• The Journal of Korean Medical History
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2009

Park Tae Won is one of the physicians that participated in the treatment of King Injo in "承政院日記(Seungjeongwonilgi, official records of incidents during the Joseon Dynasty)". The purpose of this study is to look into the forms of actual medical treatment, social status and activities of the physicians at that time by organizing Park Tae Won's records as a physician and his other works. Park Tae Won was originally an acupuncturist for the royal medical department but he performed other activities such as actual diagnosis and drug prescriptions. More concretely it seems that he used methods mentioned in "鍼灸經驗方(Chimgugyungjeonbang)". Park Tae Won held concurrent positions as royal physician as well as provincial governor. It is suspected that physicians were named provincial governors of metropolitan areas so that they could be brought in immediately when in need and so that the capital centered medical service could be distributed to other provinces. We can also presume that the appointment of physicians as provincial governors was part of the government policy to efficiently distribute aid to the common people. From this study we can conclude that the physicians of that time did not commit solely to their jobs but also held important social positions that led the Joseon society.