• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.60-77
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• 2021

From 2007 to 2011, four Goryeo Dynasty vessels, namely the Taean treasure ship, Taean Mado Shipwreck No.1, No.2, No.3 were discovered in Taean area, Chungcheongnam-do province. From the shipwrecks, 175 pieces of mokkan (wooden tablet) were excavated. These mokkans are the only case of Goryeo Dynasty and represent the unique usage of mokkan as cargo tags, after the paper replaced the wooden tablets as writing materials. The Taean mokkans provide details, such as the year, recipient, port of origin, types of the cargo, quantity and unit, the name of the responsible person for shipment. Thus, they enable us to speculate about the characteristics of the cargo. Furthermore, through studying the writing style, form, material and manufacturing method, researchers can extract which form and characteristics were favored at that time. The Taean mokkans have no preset style for writing. Therefore, they can be written selectively and freely. And since the mokkan were attached to cargos, mokkans with furrows on upper side were favored, and efficiency and simplification of the manufacturing process were priorities in making mokkans. The Taean mokkans can be compared to those from the Shinan ship and the Quanzhou ship because those are of the same era and use. On the writing styles and information, Chinese mokkans are focused on the cargo owners, while The Taean mokkan includes more detailed information, such as the recipients. In forms, Chinese mokkans have maximum thickness of 1.0 centimeter and have pointed edges in lower parts, while mokkans from Taean do not have fixed thickness or edges. Furthermore, Chinese mokkans and Korean mokkans have different styles from manufacturing methods and material selections. These differences between Chinese and Goryeo mokkan are related to the differences between littoral-transport Goryeo ships and ocean-transport Chinese ships, such as shipping distances, types of cargo, shipping systems, packing methods, and transport operators. At the moment, because there are only small amount of data and materials of Chinese mokkan, comparative studies regarding Goryeo and Chinese mokkan can only be fragmentary. However, this article can be a base from which to expand the scope of Goryeo mokkan studies.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2009

The manufacture date of the number 198 wooden tablet excavated at Anapji is estimated to be between year 751 and 774. As medical artifacts around this period of time is scarce, the discovery of an artifact with distinct medical information such as names of medicinal drugs recorded in hand writing holds great value in the history of medicine. This wooden tablet was presumably a prescription for a medicinal formula. That the '灸' character which is a method of processing drugs is found after '甘草' indicates the possibility of this wooden tablet to be a practical form of prescription. On this slip, a certain sign can be found at the upper right corner of the names of drugs. This is thought to be an additional sign added to the original text. It seems to have been originated from the letter '了', based on the composition and finishing touches of the strokes, presumably to confirm the end of a work by adding the letter '了' which means 'to finish'. The base material of 靑黛 and 藍淀 are the same, and the two often took each other's place in a prescription. It is difficult to find an example of a formula where both drugs are included. Therefore, the prescription on the front with 靑黛, and the one on the back with 藍淀 of tablet 198 can be understood as separate formulas.