Text and Practice in East Asian Medicine: The Structure of East Asian Medical Knowledge Examined by Donguibogam Currents in Contemporary South Korea (2019)
How do classical texts, such as Hwangdi Neijing and Shanghanlun, continuously play significant roles in medical practices in the history of East Asian medicine? Although this is a significant question in interpreting the position of written texts in the medical history and even for understanding the structure of East Asian medical knowledge, it has been conspicuously underexamined in the studies of East Asian medicine. In order to explore this underrepresented question, this study focuses on currents of tradition in contemporary South Korea. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork at three Donguibogam (Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine) currents, it delves into the interaction of text and practice in East Asian medicine. Even though all three currents (Hyun-dong, Byeong-in, Hyung-sang) are based on Donguibogam, their ways of reading the text and organizing clinical practices are diverse. Each current sets up a keyword, such as pulse diagnosis, cause of disease, and appearance-image, and attempts to penetrate the entire Donguibogam through the keyword. This means that the classical medical text is open to plural approaches. This study found that there is a visible gap between a medical text and the reader of the text in East Asia. Masters and currents of tradition are the actors who fill up the gap, continuously interpreting and reinterpreting classical texts, and guiding medical practices of new readers. Adding the history of practice to the body of literature that have focused on the history of written texts, this study will contribute to the history of East Asian medicine.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Shin, Dongwon;
(2008)
How Four Different Political Systems Have Shaped the Modernization of Traditional Korean Medicine between 1900 and 1960
(/isis/citation/CBB000850162/)
Article
Kim, Jongyoung;
(2007)
Alternative Medicine's Encounter with Laboratory Science: The Scientific Construction of Korean Medicine in a Global Age
(/isis/citation/CBB000830329/)
Article
Ma, Eun Jeong;
(2010)
The Medicine Cabinet: Korean Medicine under Dispute
(/isis/citation/CBB001034993/)
Article
Shin, Dongwon;
(2010)
How Commoners Became Consumers of Naturalistic Medicine in Korea, 1600--1800
(/isis/citation/CBB001034999/)
Article
Park, Yunjae;
(2006)
Medical Policies toward Indigenous Medicine in Colonial Korea and India
(/isis/citation/CBB000660196/)
Thesis
Suh, So Young;
(2006)
Korean Medicine between the Local and the Universal: 1600--1945
(/isis/citation/CBB001561543/)
Thesis
Ma, EunJeong;
(2008)
Medicine in the Making in Post-Colonial Korea (1948--2006)
(/isis/citation/CBB001561161/)
Article
Kiebok Yi;
(2016)
‘On the Origin of Medicine’ from Eastern Medicine [for] Prolonging the World and Preserving People by Yi Chema (1837–1900)
(/isis/citation/CBB517950626/)
Article
Taewoo Kim;
(2016)
Tradition on the Move
(/isis/citation/CBB178839831/)
Article
Yeonseok Kang;
Jaehyun Kim;
(2016)
Preface to the Compendium of People-Saving Prescriptions Made with Native Korean Herbs
(/isis/citation/CBB502081384/)
Article
Kiebok Yi;
Sanghyun Kim;
O. H. Chaekun;
Jeon Jongwook;
Shin Dongwon;
(2019)
An Exploration into Life, Body, Materials, Culture of Mediaeval East Asia: Focusing on "Emergency Medicine Recipes in Local Medicinals" of Koryŏ Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB016775815/)
Book
Connor, Linda H.;
Samuel, Geoffrey;
(2001)
Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies
(/isis/citation/CBB000620138/)
Article
Oh, Chaekun;
(2013)
A Single Medicine for a Disease: Simple Formula of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, It's Compilation and Succession
(/isis/citation/CBB001212574/)
Book
Zhan, Mei;
(2009)
Other-Worldly: Making Chinese Medicine through Transnational Frames
(/isis/citation/CBB001231968/)
Book
Shin Dongwon;
(2015)
Donguibogamgwa Dongasia Euihaksa 동의보감과 동아시아 의학사 [Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine and the History of East Asian Medicine]
(/isis/citation/CBB929073691/)
Article
Hun Pyeong Park;
(2019)
A Study on the Introduction and Use of Cold Damage Diseases-related Literature in the Early Joseon Dynasty: Focusing on Publishing, Citation, and Textbooks
(/isis/citation/CBB995535364/)
Article
Seong-su Kim;
(2020)
Studies on Pre-Modern Medical History in Korea, 2010-2019: Increased Study Areas and Diversified Approaches
(/isis/citation/CBB795203844/)
Article
Taehyung Lee;
(2016)
The State-Centred Nosology
(/isis/citation/CBB992770459/)
Article
James Flowers;
(2016)
Reconfiguring East Asian Modernity
(/isis/citation/CBB699776264/)
Article
Suh, Soyoung;
(2009)
Herbs of Our Own Kingdom: Layers of the “Local” in the Materia Medica of Early Choson Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB001020982/)
Be the first to comment!