Japanese Travels of Joseon Medicine and the Aspects of Publication of Collections of Medical Written Conversations

Hur, Kyung Jin

Abstract

Of the more than two hundred collections of pildamchanghwa scattered around the world that are being catalogued and translated, more than forty are medical in nature. This paper organizes and charts the medical written conversations by their dates of publication and examine the various aspects of their publication. Medical written conversations have been collected since the Fourth Envoy. There are no records of medical written conversations or poetry exchange in Tsushima even though that was the first port of arrival for the Tongsinsa. Instead, sources show that written conversations and poetry exchanges mostly took place in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka; indeed, these three cities, in that order, also have yielded the highest volumes of publication. The first commercially published collection of medical written conversations was Sanghaneuidam, published in 1713 following the Eighth Envoy. Though Gyerimchanghwajip was published two years earlier in 1711, it is clear from the usage of the word changhwa in the title that this collection was not strictly limited to medical written conversations. Sanghaneuidam was an attempt by Japanese medicine to collect questions and answers in order to publish as medical textbooks. The Japanese medicine that was involved in the most written conversations was Kawamura Shunko, who was the editor of Sanghaneuimundap and Joseonpildam following the Tenth Envoy. Publications with titles containing 'eui' explicitly contemplates the targeted readership. Kitao Shunpo was one Japanese medicine who was less interested in meeting a literary scrivener, but instead sought to converse with a respected medicine. When the Eighth Envoy of 1711 arrived in Ogaki, Kitao followed around the Joseon medicines and attempted written conversations. He enlisted the aid of his second son Shunrin in organizing the written conversations, and published the collection, complete with preface, postscript, and appendices-an editorial decision that fully contemplated his audience. Prior to meeting Gi Du-mun, Kitao meticulously planned out the order of questions-that is, the table of contents for Sanghaneuidam. Kitao drafted his questions to serve the purpose of a medical textbook, edited the contents of the written conversations, and added illustrations before presenting the collection to the public. Seomulyuchan, one of the most famous leishu in Japan, contains a preface by Lee Hyeon, a scrivener of Joseon. Kitao, who had studied Dongeuibogam, had already possessed a vast and systematic knowledge of materia medica; however, he sought Lee's contributions, hoping that a preface written by a renowned Joseon scholar would lend his publication more credibility. As such, it can be inferred that the preface to Seomulyuchan was created as an extension of the medical written conversations.