Traditional Korean herbalists, a unique profession facing extinction

Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist, carefully measures and combines herbal ingredients for medicines in his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Ji-won

Readers who have watched Korean dramas that portray the Joseon era (1392-1910), such as "Dae Jang Geum," may have seen scenes in which doctors practiced acupuncture and gave sick people herbal medicine.

Even now, Korean people, especially those who cannot find cures for their ailments in modern Western medicine, often rely on going to traditional Korean herbal medicine shops ― known as "hanyakbang" in Korean ― to buy herbal medicines such as decoctions (boiled down concentrated extracts), powdered medicines and tablets, to restore their energy and eliminate illnesses.

The Japanese colonial government attempted to eradicate the traditional Korean medicine system and introduce the Western medicine system into Korea during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), which ended up reducing the number of experts and knowledge here. Despite this history, traditional Korean herbalists ― or "hanyakeopsa" in Korean ― who also made Korean herbal medicines and practiced acupuncture as alternative medical treatments, have survived and continued to serve as traditional Korean medicine practitioners. They were particularly important throughout the nation after the colonial period and Korean War in the 1950s, when medical facilities were inadequate or less common, especially in rural areas.

A recreated Korean herbal medicine shop from the Joseon era (1392-1910) on display as part of the permanent exhibition of the National Folk Museum of Korea, Seoul. Courtesy of the National Folk Museum of Korea

Korean traditional herbalists used to be distributed around regions where there were no other medical facilities. They made their medicines according to the formulas handed down largely through the oral tradition and important Joseon-era medical texts, such as UNESCO-designated "Donguibogam," an encyclopedia of medical knowledge and treatment techniques complied by physician Heo Jun, by taking advantage of natural herbs and ordinary tools.

However, this tradition could disappear within the next 10 years, according to the National Folk Museum of Korea, which released a research report based on 22 interviews with traditional Korean herbalists.

As the number of practitioners of Western and Korean medicine rises, the number of traditional Korean herbalists in the country is diminishing, and the government is limiting the range of medical services they can provide. The government only allows the herbalists to produce herbal medicines based on 11 traditional medical texts and prohibits them from practicing acupuncture. The prospects for traditional Korean herbalists are dim. Some of them made a very good living through the work in the past, but many of them now live hand to mouth.

Aggravating the situation, the government has also not held the exam to obtain a license to practice the job since 1983, presumably because the number of conventional hospitals had increased. In addition to the fact that the population of herbalists is rapidly aging, the number of traditional Korean herbal medicine shops has diminished to just 700 around the nation, as of 2021.

To document the gradual disappearance of this profession as an ancient field of Korean culture and knowledge, The Korea Times recently interviewed Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist who runs his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, to ask him about the nature of the job, and the unique characteristics of traditional Korean herbal medicine, compared to that of other neighboring countries and his life working in the field.

Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist, poses in front of a classical painting of the legendary Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, in his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Born in 1944, Ryu, a third-generation traditional Korean herbalist, following his father and grandfather, entered the business in 1970. He has been running a shop in the region since 1972. He left Hanyang University and attended medical school in Wuhan, China, to learn traditional Chinese medicine as well.

There are not so many patients during the summer, but he has almost 10 patients a day on average, and makes herbal medicine treatments for them. Living right next to the shop, he often doesn't close the business, and is on call, even on weekends. His customers come to see him from all parts of the country.

Ryu said that he easily passed the license exam, as he learned herbal recipes naturally from his family, as well as developed a good sense of how to treat patients. Even now, he continues to study various subjects that deepen his understanding of the field. He has also studied human anatomy from a book he purchased at a conventional medical school. He has memorized the formulas for most of the medicines he makes. He has some secret recipes passed down from his ancestors, which he says have saved many lives.

"One day in the early 1970s, a middle school student visited me half-dead after failing to get better in an ordinary hospital. She wasn't able to eat or open her eyes. She got sick after sleeping in a brand new concrete building. At that time, nobody knew about 'sick building syndrome.' I gave her acupuncture, which is now banned, and gave her some herbal medicine. She gradually got better and managed to survive. In the past and even now, people who weren't able to get better in ordinary hospitals came to us and got better through the wisdom of our ancestors," Ryu said during an interview with The Korea Times at his office, Monday.

"One set consists of some 24 to 30 packages of herb medicine, which, most of the time, has some five to six ingredients. There are hundreds of thousands of ways to make herbal medicines based on the traditional medical texts. Many of the methods are secret, just like every household has its own kimchi recipes."

Seen are herbal ingredients in the medicine cabinet of the Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine shop, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist, chops dried ginseng for herbal medicine at his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

According to Ryu, making traditional Korean herbal medicine is slightly different from making traditional Chinese medicine. In China, people use a lot of herbal ingredients, and therefore the medicine is strong in general, as well as symptom-oriented, which is similar to the Western style of producing and administering medicine. However, traditional Korean medicine is much more focused on figuring out an individual person's biopsychosocial traits based on the theories of "Sasang Constitutional Medicine," systematized by Lee Je-ma. Sasang typology aims to make and administer herbal medicine according to each individual's pathophysiology ― both in terms of their physical condition and state of mind ― in order to restore balance to their health.

"Traditional Chinese herbal medicine works like modern Western medicine: it finds a symptom and eradicates it. In Korea, traditional herbal medicine is similar but different. Traditional Korean herbal medicine practitioners first try to figure out what a person's natural-born traits are, as categorized into four body types: Taeyang, Taeeum, Soyang and Soeum. After an individual's body type is categorized, herbal medicine experts then adjust the amount of herbal ingredients in the appropriate medicine according to that typology, as some ingredients can be toxic to some typologies."

There are many ways to tell a person's body type, but Ryu actually uses his own unique way to discern it. He has a patient put a big silver ring on their left thumb, middle, ring and little fingers, in that order, and then has the person place their right thumb and index finger together, as if making an "OK" gesture with their right hand. He tries to separate the fingers of the right hand making the gesture while the person is wearing the ring on each finger. If a person's right fingers remain tightly together while they are wearing the ring on their little finger, for example, the person's typology is Soeum.

"Many may consider it cheating, but there are many original ways to figure out a person's body type, as well as to examine patients and even deal with ingredients."

These days, most herbal ingredients ― up to 80 percent of them ― are imported from China, but in the past, people used to rely on natural herbs from Korea, taking advantage of various commonly found ingredients for medicine.

"In the past, the country was very poor, so people would cut down every tree in the mountains for firewood, which allowed herbs to grow easily. So whenever you'd go to the mountains, there would be natural herbs everywhere. We used a lot of unique ingredients in the past."

"Nowadays, we don't use some ingredients for the sake of hygiene, but when I was young, we processed fermented human feces as an ingredient for herbal medicine to heal severe mental illnesses. Even now, we often use the urine of boys to process herbal ingredients to heal stomach pain for women after giving birth. But most importantly, the ingredients must be processed in certain ways to eliminate any toxicity, as well as only use a certain amount of the ingredients in the medicine."

Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist, shows the energy-regulating herb, Cyperus rotundus (or "hyangbuja" in Korean), that he has specially processed for medicines at his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Ryu Hwang-rim, a traditional Korean herbalist, poses with medical texts at his shop, Hwangjungwon Traditional Korean Medicine, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, on Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

His customers, mostly elderly people, continue to visit him loyally, but most of other traditional Korean herbalists are on the verge of closing their shops, as they lack successors and due to the rise of what is called "functional food for health" in Korea, or herb-based foods and supplements that are supposed to be good for one's health.

"So-called 'functional food for health' that does not consider the balance of the combination of herbal ingredients, is selling well and threatening our jobs, as well as people's health. Health practitioners should think carefully about the combination of the ingredients, but they don't. But people assume that just because it is labelled 'healthy,' it is good for them. Also, people go to ordinary hospitals nearby as it is usually cheaper and faster to do so."

"Perhaps we are destined to go extinct," Ryu lamented. "But this makes me feel sad, as the knowledge and practices of traditional herbal medicine will be gone forever after we die out. I hope that more traditional Korean herbal medicine practitioners might come and learn our methods, as well as quantify them scientifically, so that these age-old secret methods can continue living on and healing the sick."