Abstract
Hae-Yong Shin was a renowned merchant during the transitional period from Korean Imperialism to Japanese Occupation, and devoted his life during the period of Japanese Occupation as a proponent of patriotic enlightenment movement and translator. He also authored many medical and scientific works; in particular, he integrated the modern Western medicine into the Korean herbal medicine in his writings. His early works include New Edition of Natural History (1907), Physiology published in six series in the YaRoe, a magazine for the patriotic enlightenment movement, and the New Edition of Zoology (1908). These writings are assumed to have deepened Shin's knowledge of and insights into human and animal physiologies and anatomies. In the Danbang-Biyo-Gyeongheom-Shinpyeon (1913), he sought to incorporate the aspects of the Western medicine while mainly adopting the approach of the Korean herbal medicine. While keeping the contents and formations of Donguibogam, he recorded many empirical prescriptions and deleted theories incomprehensible for the general population, shamanic prescriptions, and poisonous and deadly ingredients. Its most salient features are the use of the Korean vernacular script for explications and simple ingredients for prescriptions. As medicinal materials, he presented commonly found low-cost native ingredients easily obtainable and affordable for. In the disciplines of childbirth, childbearing, and first aid, he adopted Western medical treatments. Danbangshinpyeon is particularly significant in that it contributed to public health by spreading practical basic medical knowledge in the vernacular script easily applicable at home in difficult situations for obtaining medical services under the Japanese colonial rule.