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Memory of the World

Memory of the World- Republic of Korea
Donguibogam, Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine


Donguibogam (hereinafter referred to as "Bogam"), literally meaning “Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine,” is an encyclopedic bible of medical knowledge and treatment techniques compiled in Korea in 1613. It is edited by Heo Jun under the collective support of medical experts and literati according to the royal instruction. The state initiated the synthesis of various medical knowledge and also the setting up and implementation of an innovative public health programme for the common people.

In medical respect, Bogam successfully synthesized competing contemporary theories of medicine that had accumulated in East Asia for two millennia and went on to integrate medical knowledge and clinical experiences together in a single collection of volumes. The work informs the evolution of medicine in East Asia and beyond. In terms of health care system, it developed the ideals of “preventive medicine” and “public health care by the state,” which was virtually an unprecedented idea up to the 19th century. Thus, it stands for the historical development of the knowledge and skills of medicine in East Asia and further reflects the human footprints of world medicine and culture. As such, the significance and importance of Bogam is incomparable to anything in the world.

(1) Bogam is the first-ever comprehensive book on medical principles and practice edited and distributed nationwide, according to the innovative order by state to proclaim the ideals of public health by the state and preventive medicine

Bogam is significant in that the state took the pioneering initiative to proclaim itself as early as in the 17th century to be responsible for public health. The idea of the public health services provided by the state is considered to have been introduced in the Western world only in the 19th century. One of the reasons for the state to take the lead in compiling a set of these volumes was its sense of responsibility for the health and well-being of the general public, and this is clearly manifested in the royal instruction to compile a monumental medical work.

As a result, the encyclopedic textbook deals with not only specialized medical knowledge and techniques but also easy-to-come-by herbs having medical effects and simple treatment methods in plain language. The Korean alphabet was adopted together with the Chinese characters in some parts of the book for the ready access to and easy use by the uneducated public, for Chinese characters were only understood by the upper class. In other parts of the world, there was virtually no compilation of this kind at the national level devoted to the well-being of the common people before the 19th century, rather than to the royal family or the aristocrat.


(2) Bogam has assembled and amalgamated diverse schools of medical knowledge that had accumulated for two millennia, whether theoretical or experiential, and went on to synthesize it with a huge amount of clinical skills in one set of collection.

Through the ages, East Asia was a witness to the advent and growth of medical schools which effectively combined theoretical principles based on the contemplation on human and nature with the empirical information accumulated from centuries of clinical and observational experience.

The early 17th-century Bogam brought together and integrated the medical knowledge and techniques collected up to the 16th century in a more unique way than any other medical volumes of this kind. For this reason, Bogam has served thereafter as a model of traditional medicine in East Asia. Efforts to preserve and propagate medical knowledge and skills in this part of the world were to a great extent focused on reprinting this book, rather than editing a new one. It is a substantial evidence of this fact that Bogam has been reprinted over 40 times during the past four centuries not only in Korea but also in many Asian regions including China and Japan.


(3) Bogam is the world’s first medical compilation that recognized on a full scale the importance of prevention in medicine based upon the “Yangsaeng (life-breeding)” principle. The principle was incorporated into medical practice systematically, and the state disseminated its practical life-breeding techniques through mass publishing and circulation of Bogam by governmental agencies.

The philosophy of Yangsaeng (life-breeding) is about adapting one’s life to the changes of nature in addition to controlling emotions and desires so that the consumption of mental and physical energy can be minimized, thereby enabling individuals to keep health and lead a content life.

In this philosophy, human diseases do not break out solely by bodily causes; rather, they are a consequence of physical, social and mental factors working in a complicated way.

Based on this inference, Bogam looks into the issues of health and disease from the following three perspectives:
1) Holism, which is not a mechanical approach that views health and diseases as a simple cause-effect issue;
2) socio-medical, in that human health and diseases are closely linked to society; and
3) preventive medicine, which biological medicine is still working on. The philosophy of preventive medicine in Bogam has embodied these perspectives four centuries ahead of modern medicine, which is beginning to perceive their importance.

Bogam’s medical vision is significant in the global history of medicine, in that it realized as early as in the 17th century the definition of health by WHO: One is truly healthy when he/she is in good condition not only in physical terms but also in mental and social terms.

To conclude, Bogam, as a literal embodiment of Eastern Medicine, successfully took in contending theories of medicine that had stored up for two millennia all over the region and then compiled a coherent system of medical knowledge and skills in a single compendium of an unprecedented version. Furthermore, it introduced the ideas of prevention into the medicine of actual life and developed the concept of public health care by the state, which is viewed to open up the door to the era of a new form of medicine yet untold; and so to have the potential to let modern medicine know of an old but brand-new road with which to overcome looming-ahead health challenges.