The exchange of medicine with Japan during the Koryo Dynasty era and its characteristics -A case of ‘East Asian Medicine’-

Abstract

In this article, I reviewed the exchange of medicine between the Koryo Dynasty and Japan during the Koryo Dynasty. Compared to the exchange of medicine during the Three Kingdoms or the early Joseon Dynasty, medicine between Korea and Japan was loosely affected each other during the Koryo Dynasty. This characteristic of medical history with Japan during the Koryo Dynasty corresponded to the overall low density of exchanges between the two countries.In this paper, the exchange of medicine during the entire Koryo period was divided into 4 periods, and medical records in Korea and Japan were discussed in terms of medical personnel, medical knowledge, and pharmaceutical materials. During the Koryo Dynasty, Korea was interested in Japan’s medical personnel and pharmaceutical materials, and Japan was interested in Korea’s medical knowledge and pharmaceutical materials.When limited to the Koryo Dynasty, it is difficult to determine the superiority or inferiority of pharmaceutical materials, medical personnel, and medical knowledge between Korea and Japan. Without frequent contact to compare the level of medical care, each country only accepted the other country’s medical care within the necessary range. This means that the exchange of medicine between Koryo and Japan did not flow only in one direction.In addition, I proposed to understand the pre-modern East Asian world, including Korea-Japan relations, by using the concept of political bodies instead of the concept of state. In other words, it is necessary to call the subject of action that independently judges and executes foreign relations while maintaining a high degree of autonomy in decision-making as ‘political bodies’, and utilizes this concept to interpret the pre-modern East Asian world complexly. The concept of political bodies is also useful for understanding the exchange of medicine among the three East Asian countries.

Keywords

• koryo dynasty
• japan
• exchange of medicine
• east asian medicine
• political bodies