, medicinal preferences also changed. Specifically, whereas preference was first given to common medicines, such as Cheongsimwon, which are effective for various symptoms, restorative medicines, such as ginseng, gradually became more popular. These restorative medicines were faithful to the basic tenet of East Asian traditional medicine: to avoid disease by making the body healthy before the onset of illness. Patients' desires for safe treatment and growing competition among commercial doctors who wanted stable profits further increased the popularity of milder medicines. Ultimately, as ginseng cultivation was realized, its use expanded even further in a wave of commercialization.
Acupuncture ; History of Medicine* ; Human Body ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Medicine, Korean Traditional ; Methods ; Moxibustion ; Panax*

The state-running medical institutions which had been instituted in the earlier period of the Chosun dynasty substantially downsized during the reconstructing process after the major wars with Japan and Qing dynasty. The downsizing was mainly due to the malfunctioning public financial system; but it was also due to the growth of the private medical market. The growth of the private medical market reoriented the focus of the public health system of the Chosun dynasty from providing treatment for every minor disease to providing the more efficient policy against epidemic. Hwal-in Seo (a temporary local public health center established for epidemic) became a new core of the dynasty's health policy under the phrase of "Ae Rye (saving the rituals)." As the changes of the dynasty's public health policy, the growing private medical market had been admitted into the public domain. Chosun government once had declared Sa Yak Gye (a private mutual-aid group for medicine) illegal and prohibited the private groups to be organized. Instead, with the policy change mentioned above, the government tried to support the private mutual-aid group for medicine while forbidding sales of fake medicine, restraining rise of price of medicine. Especially the Do go merchants often caused the sudden rise of price of medicine by bulk purchasing. Medical practice was reassessed as the period when it was considered as one of the lowest professions had been over. Although the Yangban class still refused to be a professional medical practitioner themselves, they also well understood the value of medicine as a field of study to save human and dismissed negative perception on medicine. Medicine as a field of study and medical practice, which had been underestimated under the ruling system influenced by the Song Confucianism and the status system of the Chosun dynasty, faced a new era. The whole society guaranteed more free practices of the medical practitioners and they were recognized for their works. With the change of social environment, the government officials gradually realized needs to discuss how they could educate and recruit medical practitioners to provide advanced medical treatment and what provisions they had to legislate to ensure the stable supply of the medicine. It is certain that the transformation developed in the medical environment and the changes of the public health policy up to 18th century Chosun dynasty accompanied the emergence of the commercial society. However, the overall social urge was still not enough to induce the actual law-making process. The change of the public health policy and the growth of the private medical market were surely the evidence of the transforming Chosun society; at the same time, they also revealed the immaturity of the medical environment which was not able to lead new health policies.
Health Policy/history ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Korea ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Private Sector/*history ; Public Health/*history ; State Medicine/history

This study will determine the ways in which the ancient learning (gu xue) scholarship of the Seongho School, and its interest in the materia medica (ben cao xue) were related during the late Joseon period. The Seongho School centered its studies mainly on classical Chinese texts of the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and pre-Han (?-221 BC) (xian-qin liang-han) periods rather than those of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279). Gu xue scholarship emerged during the Ming dynasty era (1368-1644) as an alternative to the scholarly trends of the Song dynasty, which were dependent on Zhu Xi's (1130-1200) Neo-Confucianism and its interpretation of Han and pre-Han classical Chinese texts. This scholarly trend influenced Korean and Japanese literature, philosophy, and even medicine from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Focusing on Korean scholarship, we find a great deal of research regarding the influence of gu xue on Korean classical Chinese literature and Confucian philosophy in the late Joseon period; however, no study has examined how this style of scholarship influenced the field of medicine during the same period. This study will investigate how the intellectuals of the Seongho School, who did the most to develop gu xue among Joseon intellectuals, were influenced by this style of scholarship in their study of the materia medica. Jeong Yak-yong (1762-1836), the representative intellectual of the Seongho School, did not focus on complicated metaphysical medical theories, such as the Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory (yin yang wu xing shui) or the Five Movements and Six Atmospheres theory (wu yun liu qi shui). Instead, his interests lay in the exact diagnoses of diseases and meticulous herbal prescriptions which formed an essential part of the Treatise on Exogenous Febrile Disease (Shang han lun) written by Zhang Zhungjing (150-219) in the Han dynasty. The Treatise was compatible with the scholarly purpose of gu xue in that they both eschewed metaphysical explanations. The Seongho School's interest in the materia medica stemmed from a desire to improve the delivery and quality of medical practices in rural communities, where metaphysical theories of medicine did not prevail and the cost of medicine was prohibitive.
Delivery of Health Care ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; Korea ; Materia Medica/*history ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/*history ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Physicians/*history ; Quality of Health Care

This article explores the indigenization of licorice(Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch.) which was the most important medicine of the Oriental Medicine. There are a lot of records on licorice even before the Joseon Dynasty. The licorice had been used mainly in stomach related diseases such as food poisoning or indigestion. But the licorice was an imported medicine until the early days of the Joseon Dynasty. As the Joseon Dynasty began, the licorice production became necessary with the investigation and obtaining the herbs. And a large amount of licorice was needed when the epidemics outbroke under the reign of King Sejong. In particular, the licorice had been essential in treating the diseases of the Cold Damage which was focused in the Joseon Dynasty. That was why King Sejong ordered to plant the licorice in the Chollado province and Hamgildo province in 1448. But the licorice cultivation was not easy for two reasons. First, it was difficult to find the proper soil for proper soil for planting. Second, the people didn't actively grow the licorice, because they had to devote the licorice as the tax when the indigenization of licorice was succeeded. King Sejo and King Seongjong encouraged the people to plant the licorice. The recognition that the licorice is essential in pediatric diseases such as smallpox got stronger then before. Finally the indigenization of licorice was completed under the reign of King Seongjong. According to the Dongguknyeojiseungnam, edited in 1481, and Shinjeungdongguknyeojiseungnam, edited in 1530, the licorice was planted in seven districts. With the success of the indigenization of licorice, the approach of the people to the Oriental Medicine treatment had became much easier.
Glycyrrhiza uralensis/*growth & development ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, Medieval ; Korea ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history

This article surveys studies focusing on pre-modern Korean medicine, which are both written in English and analyzed primary sources up to 1876. Overall, the history of pre-modern Korean medicine is an unknown filed in Anglophone academia. Yung Sik Kim's, James Palais's, and Carter Ecart's problematization of the nationalist framework of Korean scholarship partially explains the marginality of the field. Addressing these criticisms, this review argues that pre-modern Korean medicine's uneasy task lies in both elaborating Korea's own experience of medicine, while simultaneously avoiding making the "Korean" category itself essential. Korean narratives of premodern medicine need to go beyond the mere territorilalization of Korean medicine against its Chinese, Japanese, or Western counterparts, thereby to tackle the field's own boundary of research objects. The existing scholarship in English responds to this challenge by primarily examining the way in which Korea has shared textual tradition with China. Sirhak scholars' innovation in medicine, visual representation of Tongui bogam, Korean management of epidemics in the eleventh century, and Korean indexing of local botanicals, engages not only native achievements, but also the process of modifying medicine across geographical and political boundaries. More to the point, the emerging native narratives, although written in Korean, are implicitly resonant with those currently present in Anglophone academia. Taking "tension," "intertextuality," and "local traits" as a lens, this article assesses a series of current research in Korea. Aiming to go beyond appeals for a "distinctively" Korean experience of medicine, the future study of Korean pre-modern medicine will further elucidate confluences of different flows, such as "Chinese and Korean," "universal and local," "center and periphery," and "native and foreign," which will eventually articulate a range of Korean techniques of creating a bricolage in medicine.
History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, Medieval ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Republic of Korea

The recently increasing interest in historical records has led to more research on historical records in various fields of study. This trend has also affected medical research, with the medical climate and popular treatment modalities of the past now being revealed based on historical records. However, most research on medical history during the Joseon era has been based on the most well-known record, Joseon wangjo sillok or Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. Joseon wangjo sillok is a comprehensive and organized record of society during the Joseon era and contains key knowledge about medical history during the period, but it lacks details on the treatment of common disorders at the time. Seungjeongwon ilgi or Diary of the Royal Secretariat has detailed records of daily events and is a valuable resource for the daily activities of the era. And in the middle Josoen era, a variety of medical books - especially Donguibogam - was published. Therefore, the authors focused on the under-researched Seungjeongwon ilgi, Donguibogam and attempted to assess and evaluate low back pain treatment performed on Joseon royalty. The most notable characteristic of low back treatment records within the Seungjeongwon ilgi is that diagnosis and treatment was made based on an independent Korean medicine, rather than conventional Chinese medicine. This paradigm shift is represented in Dongeuibogam, and can be seen in the close relationship between Dongeuibogam and national medical exams of the day. Along with the pragmatism of the middle Joseon era, medical treatment also put more focus on pragmatic treatment methods, and records show emphasis on acupuncture and moxibustion and other points in accord with this. The authors also observed meaning and limitations of low back pain treatment during that era through comparison with current diagnosis and treatment.
Acupuncture Therapy/history/methods ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Low Back Pain/etiology/*history/therapy ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/history ; Moxibustion/history/methods

Although the management of benign pigmented skin tumors are mainly conducted by dermatologists, some Korean traditional doctors provide care. We aimed to evaluate the appropriateness of the medicinal knowledge of pigmented benign skin tumors that is recorded in the Korean traditional medicinal literature, in the context of modern medicine. We defined benign pigmented skin tumors as macules, papules, or nodules with homogeneous surfaces and coloration patterns, that are round or oval in shape, exhibit regular outlines, and have relatively sharp borders. We investigated textbooks and articles in the Korean traditional medicinal field to analyze descriptions of clinical classification, pathophysiology, histologic knowledge, and treatment method. We compared them with modern medicinal facts. In Korean traditional medicine, clinical classification of pigmented skin tumors is simple and did not include histologic natures. Unique theories, such as Yin-Yang and Qi, were applied to pathophysiologic understanding of these diseases. Interestingly, oral medications were used beside surgical methods. We could not find any comment about skin tumors with worrisome clinical features that warrant excision in Korean traditional medicinal literature. There is still a gap between traditional medicine and modern medicine regarding pigmented skin tumors. Traditional Korean medicinal knowledge about benign pigmented skin tumors seemed to be insufficient in the context of modern medicinal standards.
Classification ; Diagnosis ; History, Modern 1601- ; Medicine, Korean Traditional* ; Medicine, Traditional ; Melanoma ; Methods ; Nevus, Pigmented ; Qi ; Skin* ; Yin-Yang