조선전기의 정치적‧종교적 질병관, 醫‧藥의 개념‧범주, 그리고 치유방식 (The political and religious concepts of disease and medicine in 15th century Chosŏn Korea)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국사연구회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국사연구 / 146호 / 119 ~ 157페이지
· 저자명 : 정다함

초록

This study is to rebut the existing Korean historiography's evolutionary and nationalistic perspectives on medical knowledge of 15th century which has tried to highlight sprouts of empirical medical science among a lot of dimensions of traditional medical knowledge of that period, and to restore rather very political and religious medical contexts of 15th century Chosŏn society. In traditional East Asia, Political power has legitimize itself by using Political and religious metaphysics which theoretically linked it to heavenly authority and this inevitably motivated political power to study what happened between heaven and earth to perpetuate its power. Political ideology of traditional Confucianism on kingship heavily depended upon Heaven's mandate, and accordingly what happened between heaven and earth such as eclipse, flood, famine, drought were basically explained as "anomalies" or "ominous disaster" which reflected heaven's anger at political failures of a ruler. In order to perpetuate political power, a ruler should know about those "anomalies" and this motivated the studies or knowledge of heaven and earth to be "Moral Meteorology" and "Potent Astrology". So in this context, a disease often was explained in the same way. It was believed, a ruler's political failures of exploiting his people such as wars, heavy taxation, and huge construction, made people hold a grudge(怨恨) in their mind and this was basically the same as heaven's angers according to a traditional thought that heaven's mind is people's mind(天人合一). And it was believed, grudge in people's mind as heaven's anger eventually created evil spirits which caused a disastrous and abnormal disease such as an epidemic. The concepts of a disease of early Chosŏn society was based on traditional political and religious ideas. According to this political and religious concept on how people came to be sick, the concepts of doctor and medicine was defined in very flexible and broad boundaries. When it comes to doctor's healing people, criteria was in dealing with the patients's mind spiritually to help them to have peaceful mind back.Healing people with medicine was regarded as a less important issue than spiritual healing and using food. This allowed various religious healers to play important roles in dealing with disease. When it comes to medicines, anything that is believed to keep those evil spirits away from people could be defined and used as medicines. For example, the typical medicines used for epidemics was ghost-killing medicines. These medicines were basically Taoist medicine and made of a lot of various materials rather based on religious beliefs on exorcism than clinical pharmacology. The way people used those medicine were not limited in orally taking, but varied in keeping them in their bodies, hanging in a ceiling, putting on a wall, and burning them into the air. And according to this medical context based on traditionally political and religious metaphysics and its practice in dealing with diseas the way the political power responded to an epidemic inevitably focused more on practicing state-level religious rituals for people. Modern perspectives of Korean Historiography based on evolutionary and nationalistic bias obsessed withwestern modernity, has viewed these issues as "superstitious practice" or "non-scientific knowledge" or "traditional backwardness". However, in their own terms and contexts, all these political and religious metaphysics, concepts of disease and medicine, and medical practices, were to perfectly make sense to people who lived in 15th century early Chosŏn dynasty.

영어초록

This study is to rebut the existing Korean historiography's evolutionary and nationalistic perspectives on medical knowledge of 15th century which has tried to highlight sprouts of empirical medical science among a lot of dimensions of traditional medical knowledge of that period, and to restore rather very political and religious medical contexts of 15th century Chosŏn society. In traditional East Asia, Political power has legitimize itself by using Political and religious metaphysics which theoretically linked it to heavenly authority and this inevitably motivated political power to study what happened between heaven and earth to perpetuate its power. Political ideology of traditional Confucianism on kingship heavily depended upon Heaven's mandate, and accordingly what happened between heaven and earth such as eclipse, flood, famine, drought were basically explained as "anomalies" or "ominous disaster" which reflected heaven's anger at political failures of a ruler. In order to perpetuate political power, a ruler should know about those "anomalies" and this motivated the studies or knowledge of heaven and earth to be "Moral Meteorology" and "Potent Astrology". So in this context, a disease often was explained in the same way. It was believed, a ruler's political failures of exploiting his people such as wars, heavy taxation, and huge construction, made people hold a grudge(怨恨) in their mind and this was basically the same as heaven's angers according to a traditional thought that heaven's mind is people's mind(天人合一). And it was believed, grudge in people's mind as heaven's anger eventually created evil spirits which caused a disastrous and abnormal disease such as an epidemic. The concepts of a disease of early Chosŏn society was based on traditional political and religious ideas. According to this political and religious concept on how people came to be sick, the concepts of doctor and medicine was defined in very flexible and broad boundaries. When it comes to doctor's healing people, criteria was in dealing with the patients's mind spiritually to help them to have peaceful mind back.Healing people with medicine was regarded as a less important issue than spiritual healing and using food. This allowed various religious healers to play important roles in dealing with disease. When it comes to medicines, anything that is believed to keep those evil spirits away from people could be defined and used as medicines. For example, the typical medicines used for epidemics was ghost-killing medicines. These medicines were basically Taoist medicine and made of a lot of various materials rather based on religious beliefs on exorcism than clinical pharmacology. The way people used those medicine were not limited in orally taking, but varied in keeping them in their bodies, hanging in a ceiling, putting on a wall, and burning them into the air. And according to this medical context based on traditionally political and religious metaphysics and its practice in dealing with diseas the way the political power responded to an epidemic inevitably focused more on practicing state-level religious rituals for people. Modern perspectives of Korean Historiography based on evolutionary and nationalistic bias obsessed withwestern modernity, has viewed these issues as "superstitious practice" or "non-scientific knowledge" or "traditional backwardness". However, in their own terms and contexts, all these political and religious metaphysics, concepts of disease and medicine, and medical practices, were to perfectly make sense to people who lived in 15th century early Chosŏn dynasty.

참고자료

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