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KMID : 0389220200290010215
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Korean Journal of Medical History
2020 Volume.29 No. 1 p.215 ~ p.274
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“Medicine of the Grassroots”: Korean Herbal Medicine Industry and Consumption during the Japanese Colonial Period
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Huang Yongyuan
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Abstract
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Undeniably, the colonial period was a critical time for modern western medicine to take root and sprout in Korea. However, does the transplant and spread of western medicine necessarily become the catalyst for the overall decline of traditional Korean medicine? Since previous studies mainly focused upon research on the concept of the Uisaeng (traditional Korean medicine doctors) and the medical policies issued by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, this thesis begins with the Korean herbal medicine industry, and comprehensively investigates the circulation and consumption of Korean herbal meidicne during the colonial period from three perspectives, namely, the policies for Korean drug sellers issued by the Japanese Government-General of Korea, the changes in the Korean herbal medicine industry, and the consumption of Korean herbal medicine in Korean society. The colonial authorities intention was to foster the advancement of western medicine and attempt to phase out traditional Korean medicine. However, the authorities merely emphasized limitations on the Uisaeng’s living space, and this policy loophole has objectively left a broad living space for Korean drug sellers. Morever, against the backdrop of growing popularity of western and restrictions on the development of traditional Korean medicine by the colonial authorities, the Korean herbal medicine industry, as one of the few "national industries" dominated by and serving Koreans, has shown its tenacious vitality during that time. Korean drug sellers responded with flexibility to market changes. They bulit up different drug stores, such as traditional drug sotres mainly selling traditional Korean medicine, hybrid drug stores simultaneously dealing with the manufacturing and selling of patent medicine, and ginseng drug stores which specialize in ginseng business. The classification of these drug stores promoted the commercialization of traditional Korean medicine. Certainly, another crucial condition for the vitality of the Korean herbal medicine industry is that common Koreans have a huge demand for traditional Korean medicine. During the colonial period, it is an indisputable fact that western medicine gradually became popular and was recognized by the common people. Nonetheless, eastern and western medicine was not playing a zero-sum game. Through comprehensive macro and micro analysis, the author finds that during the colonial period where old and new ideas interacted, most Koreans, including upper-class elites and intellectuals who were open-minded about emerging concepts and options and had ample opportunities to receive western medicine, preferred the treatment of traditional Korean medicine as opposed to western medicine. Taking Korean herbal medicine for illnesses remained a primary and main choice, while western medicine took on the role as more of a supplement to traditional treatment. For these reasons, the author believes that the first is the inertia of tradition, and the second is that western medicine was not necessarliy more effective than Korean herbal medicine at that time. In other words, it can be held that during the colonial period, the growing popularity of western medicine failed to bring about a radical change in common Koreans’ daliy medical life. At that same time, the Korean herbal medicine industry, one of the pillar industries supporting common Koreans’ daily medical life, has demonstrated a flexible adaptability while relying on the intertia of its own tradition. The vitality and dynamism of the Korean herbal medicine industry during the colonial period certainly points toward a powerful doubt about and leads to a credible correction to the one-sided narrative of the medical modernization of western medicine.
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KEYWORD
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Korean Herbal Medicine, Korean Herbal Medicine Industry, Traditional Korean Medicine, Korean Drug Seller, Choson, Japanese Colonial Period, Consumption, Tradition, Medical Modernization
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