This paper aims to research for the origin of byung-won(病院, Ch. bingyuan) in East Asia. Hospital or Infirmary used to be a place of curing sick people in medieval Europe. From the 16th century it was introduced and translated to bingyuan in China and byo-in in Japan by Jesuit missionary. In 16th and 17th century Jesuit missionaries translated European hospital into Chinese bingyuan, because it seems that they found similar one in Buddhist temple.
Actually the Bingyuan was originated from ancient Indian temples. In 667 Daoxuan(596-667) introduced the ancient Indian temple and he translated the healing space for sick monks in temple as 'bingyuan(病院)' or 'bingfangyuan(病坊院)'. According to Daoxuan, the bingyuan, which was used to provide the treatment to sick monk, was set up along with restaurant, bathroom, and restroom in western part of temple. The ideal temple including bingyuan that Daoxuan had introduced was also found in the architecture of the temple in Song China.
In Buddhist scriptures, it used to emphasize the salvation of the poor and the sick. Since Faxian(法顯, 337-422) had introduced a kind of charity hospital, fude- yiyaoshe (福德醫藥舍) in The Journey of Faxian to India, there were many anecdotes to rescuing the poor and the sick under the name of beitian(悲田) in ancient China. In Tang China, beitian-yangbingfang(悲田養病坊) was established in temples and Buddhist monks used to take care of the poor and the sick, paid for the expenses by the government. Korea and Japan adopted this salvation system. Dongseo Daebiwon(東西大悲院, Great Mercy Hospital in West and East) in Goryeo Dynasty was originated from Tang's beitian-yangbingfang.
Now Korea use the term 'byung-won(病院)' as hospital while China calls it yiyuan(醫院). The Governmental medical institution used be called 'yi-won(醫院, Ch. yiyuan)' in medieval China and Korea. However modern Japan preferred the term byo-in(病院) as the translated word for hospital, influenced by Jesuit missionary. Now according to Korean medical law, the hospital which has more than 20 inpatients is translated into byungwon and the clinic which has less than 20 inpatients into yi-won(醫院), because Korean medical law was greatly influenced by Japan.

Kubo Takeshi (1879-1921) and subsequent scholars from the Keijo Medical College Department of Anatomy and the Keijo Imperial University Department of Anatomy all tried to prove the superiority of the Japanese by using statistical methods in biometric studies to prove Kubo's hypothesis. However, these studies could not prove Kubo's hypothesis that the Japanese were superior to the Korean people, and ultimately, proving Kubo's hypothesis became impossible to prove. Rather, studies by the post-Kubo generation concluded that Japanese and Koreans were physically similar. This logic, which reinforces the similarities between Korean and Japanese biometrics, can be used as an important argument for organizing the theory on Japanese-Korean common ancestry (Nissen dōsoron, 日鮮同祖論) and the assimilation of the Korean Peninsula into Japan (Naisen ittai, 内鮮一体) in the preparation of the Sino-Japanese and Great East Asia Wars in the 1930s and 1940s.
While Kubo's hypothesis failed to produce substantial results in subsequent physical anthropology studies, blood group anthropologists made a breakthrough in indeed proving the ethnic superiority of the Japanese. They figured out that the racial factors were stratified into Western, Middle, and Asian-African types, with the northern and central Korean Peninsula belonging to the Asian-African type and Japan and the southern Korean Peninsula belonging to the Middle type. In particular, Japan ranked higher than the southern Korean Peninsula, so the hierarchy was organized with Japan first, then the southern Korean Peninsula, the central part, the northern part, and Manchuria. However, racial factors also differed in Japan from region to region, with those living further north closer to the Asian-African type. In this case, it was difficult to determine the result of exchanges between Japan and Korea, as well as to clearly distinguish the gap between Japanese and Korean people. Since Kubo's time, scholars have made various attempts to prove the ethnic superiority of the Japanese through empirical methodologies. However, the physical and blood group anthropology results have made the superiority of Manchuria, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese archipelago completely contradictory. Researchers are also unable to defend all the hypotheses needed for colonial medicine and use their findings only for convenience.

This article examines how professional discussions on the typhoid vaccine, the latest medical technology during the Japanese Colonial Period, evolved in colonial Korea (Joseon), focusing on articles published in Japanese and Joseon medical journals at the time. I attempt to describe vaccination not as “complete knowledge,” but as knowledge that was being constructed, as well as compare the knowledge construction process between the Japanese Empire and Joseon.
In Imperial Japan, there were various studies on typhoid vaccination. Generally, most of them agreed on the vaccine's effectiveness, but other opinions also appeared. Certain studies mentioned that it was difficult to consider the reduction of typhoid incidences in the Japanese Army and Navy an effect of the vaccine. Moreover, some suggested that more attention should be paid to oral immunity, as vaccination was difficult to popularize, and incomplete vaccination was no different than not getting vaccinated at all. In addition, Japanese researchers conducted studies with variabilities in vaccination methods and amounts that assessed post-vaccination morbidity and mortality to improve the vaccine's effectiveness. Contrarily, Joseon's medical journals primarily communicated observational statistics from clinical studies that mainly involved Japanese participants, focused on post-vaccination reactogenicity, and conveyed potential opportunities for oral immunity that had less reactogenicity.
While the Japanese and Joseon medical journals were similar in that they both acknowledged the typhoid vaccine's effectiveness and how to improve it, their directions were quite different. In Japan, as vaccinations were implemented on a large scale and statistical data regularly accumulated, the studies mainly strove to reduce the number of deaths after vaccination. Meanwhile, the Joseon medical journals included studies on lowering post-vaccination reactogenicity in an attempt to increase the number of vaccinations, as resistance to vaccinations remained strong among Koreans.
In summary, the contents of the Japanese and Joseon discussions regarding typhoid vaccination were different and limited based on their location, even though these studies were conducted in the same time period. Such differences demonstrate the impact of the colonial situation, which was evident even in medical journals limited to a small number of readers and in a field of knowledge that was distant from the public. Even so, both Japanese and Joseon medical journals shared similar relative and hierarchical methods in hygiene ideology. In addition, this study defends the view that although preventive medicine, such as vaccination, is a field closely related to policy, it cannot exist as a “field of objective knowledge” independent from social and political contexts.

This research note examines the development and meaning of the Catholic Church's medical enlightenment activities in the Japanese colonial period. Before and after the turn of the 20th century, enlightenment activities to spread new information became active in Korea, resulting from the country's incorporation into the world order. Not only the political system, but also everyday life was no longer the same, and media such as magazines and newspapers became popular means of informing on and knowing the new world. The Catholic Church was one actor that took the lead in spreading new cultures to colonial Korea by publishing magazines and newspapers such as the Kyeong Hyang Shinmun, Kyeong Hyang Magazine, and Catholic Youth.
The circulation of medical information and paper consultations were at the center of the Catholic Church's activities. It provided medical information, such as the concept and treatment of diseases, while also conducting medical consultations that “listened” to individuals' symptoms and gave prescriptions accordingly. This series of activities was largely divided into four stages. First, folk remedies were considered part of the information necessary for everyday life through the “Various Problems” section of Kyeong Hyang Magazine. Next, the basics of medicine were covered as part of the knowledge on Western natural sciences in the magazine's “Science” section. Then, Kyeong Hyang Magazine published the “Sanitation” section, which exclusively addressed medicine, in a series, and finally, Catholic Youth conveyed the basics of Western medicine while conducting paper consultations.
The Catholic Church's medical enlightenment was the result of the overlapping interests of the Catholic Church, the general Korean public, and the Japanese Government-General, colonial Korea's three main agents of producing, consuming, and managing new information. First, the Church's medical enlightenment distributed the knowledge that the general public “wanted to know.” In colonial Korea, medical personnel were scarce, so magazines and newspapers were useful windows to obtaining medical information and consulting on the physical condition of the body. The Church also presented the knowledge that it itself “wanted to inform”. Small dispensaries could not meet the medical needs of many, so mass media was a promising alternative. Lastly, the Catholic Church delivered knowledge “permitted” by the Japanese Government-General, as the dissemination of medical information did not threaten the legitimacy of colonial rule and helped develop colonial Korea. From the position of the Governor-General, the Catholic Church's medical enlightenment activities were thus recommendable.