UNESCO registered Korean medicine book “Dongui Bogam” 동의보감

  Dongui Bogam is a book compiled by the royal physician, Heo Jun (1546-1615) and was first published in 1613 during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. In 2009, it was placed on UNESCOs Memory of the World Programme. The addition of the book makes Korea the only Asian nation with a total of seven cultural heritages included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The title literally means “Mirror of Eastern Medicine”. The book is regarded important in traditional Korean medicine.

It describes herbs that can be found on the Korean Peninsula, as the herbal books from Mainland China covered ingredients that showed properties different from local medicines, or were not easily found locally.

Heo Jun started working on the Dongui bogam from 1596 as requested by the king. in 1610(15 years). The Dongui bogam consists of 25 volumes. It was started by Heo Jun by the king’s request but was stopped because of the second Japanese invasion of Korea in 1597. After the war, the king once more ordered Heo Jun to complete the book and this time, the King allowed about 500 books kept in the national library to investigate. From then, Heo Jun kept writing the book, but before it was completed, the king died. It was completed in the second year of his successor’s reign as the fruit of 15 years of hard work.