The Korean people with 5,000 year-long history have developed Koryo medicine that accords with their physical condition on the basis of experience accumulated for a long time.
The great President Kim Il Sung said.
“Traditional medicine has been developing in our country from the remote past. From the historical viewpoint, our country was one of the first to start developing traditional medicine.”
In our country, medical science has considerably developed since the period of Kojoson (ancient Korea) established in the 30th century B. C.
Korea was the first to have used stone acupuncture. According to an ancient Chinese medical book, it was good to use stone acupuncture in treating pimple and the stone acupuncture was introduced from the Orient, namely Korea.
Afterwards, Korea has continuously developed acupuncture and published excellent books of specially integrated acupuncture medicine in the 16-17 centuries.
Korean acupuncture has had big influence upon medical development in Asian countries.
In the period of 3 kingdoms, Koryo medicine had made big progress.
The Koguryo people used hemp for the first time to improve health and treat illness. The “song of hemp” sung by the Koguryo people when they cultivated it tells the fact.
Beside hemp, the Koguryo people used various effective medical materials among which such botanical materials as pine nut. Omija, wild ginger plant, kelp, etc and animal materials like large centipede were exported.
In Koguryo, they developed the method of producing medication that consists of the major component of pharmacology. For example, a medical book in this period wrote prescription of 20 medications for the treatment of chronic gastritis and stomach ulcer, and the medications were introduced even to China.
The medical books of Paeje and Silla and many medical materials like bezoar and peppermint were exported.
Silla systematically trained medical doctors, paying deep attention to the application of the traditional acupuncture.
In the period of Koryo, medical science made a big change.
In the period of Koryo, in 12 major local centres, medical professors trained students, and introduced the system of medical examination to raise the level of doctors, and that system had lasted to the end of Joson feudal dynasty.
Collecting the advanced successes and his long clinical experience, Kim Yong Sok (1089-1166) wrote a book “Jejungriphyobang” which was the first attempt of the systematization of Koryo medicine as it paid attention to the treatment experience according to Korean climate and its people’s physical conditions and tried to newly apply it.
In the 13-14 centuries, sincere efforts were made to treat diseases and serious illness by the help of local medical materials in accordance with the medical goal of protecting life and improving health.
The medical book written in the early 13 century tells in detail the symptoms and diagnosis of the emergent diseases like poisonous disease or sudden-death disease and other diseases like various blotch, osteomyelitis and ENT diseases. It writes how to take medication, how to prescribe different medical elements, how to manufacture medication, etc and the names and quality of over 170 kinds of local medical herbs and the method of taking them in appendix.
In this period, excellent medical books about treatment experience and diagnosis methods were published.
In the period of Joson feudal dynasty, Koryo medicine developed more.
In the 15-16 centuries, Koryo medicine was integrated, more systematized and theorized, and the field-medicine developed.
In the 15th century, Koryo medicine developed on the basis of Hyangyak (local medical herb). This is related with the creative activity of the working people and accumulation of rich medical experience and with the feudal state policy of increasing population.
In this perspective, big successes were made in the study of quality and action of medical herbs, period and method of cultivating them and the method of drying them.
In this period, specialized national herb cultivation institution was set up, some medical herbs including liquorice were cultivated across the country and new medical materials were discovered.
In the 15th century, there established regular Koryo medical system on the basis of the study of Hyangyak. This resulted in publishing medical collection books like “Hyangyakjipsongbang” (1433) and “Uibangryuchi” (1445).
In the 16-17 centuries, the medical science of the Joson feudal dynasty period reached climax.
“Tonguibogam” (25 volumes) of Ho Jun (1546-1615) is the book he wrote after he critically examined hundreds of medical books and theorized and systematized it on the basis of his medical idea and treatment experience.
According to him, in preservation of health, to train physical body and spirit is primary and medication and acupuncture is secondary, and it is primary to maintain mental peace even after illness came.
5 parts of “Tonguibogam” have contents of specialized medical fields. “Tonguibogam” that briefly systematized the essence of Koryo medicine served as good textbook and dictionary for the doctors, trainees and the people.
As a result, “Tonguibogam” had a great influence on the development of Korean medicine and was printed and reprinted in China and Japan and serves as a valuable reference book in clinical practice even today.
After the 17th century, Koryo medicine became brief, ordered, supplemented and rich on the basis of the success of the study of the previous period.
In this period, many specialized books on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment methods of children’s diseases, on the preventive medicine of the contagious diseases and high-level books on measles and pox were published.
In this period, the study of pharmacy was intensified.
Hwang Do Yon created the pharmacological song about 514 kinds of pharmacy. This proves the development of pharmacological knowledge.
In the 18th century, insam was artificially, specially and widely cultivated. This tells they had deeper knowledge of cultivation of medical herbs.
Koryo medicine developed by our people and medical scientists for thousands of years has newly developed after the liberation by the great leaders who have philosophy of human love to correctly inherit national cultural heritage and to spare nothing for the improvement of the people’s health and at present makes more progress under the energetic leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.
