Korea Heritage Service headquarters at Government Complex Daejeon / Yonhap
Long before the sleek, glass-front clinics of modern Gangnam defined Korea’s medical landscape, a quiet linguistic revolution was unfolding at Jejungwon, the country’s first Western-style hospital.
The Korea Heritage Service announced Thursday its intent to designate "Haebuhak" — the first anatomy textbook ever authored in the Korean alphabet, or Hangeul — as a National Registered Cultural Heritage.
Published in 1906, the three-volume set marks a definitive break from the classical Chinese-centered scholarship that had dominated the peninsula for centuries. While the elite scholars of the late Joseon Dynasty typically communicated through Chinese characters, the authors of "Haebuhak" sought to democratize Western science by translating it into the vernacular.
The text is celebrated less for its novelty and more for its profound linguistic ingenuity. Rather than importing foreign loanwords or relying on abstract Chinese terminology, the authors rendered complex anatomical systems into "pure" Korean. The heart was renamed "yeomtong," and the stomach became "babtong" — literally, the "rice container." This grounded approach allowed students at Severance Hospital Medical School to grasp the mechanics of the human body through the lens of their own daily language.
The volumes are organized with a logical precision that mirrors modern pedagogy. The first volume establishes the "foundation" of the body, focusing on the skeletal and muscular systems. The second volume moves to the internal "engine," detailing the heart, lungs and digestive organs, while the final volume explores the "wiring," covering the nervous system and sensory organs.
Beyond its importance to the history of medicine, the 1906 text serves as a vital time capsule for linguists. It documents the evolution of Hangeul orthography at the dawn of the 20th century, capturing the exact moment Western scientific concepts were first absorbed into the Korean consciousness.
Now owned by the National Hangeul Museum, the artifacts are slated for systematic preservation. Officials noted that the textbook represents the true starting point of modern medical education in Korea, illustrating a historical moment where scientific advancement began taking place in the people’s own tongue.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
