Heo Jun's Tomb

Heo Jun's Tomb (許浚墓) is the tomb of Heo Jun (許浚, 1537–1615), a renowned physician of the Joseon period, located in Hapo-ri, Jinseong-myeon, Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Republic of Korea. It was designated Monument No. 128 of Gyeonggi Province on June 5, 1992.

Overview

It is the tomb of Heo Jun (許浚, 1537–1615), a renowned physician of the Joseon period. Heo Jun was one of Korea's leading physicians and medical scholars, known as a pillar of the revival of Korean medicine and as the "sage of medicine" of the East. His family seat was Yangcheon (陽川), his courtesy name was Cheongwon (淸源), and his art name was Guam (龜巖). He was an illegitimate son of Heo Non (許論), who served as magistrate of Yongcheon. In the 7th year of King Seonjo (1574), he entered the Naeuiwon (內醫院), and after serving as a servant at the Hyeminseo, he was selected as a Jeonui (典醫) and made many contributions to the medical treatment of the royal family.

In the 25th year of King Seonjo (1592), during the Imjin War, he accompanied the king to Uiju as royal physician. In 1604 he was named a 3rd-class Meritorious Subject of Hoseong (호성공신3등), and in 1606 he was enfeoffed as Prince Yangpyeong (陽平君). Also, after his death he was raised to the rank of Sungnokdaebu, enjoying the highest honor for a medical man. In 1608, when King Seonjo died, he was dismissed from office and exiled on the charge of having neglected the king's treatment, but in the first year of Gwanghaegun (1609) he was reinstated. His extant works include the Dongui Bogam (東醫寶鑑), Eonhae Gugeupbang (諺解救急方), and Eonhae Duchangjipyo (諺解痘滄集要). The Dongui Bogam (東醫寶鑑), completed in the 2nd year of Gwanghaegun (1610) after sixteen years of research, was published and disseminated not only in Korea but also in Japan, Qing China, and other regions, and became the canonical text of Joseon medicine and of East Asian medicine in general.

For a long time the location of his tomb was unknown, until on September 30, 1991, the Korean-American researcher of old documents Lee Yang-jae and others, based on the description "Seonjwa Ssangbun in Gwangam-dong, Hapo-ri, Jinseong-myeon" recorded in the Yangcheon Heo Clan Genealogy (陽川許氏族譜), investigated with the cooperation of a military unit and discovered it. The tomb area is about 50 pyeong in size, and the tomb on the right is presumed to be the tomb of his wife, Lady Andong Kim. Above these two tombs there is one more tomb, presumed to be that of Heo Jun's birth mother. At the tomb site, a tombstone, stone statues of civil officials, a table stone, and an incense burner stone are arranged, and the original tombstone is broken into two pieces. At the time of excavation, the characters '陽平□ □聖功臣 □浚' remained in the worn inscription on the original stele, which confirmed that this is the tomb of Heo Jun.