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Traditional Korean Medicine
Korean medicine is an offshoot from Traditional
Chinese Medicine, sharing a theoretical basis. Chinese, Korean
and Japanese Traditional Medicine are grouped into the term of
Oriental Traditional Medicine; each one presenting particularities
related to Culture and resources available to implement their medicines
(geology, flora and fauna).
Chinese medical
texts and training in Korea go back to the Koryo Dynasty, with
Korean medical texts beginning
to appear in the 12th and 13th centuries. Korean medicine continued
to advance during the Choson Dynasty under Confucian direction.
There are some theoretical differences, and diagnose
and therapy variations. Some of them quite interesting and enriching.
Today, all those countries tend to share and exchange experiences
and knowledge, to enhance Oriental Traditional Medicine as a whole.
In Korea exist the Sasang Constitution theory,
telling that humans belong to one of four constitutions (taeyin,
soyin, taeyang, and soyang which correspond to the Um-Yang
energy structure). Different
cures are applied for different constitutions. Today this approach
is being used in China too.
See our Traditional
Oriental theory for a deeper explanation.
Herbal remedies
Herbal remedies refer to any part of any
plant used for medicine. In a sense, Oriental Traditional
Medicine, as many other Medical Traditions (Ayurvedic, European,
American Indian), use herbs in addition to minerals,
animal parts and extracted byproducts, as resins, oils
and ashes.
Herbs, minerals and animal by-products are categorized using one
of the following classifications:
The Four Natures
The four natures consider the proportion of Um and
Yang, going from cold (extreme Um), cool, neutral to warm and hot
(extreme Yang).
The user's internal balance of Um and Yang is considered when the
herbs are selected. Medicinal hot
Yang herbs are used for internal cold or cold constitution.
Mixtures are used to enhance or balance one or several ingredients.
The Five Tastes
Herbs may have one of five tastes:
- Pungent: used to generate sweat and to direct and vitalize
Ki and blood;
- Sweet: to tonify or harmonizes body systems;
- Sour: astringent;
- Bitter: dispels heat, purges the bowels and get rids of
dampness; and
- Salty: softens hard masses, and purges the bowels.
The Meridians
Each herb act over a specific Meridian.
Korean Hanbang
Hanbang is the Korean approach to combining medicinal herbs, minerals
and animal by-products.
The practitioner usually designs a remedy using one or two main ingredients
that target the illness. Then the practitioner adds many other ingredients
to adjust the formula to the patient's Um/Yang disarray. Also, ingredients
may be used to neutralize toxicity of other ingredients, or as a catalyst.
Each herbal medicine prescription is a mixture of many ingredients
tailored to one specific person. In the case of base liniments for
Cheolsu conditioning, herbs is typically brewed into a jar of wine
for a long period.
Why Koreans use Chinese characters for Korean Medicine
terms?
You may see that we present Chinese Hanja written names
for ingredients, in addition to Hangul names. Most Hanbang experts
use Hanja as a standard way of writing Hanbang ingredient names.
This is a tradition and a necessity, as in
Korea, Korean Medicine is learned from books that are written in Korean,
or ancient Chinese. Books that are written in ancient Chinese are written
by those who only knew ancient Chinese alphabets. Most of these ancient
texts are main source of herbology knowledge.
Korean Traditional Medicine teachers think that translations
of those ancient scripts into Korean or other language may distort
concepts written in them, put those books out of context and away form
the circumstances in which they were written. And, It was only after
King Sejong created the Hangul alphabet (1443) and Korean Medicine
textbooks were written in Korean.
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