신라 통일기 전염병의 유행과 대응책 = Epidemics and Government Policies for Their Control in Unified Silla Korea(668-936)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This piece of research aims to determine why there were so many epidemics in the 8th and 9th centuries East Asia, paying particular attention to Korea, and the efforts by the Silla government to control the crises caused by epidemics. This subject is neglected in Ancient Korean History, owing to a lack of materials. I have tried to reconstruct the epidemics that occurred under unified Silla dynasty, by means of comparison with Tang China and Japan of same era.
During the War of Unification in Korean Pennisula, Chinese Tang dynasty troops brought a number of new diseases with them into Korea. It seems that these were eruptive diseases, such as smallpox and measles. But the Korean population was not large enough to enable these eruptive diseases to become endemic childhood diseases. This is the main reason that outbreaks of epidemics occurred repeatedly and severely in Korea as well as in Japan. The epidemics usually came from China to Korea, and were finally transmitted to Japan via Korea.
In this paper, I investigate the causes and the characteristics of the outbreaks of epidemics under the unified Silla dynasty, which were occurring more frequently than before(during the 5th and 6th century), and examine the policies devised by the Silla government to control and to cope with the crises. My conclusions are as follows.
The causes of Epidemics were: First, Silla trade with T'ang China grew in leaps and bounds in the 8th and 9th centuries. With increased contact, more diseases carne over to Korea. Secondly, epidemics were a direct result of development of cities after Silla's Unification of the countries, in particular, the populations of capital city, Kyungju, increased to over 200,000. Thirdly, the development of network of roads for gathering taxes and for moving troops also contributed to the outbreaks of epidemics.
The policies of Silla government were: First, a relief policy for the poor. The government supplied provisions and simple remedies to them, especially in the capital. Secondly, they encouraged the religious beliefs by constructing numerous statues of Budda's for praying purposes, especially medicine Budda. It helped to reduced the peoples complaints to the state and to heaven. Thirdly, they developed the remedies and published medicine books in order to enable the people to treat their own diseases.
In a sense, the em of the unified Silla dynasty can be seen as process of adaptation for new diseases in the history of disease in Korea.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 머리말
• Ⅱ. 전염병의 유행
• 1. 유행 배경
• 2. 발생 유형
• Ⅲ. 대응책
• 1. 구휼정책
• 2. 약사신앙의 장려
• 3. 민간요법의 개발과 의학서의 편찬
• Ⅳ. 맺음말