Date & Time:
Monday, August 12, 2024 at 10:00am – 4:00pm
Location:
Room 604, Asian Centre
1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC
This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required. These seminars will be presented in Korean.
Seminar 1 (10:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
Hŏ Chun and the Compilation and Significance of his Tongŭi bogam (東醫寶鑑)
Abstract
Hŏ Chun (1546-1615) authored the Tongŭi bogam based on King Sŏnjo’s wishes that included the following: to systemize medical knowledge by crosschecking a variety of medical books that contained confusing and conflicting information; to pay more attention to how to prevent disease rather than how to cure disease; and to promote the use of domestic medicinal herbs than imported ones. Utilizing his vast knowledge of medicine, including Zhang Zhongjing’s theory of fever, in the Tongŭi bogam Hŏ Chun was able to produce his own scholarship of preventive medicine that featured the importance of vitalizing life than how to control disease and, thereby, to elevate medical knowledge to the realm of philosophy of lifestyle and daily habit. In this seminar, Eun also discusses how the Tongŭi bogam was practiced and applied in Mid Chosŏn Korea in which epidemics often caused hardship to the population.
Speaker
Eun Seok Min (Professor, Woosuk University)
Eun Seok Min (PhD, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) is an expert of the academic school of Chinese medicine and, currently, works on the issue of the interactions between Confucianism and medicine. His works include, among many, “the deduction of the concept of mingmen as the monarch of the body,” “the concept and therapeutic application of dragon fire in ministerial fire theory,” “the concept of hidden yin in summer by Zhu Danxi,” and “the treatment of yiyuan based on the concepts of dryness and dampness.”
Seminar 2 (2:00 PM – 4:00 PM)
Pung-Su (風水 Fung-Shui, Geomancy) and Modern Architecture
Abstract
Pung-Su (風水 Fung-Shui, Geomancy) includes two fields: the theory of housing for living (陽宅風水) and finding a good lot for deceased persons (陰宅風水) in Korea traditionally. However, due to a part of cultural trend of acquiring fortune by placing of ancestor’s tomb on good location, Pung-Su has been considered as a superstition such as shamanism or fortune telling. But it is undeniable that it contains the knowledge and wisdom which has been developed and handed down for a longtime regarding site locating, space plan and delicate layout of architectural component to establish a pleasant and healthy building. In the seminar, Jang reviews a number of theories oftraditional Pung-Su briefly, and crosschecks with modern scientific and architectural theories, and then discusses about this topic to consider utilizing and applying Pung-Su to our modern culture and architecture.
Speaker
Thomas Won Seok Jang (BCIT Faculty, Architect AIBC, Ph.D, LEED AP, WELL AP)
Dr. Thomas Won Seok Jang is a faculty member of Architectural and Building Technology (ABT) in British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and has earned degrees from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He is a member of Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) as an Architect, and the Director of P3 Architecture Ltd. He is an Accredited Professional of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED AP) and WELL Building standard (WELL AP) for sustainable building and construction. He has participated in many research regarding historical heritage buildings and villages.
