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Korean Medicine Guide

An Introduction to Korean Medicine

New to Korean Medicine? Start here.

A doctor feels a wrist, asks about sleep and meals, and looks at the tongue. A prescription combines several medicinal ingredients. An old medical book makes room for both royal patients and families who cannot afford expensive remedies. What connects these scenes?

This guide introduces the ideas, people and practices behind Korean Medicine. Read from the beginning, or choose a question below.

Have a quick question? Read the FAQ · Sources and further reading

About this archive: Minseong Korean Medicine Archive is primarily written in Korean. This English guide is your starting point. Links marked (Korean) lead to the existing archive; the main site menus also remain in Korean. This page offers education and cultural context, not a personal diagnosis or prescription.

1. What Is Korean Medicine?

Korean Medicine (한의학, 韓醫學) is a medical tradition developed and practiced in Korea. You may also encounter the name Traditional Korean Medicine, or TKM.

It shares an East Asian historical foundation with Chinese medicine, Japanese Kampo and other regional traditions. Texts, techniques and medicinal materials travelled across borders. Korean physicians studied that inheritance while developing their own books, clinical approaches and institutions. Calling Korean Medicine simply “TCM in Korea” misses that history.1

Two landmarks make the Korean story easier to follow: Heo Jun's Donguibogam, a major medical compilation published in 1613, and Yi Je-ma's Sasang Constitutional Medicine, developed in the nineteenth century. We will meet both below.

A living profession in modern Korea

Korean Medicine is practiced in clinics and hospitals today. In the Republic of Korea, a Korean medicine doctor (한의사) is a licensed medical professional. Qualification requires recognized university-level education and the national licensing examination. Training includes Korean medical theory, clinical practice and biomedical subjects.2

A consultation can involve assessment, a treatment plan, advice about daily life and follow-up. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are familiar examples, but they are not the whole field. Modern practice also includes clinical research and published practice guidelines.3

The distinction between history and evidence matters throughout this guide. A classical explanation tells us how physicians understood an illness. A clinical study asks what a specified treatment does for a specified group of patients. Neither replaces the other.

2. How Korean Medicine Understands the Body

The unfamiliar words are easier to approach as a connected vocabulary. They helped physicians describe bodily functions, changes and relationships before modern laboratory medicine. The following are brief introductions, not biomedical definitions.1

  • Qi (氣) describes activity and functional processes in traditional theory. “Energy” is a common translation, but can suggest a measurable physical quantity that the term does not establish.
  • Blood (血) includes the traditional idea of nourishment. Its meaning overlaps with, but is broader than, blood as a laboratory specimen.
  • Yin and Yang (陰陽) express complementary relationships, such as cooling and warming, considered relative to one another.
  • Five Phases (五行)—wood, fire, earth, metal and water—organize relationships and change, rather than five chemical substances.
  • Zang-Fu (臟腑) describes organ systems through traditional functions. These categories do not map exactly onto anatomical organs.
  • Meridians and acupoints (經絡·經穴) organize pathways and treatment locations in acupuncture theory. Meridians are not simply another name for nerves or blood vessels.

How the ideas work together

A patient brings experiences, not a ready-made theoretical category: interrupted sleep, a change in appetite, discomfort that comes and goes. Pattern identification (辨證) is the process of bringing the history and examination together into a traditional interpretation of the person's present condition.4

Here is an illustrative reasoning process, not a diagnostic exercise. If someone reports feeling unusually cold, the doctor still needs to know when it began, what else changed, and how the person functions day to day. “Cold” alone does not identify a pattern. Terms such as Yin and Yang, Qi and Blood, and Zang-Fu become useful only as parts of that larger assessment.

A biomedical disease name and a traditional pattern answer different questions. A person may have an established medical diagnosis and also receive a pattern assessment; one should not be used to erase the other. Learning this vocabulary is a way to understand clinical reasoning, not a way to assign yourself a condition.

Explore further: Organ systems, Qi, Blood and fluids (Korean) · Diagnosis and clinical reasoning (Korean) · Meridians and acupoints (Korean)

3. How Does a Korean Medicine Doctor Examine a Patient?

A wrist examination may be the most memorable part of a visit, but much of the appointment is a conversation. When did the problem start? What makes it better or worse? Have sleep, appetite, digestion or bowel habits changed? What medicines is the person already taking?

Traditional examination is commonly organized into four methods:4

  1. Inspection (望診): observing appearance and visible signs, including the tongue.
  2. Listening and smelling (聞診): attending to features such as voice, breathing and relevant odors.
  3. Inquiry (問診): asking about symptoms, medical history and everyday functioning.
  4. Palpation (切診): examining by touch, including the pulse and relevant areas of the body.

Why the pulse and tongue?

Pulse examination considers more than beats per minute: the examiner attends to qualities felt at the wrist. Tongue examination considers features such as appearance and coating. Both belong to the traditional assessment and must be interpreted alongside the patient's account and other findings.4

Neither is a shortcut to knowing every disease. One pulse quality or tongue photograph cannot establish the full diagnosis. The clinical question also determines whether further examination, investigations or referral are needed.

For a first appointment, a description of what changed and a list of current medicines and supplements are more useful than arriving with a pattern label found online. Ask the doctor to explain what they have concluded and how they will assess progress.

Explore further: The four examinations (Korean)

4. Treatments Used in Korean Medicine

A treatment name tells you what is done, but not whether it is appropriate for a particular person. Selection depends on the assessment, the treatment's evidence and the patient's circumstances.

Acupuncture and electroacupuncture

Acupuncture (침, 鍼) uses fine needles at selected points. Electroacupuncture applies controlled electrical stimulation through needles. “Korean acupuncture” refers to acupuncture practiced within Korean Medicine, which includes approaches shared across East Asia as well as Korean developments. It is not one single technique.56

Read about acupuncture (Korean), electroacupuncture (Korean) and points and meridians (Korean).

Herbal medicine

Korean herbal medicine (한약, 韓藥) uses medicinal ingredients, often combined into a formula. Preparations include decoctions, pills and extracts. The important questions include what is in the preparation, how it was prepared, and why that combination was selected. The next section explains the relationship between ingredients and prescriptions.6

Pharmacopuncture

Pharmacopuncture (약침, 藥鍼) involves injecting a small amount of a medicinal preparation at selected acupuncture points or other treatment sites. It brings an injectable medicinal preparation into a procedure involving specific locations on the body. It is distinct from ordinary needle acupuncture and from taking an herbal medicine by mouth.7

The preparation, dose and site are part of the clinical decision. Product quality, sterile technique and assessment of allergies are relevant to its use; different preparations should not be treated as interchangeable. See pharmacopuncture (Korean).

Moxibustion and cupping

Moxibustion (뜸, 灸) applies heat using prepared mugwort, with techniques that differ in how the heat reaches the skin. Cupping (부항, 附缸) uses suction created by cups placed on the body. Dry and wet cupping are different procedures; wet cupping also involves breaking the skin.68

These procedures require appropriate technique and attention to the skin. Cupping marks are not a measurement of “toxins leaving the body.” Read the archive's moxibustion (Korean) and cupping (Korean) introductions.

Evidence is best considered treatment by treatment and condition by condition. For example, research on acupuncture for a particular pain condition does not automatically establish the effectiveness of a different procedure or herbal formula. The treatment hub (Korean) connects methods with more detailed discussions.

5. Understanding Korean Herbal Medicine

A packet of herbal medicine can contain several ingredients. To a newcomer, it may look like a collection of supplements. A formula, however, is chosen and interpreted as a combination.

Medicinal ingredient → combination → formula → individualized clinical use

Materia medica (본초, 本草) is the study of medicinal materials: their identity, preparation, traditional properties and use. Despite the familiar English word “herbal,” the historical materia medica also includes some animal-derived and mineral materials. Formula studies (방제, 方劑) asks a different question: how are ingredients assembled into a prescription with a particular treatment purpose?

The traditional language of chief, deputy, assistant and envoy (君臣佐使) describes possible roles within a combination. An ingredient may address the main treatment aim, support another ingredient, address an accompanying feature, or help coordinate the prescription. The roles concern the combination; an ingredient does not have one fixed role in every formula.9

This is why the label on a single-ingredient supplement cannot explain a whole prescription. Ingredients, proportions, processing and preparation all belong to the formula's identity. Nor does a longer ingredient list by itself make a prescription more effective.

What does it mean to modify a formula?

Gagam (가감, 加減) means adding or subtracting. A clinician may adapt an established formula after assessment rather than regard its name as an unchanging recipe for everyone. Modification still needs a clinical rationale; it is not an invitation to add whatever herb sounds beneficial.9

For an everyday analogy, knowing the ingredients in a dish is different from understanding the recipe. A medicine goes further: deciding whether that recipe belongs in a particular patient's care requires professional judgment. Traditional compatibility principles are also not a guarantee against adverse effects or interactions.

This guide therefore offers no symptom-to-formula table or doses. To study the subject, move from medicinal materials (Korean) to formulas (Korean), or use the connected herbal medicine hub (Korean).

6. Sasang Constitutional Medicine

What was a person usually like before becoming ill? In Sasang Constitutional Medicine (四象醫學), that question has a central place.

Yi Je-ma (이제마, 李濟馬, 1837–1900) developed this distinct Korean medical approach in the nineteenth century. His Donguisusebowon (東醫壽世保元) sets out a system in which constitutional differences matter to the interpretation of health, illness and treatment. Its first version dates to 1894; the work also has a later textual history.10

The four constitutional names are:

These names introduce the system, not four boxes to choose between after reading a paragraph. Constitution assessment considers multiple features and clinical history. Body shape, temperament or a single symptom is insufficient; a personality quiz cannot substitute for that assessment.10

The person's usual state and the present illness

Sojeung (素證) is often translated as “ordinary symptoms” or “original symptoms.” Here, “symptoms” includes habitual features of functioning, such as usual appetite, digestion, sleep, sweating and bowel habits. The doctor considers these alongside hyeonjeung (現證), the current presentation.11

For an illustrative example, “my appetite is poor” leaves an important question unanswered: has it always been small, or has it recently changed? That distinction helps explain why Sasang inquiry pays attention to a person's baseline. It does not, by itself, reveal the person's constitution.

Constitution assessment and the assessment of the current illness are related but different tasks. The archive follows that distinction through ordinary symptoms, present symptoms, pattern differentiation and treatment discussions. Its constitution and prescription pages are study resources, not menus for choosing a medicine by type.

Explore further: Sasang medicine hub (Korean) · Ordinary symptoms (Korean) · Constitution and pattern differentiation (Korean) · Sasang patterns (Korean) · Formula reference (Korean)

7. Korean Medical Classics

Donguibogam and Heo Jun

Donguibogam (東醫寶鑑) was compiled under the direction of Heo Jun (허준, 許浚), a royal physician of Korea's Joseon dynasty. Completed in 1610 and first published in 1613, it gathers medical learning into five broad divisions: internal aspects of the body, external aspects, miscellaneous disorders, medicinal preparations, and acupuncture and moxibustion.12

Its organization helps explain its lasting appeal. A reader can move among bodily functions, signs of illness, treatment discussions and ingredients rather than encounter only a list of prescriptions. The book was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2009 for its documentary significance. That recognition concerns heritage; it is not a certification of every historical treatment.12

Read Donguibogam (Korean) and Heo Jun (Korean).

Donguisusebowon and Yi Je-ma

The similar-looking titles can be confusing. Donguisusebowon is a different book, by a different physician, written much later. It is the foundational work of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, not another name for Donguibogam. Its questions about constitutional differences belong to Yi Je-ma's own medical framework.10

Read Donguisusebowon (Korean).

Shared classics, distinct histories

The Huangdi Neijing (黃帝內經) and Shanghan Lun (傷寒論) originated in China and became influential across East Asian medicine. Korean physicians read, cited and reinterpreted these works. They should not be relabelled as Korean-authored books, just as Donguibogam should not be presented as a Chinese compilation.1

The archive connects Huangdi Neijing (Korean) and Shanghan Lun (Korean) with later Korean medical writing. Following those connections is a way to see both exchange and local development.

8. Korean Medicine Through Stories

Minseong Uidam (민성의담, 旻城醫談) is this archive's story series. These four introductions give English readers a scene from each column. The full stories are in Korean; each link leads to the column and its historical sources.

Heo Jun thought about the reader's purse

In the notes at the front of Donguibogam, Heo Jun stops to consider an awkward question: how could a poor household obtain all the ingredients required by an oversized prescription? Simply shrinking every recipe to the same weight would cause another problem. If a formula contained twenty or thirty ingredients, hardly any of each would remain. He therefore explained how he would present prescriptions as individual packets that people could more readily prepare.13

The same notes promise Korean names for locally used medicinal materials, along with where and when to gather them. Heo Jun was arranging a major medical book, but the work also led him to imagine the hands that would find an ingredient and make up a packet. That is a side of the royal physician we might miss if we open Donguibogam only to look for a famous formula.13

Meet the readers imagined by Heo Jun (Korean).

A king gave a medicine a new name

The Annals of King Yeongjo say that the king's condition had improved a little. Yeongjo credited a medicine called Ijung-tang and, on the twenty-first day of the twelfth lunar month in 1758, gave it a new name: Ijung-geongong-tang, roughly “Ijung-tang that earned merit.” The restrained record of “a little” improvement and the king's grand name sit side by side. The annal preserves his judgment on that day, without telling us exactly which symptoms changed.14

Nine years later, the medicine appears in a different kind of scene. Yeongjo's grandson, the future King Jeongjo, urged him to take it after the king had put it aside. His first appeal secured permission for a medicinal tea called samryeong, but not yet for the named medicine. He wrote again that same day, and Yeongjo finally agreed. A prescription book can tell us how an older formula was recorded; the annals also show a grandson worrying about whether the king would take it.15

Read about the medicine named at court (Korean).

A child's meal—and a meal for the caregiver

Rice, soybean paste and seaweed appear in King Jeongjo's 1783 rules for children who were begging or had been abandoned. The rules specified food and shelter and called for medical attention when a child was ill. They also allotted food to women who would nurse the youngest children. Someone had remembered that a caregiver needs to eat too.16

The regulations went beyond a first handover. Officials were told to check the children's condition and the care they received at the end of each month, lest the scheme exist only on paper. We cannot tell from the order how many children actually benefited. It does let us see what its authors thought care required: a place to stay, meals, clothing, a person to feed an infant, and a way to notice if that care failed.16

Read the story of children and those who fed them (Korean).

The name of an herb can carry several stories

Danggui (當歸) sounds like a message: “ought to return.” Return from where? The Chinese Bencao Gangmu records an older custom of giving peonies and using another name for danggui when calling someone back. The peony's other name suggested parting. Its entry also offers a medical explanation, suggesting that the ingredient helped qi and Blood find their proper places in traditional theory. The two interpretations stand together on the page.17

Neither story proves how the name first arose. One concerns people calling to one another; the other comes from a physician's understanding of an herb. The Korean column follows both trails through a Chinese materia medica that Korean readers inherited and studied. Its two characters held room for both a call to someone far away and a physician's conjecture.

Follow the name of danggui through the texts (Korean), or browse all Minseong Uidam stories (Korean).

12 Questions About Korean Medicine

Is Korean Medicine the same as Traditional Chinese Medicine?

They share historical texts and many concepts and techniques. Their development, institutions and clinical traditions are not identical. Sasang medicine and Korean-authored classics are useful places to begin exploring the Korean history. Read the introduction.

Is Korean Medicine still practiced in modern Korea?

Yes. Licensed Korean medicine doctors work in clinics and hospitals, and the field includes university education and clinical research. It is a contemporary profession as well as a historical tradition. See modern practice.

What does a Korean medicine doctor study?

Training combines Korean medical subjects—such as acupuncture, medicinal materials, formulas and constitutional medicine—with biomedical subjects and clinical practice. In Korea, graduates must meet national licensing requirements to practice. See the profession.

Can a doctor diagnose everything by checking my pulse?

No. Pulse findings are interpreted with the history, other examination findings and any needed investigations. The pulse is one part of an assessment. Read about the four examinations.

Why is the tongue examined?

Its appearance and coating are among the observations used in traditional pattern assessment. A tongue photograph alone cannot establish a person's diagnosis or select a prescription. Read about pulse and tongue examination.

What is Korean herbal medicine?

It is the medicinal use of ingredients and preparations within Korean Medicine. Many prescriptions combine multiple ingredients. Understanding a preparation means considering the whole formula, not just one familiar plant name. Explore herbal medicine.

How is a medicinal herb different from an herbal formula?

An herb is an ingredient; a formula specifies a combination and its preparation for a treatment purpose. One ingredient can take different roles in different formulas. See how combinations work.

What is pharmacopuncture?

It uses injectable medicinal preparations at selected points or treatment sites. It differs from ordinary acupuncture, which does not inject a medicine. The particular preparation and procedure matter. Read the treatment introduction.

Can I find my Sasang constitution from a personality test?

A personality result is insufficient. Sasang assessment considers multiple features, ordinary functioning and clinical history; constitution and present illness also need to be distinguished. Explore Sasang medicine.

What is Donguibogam, and who was Heo Jun?

Donguibogam is a major Korean medical compilation first published in 1613. Heo Jun was the Joseon royal physician who led its compilation. It is different from Yi Je-ma's much later Donguisusebowon. Meet the books and their authors.

Is a natural medicine automatically safe?

No. The ingredients, preparation, amount and individual circumstances matter, including other medicines, allergies and pregnancy. Tell your clinician what you take. A historical formula description is not a personal instruction to use it.

Where should I go next in this archive?

For people and history, try Minseong Uidam (Korean). For structured study, visit the learning room (Korean). The links throughout this guide lead into the existing Korean archive; you can return here whenever a term needs explaining.

Sources and Further Reading

The sources below have different roles: terminology references explain vocabulary, professional bodies describe education and practice, historical records document the past, and clinical research addresses specific medical questions. Historical accounts here are not presented as evidence that a treatment will work for a reader.

  1. World Health Organization, WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region (2007), introduction and basic theories. WHO record and PDF. Terminology reference, not an endorsement of treatments. ↩↩↩

  2. Association of Korean Medicine, Introduction: licensing and education (English). ↩

  3. National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, Clinical practice guidelines portal (English interface). ↩

  4. National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, Clinical practice guideline for Eight Principle Pattern Identification (Korean portal, with an English abstract). See also the archive's four examinations and diagnosis guide (Korean). ↩↩↩

  5. U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Acupuncture: Effectiveness and Safety (English). ↩

  6. Association of Korean Medicine, Introduction to contemporary practice (English); National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, Korean Medicine technology development (English). For traditional methods, see the archive's moxibustion and herbal medicine introductions (Korean). ↩↩↩

  7. National Institute for Korean Medicine Development, Current Practice of Korean Medicine (English PDF), pharmacopuncture discussion; dispensary evaluation and quality control (English). Clinical evidence is linked separately in the archive's pharmacopuncture article (Korean). ↩

  8. U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Cupping (English). ↩

  9. Minseong Korean Medicine Archive, herbs and formulas and formula reference (Korean), with links to constituent materials and classical sources. The explanations above summarize traditional formulation principles, not demonstrated pharmacological synergy in every combination. ↩↩

  10. Kim JY, Pham DD. “Sasang Constitutional Medicine as a Holistic Tailored Medicine.” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2009). doi:10.1093/ecam/nep100, PubMed (English). Used for the system's history and conceptual framework, not proof of a treatment's efficacy. See Donguisusebowon (Korean) for its textual history. ↩↩↩

  11. “Diagnosis and treatment principle in Sasang medicine: original symptom.” Integrative Medicine Research (2017). Full text (English). Conceptual explanation of ordinary symptoms and their clinical role. ↩

  12. National Library of Korea, Donguibogam (English), compilation, publication, organization and UNESCO inscription. ↩↩

  13. Heo Jun, Donguibogam, editorial notes, 集例 (Classical Chinese transcription). The English paragraph is a brief paraphrase, not a translation of the complete notes. ↩↩

  14. National Institute of Korean History, Annals of King Yeongjo, volume 92, year 34, lunar month 12, day 21, second entry (Korean translation and Classical Chinese original). ↩

  15. National Institute of Korean History, Annals of King Yeongjo, volume 108, year 43, lunar month 3, day 17, second entry and third entry (Korean translation and Classical Chinese original). The petitioner was Yeongjo's grandson, the future King Jeongjo. ↩

  16. National Institute of Korean History, Annals of King Jeongjo, volume 16, year 7, lunar month 11, day 5, third entry (Korean translation and Classical Chinese original), regulations for the relief of vulnerable children. ↩↩

  17. Li Shizhen, Bencao Gangmu, volume 14, “Danggui,” section on names. Classical Chinese transcription of the Siku Quanshu edition. The older custom is reported there from Gujin Zhu; the medical explanation is presented as a conjecture, not an established etymology. ↩