In this corner of our newsletter, we will take a look into interesting facts/stories in our Korean history. We will be looking at two topics; one, pulse examination of pregnancy of high class woman and two, about the mysterious a concoction that lead the drinker to death.
< Feeling Her-Highness's pregnancy pulse >
Have you ever seen a Korean historical drama on TV? In those dramas, we can often see women of high class being examined by doctors, of their pregnancy in a unique way. The examination is done by feeling the person's pulse; not so odd so far. But the way the pulse is taken is not by putting the fingers on the ladies' wrist, but by feeling the delicate vibration traveled through a silk thread. This is how it's done: one end of the string is tied to the ladies' wrist. The other end is held by the doctor, who carefully feels the vibration and tells the lady whether or not she is pregnant. Now, we have to ask the doctor. Can you really tell??
Telling whether or not a person is pregnant through feeling the pregnancy pulse is very difficult even for a highly skilled doctor. Moreover, feeling the vibration of the pulse through a strand of thread is almost impossible. Some say this process of feeling the pulse through a thread shown on these historical dramas is rather an exaggeration of how they did it by just placing a piece of silk cloth between the patient's wrist and the doctor's fingers.
We cannot really tell whether or not this "thread examination" is true. However, when the patient was a lady of high place, such as a member of the royal family, she was to be considered with great expect, so even the imperial doctor could not feel her pulse by touching her-highness's hand. Hence, the idea of not having actual contact with the lady is somewhat correct.
Pulse diagnosis is a method of finding out the state in which the patient is in by understanding the delicate features of the pulse. Even if it was possible to examine a pulse through thread, it would be much less accurate than feeling it directly. Thus, the idea of placing cloth on the patient's wrist to avoid contact but still being accurate on the examination seems most convincing.
< The Death Potion >
Usually "medicine" refers to substances that cure diseases. However, in old times, some strong drugs were used to kill people.
Sa-Yak (the lethal concoction) was a popular way of executing people of high class, due to it's "decent" preservation of the body after death. In the Chosun Dynasty's code of penalty, only hanging and beheading was recognized as death penalties. However, in consideration of their social reputation, the royals and the aristocracies were sentenced with Sa-Yak instead of other death penalties that damaged the body.
The ingredients of Sa-Yak, presumed, include arsenic, unrefined gold, mercury, raw honey, Bu Ja(aconiti radix), crab's egg etc. The effect of unrefined gold and mercury in the concoction is to kill the person by making a hole in the stomach and intestines. Bu Ja was especially favored due to its poisonous nature and strong activeness under heat. After taking the concoction, the person was locked into a heated room which caused certain substances to activate more strongly and kill.
Though a very dangerous substance it is, nevertheless Bu Ja has its qualities as a medicine that saves you from various diseases .instead of killing you.
Let us take a look at what Bu Ja does when used as a medicine.
Bu Ja(root of a perennial plant) helps strengthen the heart's contractile force and works as a pain reliever. It also activates pituitary and adrenocortical hormones. Bu Ja is used on patients who have the following symptoms: slow pulse, feeling of weakness, rigor, large amount of urine, shock, chill in skin, weak breath, cold limbs and so on. It is also effective on arthritis, articular rheumatism, stomachaches, diarrhea, cholera morbus(intestinal convulsion), and symptoms related with chillness within the body.
As we can see, it is not the existence of the substance that determines your life, but the amount and method of how we use the substance. It wasn't the existence in Sa Yak, that did the killing, but the large amount that was put into Sa Yak and the combination within substances and condition of the time Sa Yak was taken. Thus, "how" the drug is used is very important, even to the extreme of life and death.
A sword can do both killing, and saving.
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