A medicine of constitutions: Sasang medicine in contemporary South Korea

Thesis

This thesis investigates the process of standardisation, scientisation, and diversification of Sasang medicine in contemporary South Korea, through the lens of its central concept ch’ejil (constitution 體質). Sasang medicine (sasang ŭihak 四象醫學) is a current of medical tradition which emerged from the scholarly physician Yi Chema (李濟馬) in late 19th century Chosŏn. Sasang medicine is known as ch'ejil ŭihak (constitutional medicine 體質醫學) because it assumes that human beings have different constitutions with different physiologies and pathologies as well as different psychological traits. Sasang medicine is a unique example in [traditional] Korean medicine because it has constantly been practiced for over a century and is ingrained into health practices of modern Koreans as well as the contemporary health care system in South Korea.

Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in a school of Korean medicine and its teaching hospital, in a national research institute, and in private clinics, this thesis meticulously explores how an established form of Sasang medicine has been situated in the institutionalised system of Korean medicine. Ethnographies from different field sites provide microscopic details which are interspersed with various issues of collaboration, confrontation, and negotiation of different values and epistemologies. Furthermore, this thesis scrutinizes ‘how practitioners of Sasang medicine know what they know’ in such different social settings. These attempts are fulfilled by exploring how the central concept of Sasang medicine, ch’ejil, is understood in each field site. In so doing, this thesis aims to elucidate to what extent the practice of Sasang medicine in historical and social formation diversifies concepts of ch’ejil, which have played a role as a fluid medium to raise legitimacy or “efficacy” of Sasang medicine.

Authors: Kim, H

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Korean medicine; constitution; East Asian medicine; habitus; Sasang medicine; Constitutional medicine; chejil; (post-)modernity
• Subjects: Traditional medicine--Korea; Social anthropology; East Asia--Civilization--Korean influences; Medical anthropology; Korean studies