History of Korean Medicine and the Donguibogam

Why one book matters

Korean medicine has many threads, but one book anchors its history: the Donguibogam, published in 1613 by the physician Heo Jun. A review in the Journal of Pharmacopuncture says Traditional Korean Medicine became an established, distinctive medical system following its publication. [1] For the wider overview of the tradition, start with Traditional Korean Medicine.

Heo Jun and his time

Heo Jun was a physician of the Joseon Dynasty in the early seventeenth century. A short biography describes the Donguibogam as a compendium of Eastern medicine of its time, and as one of the first attempts to improve accessibility to medicine and emphasize preventive care. [2] The title is translated as "Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine." [1]

What the book set out to do

The review lists several aims, each of which is a claim about the book's design rather than a test of whether its treatments work:

• Prevention first. The book recognized disease prevention and recommended it as the most effective approach. [1]
• A new classification. Heo Jun updated disease classifications from older books into a system based on essence, qi and spirit. [1] These are traditional concepts, not measured biology.
• Access for ordinary people. Heo Jun held that informing the public of the common names of medicinal herbs was essential. [1] Common names of 637 of the 1,403 herbs were included, and the Korean alphabet was used alongside Chinese characters so people who could not read Chinese characters could use the book. [1]
• Local herbs. Imported herbs accounted for only 7.2 percent of the herbs, which the review reads as an effort to make local herbs simple and convenient to use. [1]

Recognition and influence

UNESCO registered the Donguibogam on its heritage list in 2009. [1] The review says most Korean medical books published after it were influenced to some extent by the book and its classification system, and that it has been reprinted over 40 times in four centuries, in Korea and in other Asian regions such as China and Japan. [1] A Japanese historian, Miki Sakae, argued that the book incorporated earlier medical theories into an innovative whole. [1]

How it relates to Chinese medicine

The review argues that after the Donguibogam, Korean medicine took a path independent from conventional Chinese medicine, and links this to the book's close relationship with current national medical examinations. [1] Historians may weigh this differently; the claim comes from one review. For a side-by-side look at the three East Asian systems, see Kampo, Hanbang and Chinese medicine compared.

Criticism the same review records

The review also lists criticisms, which are part of the history:

• It is blamed for acting as a barrier to the development of medical theory until Sasang constitutional medicine appeared. [1]
• It favored easy-to-get herbs over expensive ones, which critics say may have lowered effectiveness. [1]
• It contains prescriptions the review calls irrational. [1]
• It used heavy metals in prescriptions, which the review says can cause poisoning. [1]

The last point is a safety lesson. Long use of a text does not show that its remedies are safe. See heavy metals in traditional medicines.

What history does and does not show

Being old, famous or listed by UNESCO is a statement about cultural and documentary value. It is not evidence that a given remedy works. Modern evidence for Korean practices has to come from studies of specific treatments, as in our pages on Korean herbal medicine and pharmacopuncture and Korean red ginseng. For how to weigh long use, read historical use vs clinical evidence.

Where Sasang medicine comes in

Lee Je-Ma, the originator of Sasang constitutional medicine, is described as having created a unique system within Korean medicine, in a work called Donguisusebowon. [1] See Sasang constitutional medicine.