해방 후 한약의 변용과 한의학

Acculturation of Herbal Medicines and Changes in Traditional Medicine in Liberated Korea

Korean liberation from Japanese colonization provided a great opportunity to reconstruct traditional Korean medicine, in part because Japanese discrimination against such practices had disappeared. There were many attempts to revive Korean medicine, one of which was to scientize it. Those opposed to this idea preferred to keep a unique Korean identity intact and did not fully support the use of science to justify tradition. They thought that maintaining the traditions of Korean medicine was critical to its survival against western medicine. The emphasis on mystery and totality in traditional practices was one of the examples given to promote its use. However, the influence of western medicine outside of Korea stimulated changes in the utilization of traditional medicine within the country. Western scientists conducted studies that extracted and analyzed ingredients used in traditional medicine, while pharmaceutical companies promoted the use of herbal medicines. Traditional Korean medicine sought to maintain its unique identity while simultaneously accepting changes introduced by western medicine. This raised questions about the ability of traditional medicine to survive in the ever-changing world of modern medicine, while still being able to maintain its identity. This is why the move to scientize traditional medicine did not disappear. As a result, the trend of extracting and analyzing ingredients used in Korean medicine began to expand alongside the development of new drugs. As medical insurance became more readily available in South Korea during the 1980s, the practitioners of traditional Korean medicine accepted the use of drugs made from extracted ingredients and have claimed exclusive rights over new botanic drugs since the 2000s.