(Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine)
;
(Dept. of Medical History, Oriental Medicine, College of Kyung Hee University)
The manufacture date of the number 198 wooden tablet excavated at Anapji is estimated to be between year 751 and 774. As medical artifacts around this period of time is scarce, the discovery of an artifact with distinct medical information such as names of medicinal drugs recorded in hand writing holds great value in the history of medicine. This wooden tablet was presumably a prescription for a medicinal formula. That the '灸' character which is a method of processing drugs is found after '甘草' indicates the possibility of this wooden tablet to be a practical form of prescription. On this slip, a certain sign can be found at the upper right corner of the names of drugs. This is thought to be an additional sign added to the original text. It seems to have been originated from the letter '了', based on the composition and finishing touches of the strokes, presumably to confirm the end of a work by adding the letter '了' which means 'to finish'. The base material of 靑黛 and 藍淀 are the same, and the two often took each other's place in a prescription. It is difficult to find an example of a formula where both drugs are included. Therefore, the prescription on the front with 靑黛, and the one on the back with 藍淀 of tablet 198 can be understood as separate formulas.