Abstract
This study finds an interesting fact that five symptoms (smallpox, postpartum pain, eye disease, swollen symptom and parasite infection) mentioned in Ryu Ei-Tae Medicinal Tales and his prescriptions (steamed rice, loess, soybean sprouts, cinnabar, radish, sesame oil and pork) were dramatized on the basis of traditional Korean medicinal knowledge in the Joseon Dynasty. Based on the study of experience-based medicinal literatures popular in the Joseon period, it is confirmed that the prescriptions are actually effective. Also it is inferred that popular diseases at that time were abscess, difficult baby delivery, postpartum pain and parasite infection, which were regarded as almost incurable diseases to ordinary people. These stories also showed destitution of common people who could not afford to buy medicines at that time. As shown in the Ryu Ei-Tae Medicinal Fable, many people might try various ordinary materials around them such as soil or nose wax. One of the outcomes of this study is that the fact that the tales mentioned common materials easy to get in the surroundings such as steamed rice, sesame oil, soybean sprouts or radish could be interprets as care and consideration of medicinal doctors for ordinary people at that time.
