Dongui bogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine) (2015-3)

The Dongui bogam, compiled by Heo Jun (1539–1615) in 1610, the second year of King Gwanghaegun, is Korea's greatest work of traditional medicine, gathering the medical books then circulating in Joseon and China and treatments drawn from clinical experience. In 1596 King Seonjo ordered Heo Jun, Yang Ye-su, Yi Myeong-won and others to compile a medical book, but the work was halted by war. Heo Jun then gave fourteen years of effort to it and finally completed it in 1610: the Dongui bogam. At home and abroad it is judged the greatest medical book written by a Korean. The first edition was printed in wooden movable type by the Royal Medical Office in November 1613, the fifth year of Gwanghaegun, three years after compilation, in 25 volumes in 25 books. It comprises two volumes of contents, the Internal Landscape (4 volumes, 26 sections), External Form (4 volumes, 26 sections), Miscellaneous Diseases (11 volumes, 38 sections), Decoctions (3 volumes, 17 sections) and Acupuncture and Moxibustion (1 volume, 1 section): 25 volumes and 108 sections in all. It is arranged under these five main headings, each subdivided, giving for each disease its theory, prescriptions and sources. The Dongui bogam spread widely not only in Joseon but in China and Japan. It reached China at the end of Ming and beginning of Qing and was printed there several times from 1763 (Qianlong 28). In Japan it was first printed by a Kyoto bookseller in 1724 (Kyoho 9) and reprinted by an Osaka bookseller in 1799 (Kansei 11), becoming required reading in East Asian medicine. Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies at Seoul National University holds two sets. One is the Taebaeksan archive copy in 24 volumes in 24 books; the other is of the same edition but without the royal grant record, in 17 volumes in 17 books. The Taebaeksan copy lacks book 16 of the 25, volume 6 of Miscellaneous Diseases, but the 17-book set of the same edition contains it and so completes the Taebaeksan copy. When it was designated in 2008, at a time when few first-edition copies were known to survive, its history as the Taebaeksan archive copy and its value as a complete first edition made whole by the second set's volume 6 were recognised.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보