Who Wrote the Dongui Bogam? Heo Jun, Royal Physician of Joseon Korea

The Dongui Bogam was written by Heo Jun (1539–1615), a royal physician of Korea's Joseon dynasty, who led the project from 1596 and finished the 25-volume work in 1610; it was first printed in 1613. Its title is usually translated as "Precious Mirror of Eastern Medicine", and in 2009 it was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. This article looks at Heo Jun as a figure in the history of medicine; it is history, not medical advice.

Joseon Korea in brief

The Joseon dynasty ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910, with its capital at Hanyang, today's Seoul. Society was organised by Neo-Confucian ideas and a strict hierarchy. At the top were the yangban, the scholar-official class. Below them was a middle group, the chungin, which included technical specialists such as interpreters, accountants and physicians. Medicine was respected as a skill, but doctors usually did not enjoy the status of the great scholar-officials.

A physician from the middle class

Heo Jun was born in 1539 in the area that is now Gangseo District in western Seoul, into the Yangcheon Heo clan. Because his mother was a concubine, he was classed as chungin rather than as a full yangban, which limited the career open to him. Medicine was one of the paths that remained.

Very little is reliably known about his early training. A popular story, made famous by novels and television, has him learning from a strict master and leaving after saving a sick child. This episode lacks solid documentary support, and other tales, involving a tiger or a princess turned into a snake, are folklore.

Doctor to the king

What is better documented is his career at court. He became a court physician at 29 and later worked at the Naeuiwon, the royal clinic. He treated King Seonjo in 1575, and in 1590 he was promoted after successfully treating the crown prince for smallpox.

When Japanese armies invaded Korea in 1592, the Imjin War began, a conflict that lasted until 1598. Many officials abandoned the king, but Heo Jun stayed with Seonjo, and in 1596 he was given a senior rank. In 1600 he became chief physician of the Naeuiwon.

Starting a great book in wartime

In 1596, in the middle of the war, the leading physicians of the Naeuiwon began compiling a new medical encyclopedia, with Heo Jun at the head of the project. The work was interrupted when Japan invaded again in 1597, and Heo Jun later carried it on. Altogether, the book took about fifteen years.

Exile, return and completion

King Seonjo died in 1608. As his physician, Heo Jun was blamed and sent into exile. The next year, King Gwanghaegun restored him. He completed the Dongui Bogam in 1610, and it was printed in 1613.

He also produced other works, including medical texts translated into Korean script, so that people who could not read classical Chinese could use them. He recorded herb names in hangul for the same reason.

What is inside the Dongui Bogam

The 25 volumes are divided into five main parts: internal medicine, external medicine (the visible parts of the body), miscellaneous diseases (including chapters on children and women), remedies, and acupuncture. One feature historians highlight is its organisation: symptoms and treatments are arranged by the part of the body affected rather than by disease name, an approach the article calls revolutionary for its time. The book is built on the idea, central to East Asian medicine of the era, that health depends on balancing the body's energies.

A book that travelled

The Dongui Bogam did not stay in Korea. It was printed and used in Japan, with a first Japanese edition in 1724, and in China, where the first edition appeared in 1763. When UNESCO added it to the Memory of the World Register in 2009, the Korean Medical Association commented that the listing honoured a historical document, not the effectiveness of traditional treatments. That is a useful reminder of how to read old medical texts: as windows into the past.

Heo Jun died in 1615. Today the Heo Jun Museum in Gangseo District, opened in 2005, tells his story, and he is the hero of a bestselling 1990 novel and of a widely watched 1999–2000 television drama.

Learn with Heo Jun: English phrases about books and work

Phrase	Meaning	Example
a labour of love	hard work done out of devotion	The Dongui Bogam was a labour of love.
to see something through	to finish what you started	Heo Jun saw the project through.
against the odds	despite great difficulty	He finished it against the odds.
a reference book	a book you consult, not read straight through	It became a standard reference book.
to stand the test of time	to stay valued for a long time	His book has stood the test of time.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a long project you finished, or want to finish. Use "see it through" and "against the odds".