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A Literature Study of Geomyo

RHEE YUN HEE 1,  Sangwoo Ahn 2

1단국대학교
2한국한의학연구원

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ABSTRACT

‘Geomyo’ (The Gist of autopsy, hereinafter, Geomyo) is a book on forensic medicine written during the period ranging from 1820 to 1865 and its real author is unknown. It is assumed that when this book was written, the occurrence of various accidents rose due to the increase in local governors' work load and deepening of social fluctuations incurred by the intensification of centralized policies; thus, local governors needed practical reference books in order to deal with incidents in the midst of a complicated legal system. Particularly, issuing a death certificate for a murder case was classified to be so important that several books on this topic were compiled, and Keomyo inherited several traditional books on forensic medicine compiled since the reign of King Sejong. Geomyo is composed of chapters on the major topics of autopsy, that is, ‘Geomhom’, and excerpts from the reports of autopsies, that is, ‘Geoman’, and divided into two volumes. The first part of Geomyo contains mostly the excerpts from Jungsu Muwonrok(a revised and expanded edition of the ancient Chinese forensic book published during the Joseon period) and the later part includes some excerpts from the concluding and introductory remarks of ‘Geoman’s. Only ‘Gakcho’ is assumed to include the whole draft of ‘Geoman’, and at the end of the book, few citations from Heumheumshinseo (The instructions on a person’s punishment and imprisonment] and the explanations of technical jargons are included. Geomyo as a casebook for conducting ‘Geomhom’ is very systematically organized to cover the basic procedures of ‘Geomhom’, the excerpts from the introductory and explanatory remarks, arranged according to the causes of deaths, and finally the major elements (such as the principal offender, an accomplice, and infamous criminal, etc.) to be considered in writing ‘Geoman’. Since Geomyo recorded in detail the causes of deaths linked with the state of corpses, it shows the accomplishments and experiences of research in forensic medicine were well accumulated. With these data, we can also assume that there had been a group of experts in autopsy for a long time, and they had accumulated professional knowledge and experiences in forensic medicine. Further, since Geomyo contained a lot of clues which could clearly evidence the terms of forensic medicine at that time, and documented valuable forensic techniques in this area, it can be valued as a indispensable reference source in this field.

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