• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.147-158
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• 2011

There has been a need for an operational curriculum for teaching Chinese characters used by traditional Korean medicine (TKM), but the it was not thoroughly reviewed so far. We analysed the frequency of unicode Chinese characters with five textbooks of traditional Korean medicine used as a national standard. We found that 氣, 經, 陽, 陰, 不, 熱, 血, 脈, 病, 證, 寒, 中, 心, 痛, 虛, 大, 生, 治, 本, 之 are the 20 most frequently used Chinese characters, and also showed 100 frequently used characters for each textbook. We used a cumulative frequency analysis method to suggest a list of 1,000 prerequisite Chinese characters for the TKM education (TKM 1000). which represents the current usage of Chinese characters in TKM and covers 99% of all textbook use if combined with MEST 1800. This study showed prerequisite and essential Chinese characters for the implementation of evidence-based teaching in TKM. The TKM 1000, a prerequisite characters by this study based on the TKM textbooks can be used for the development of Korean Medicine Education Eligibility Test (KEET), entrance exam to the Colleges of Oriental Medicine or textbooks, and educational curriculum for premed students.