• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2019

Ginseng has been recognized as a lifespan extending medicine which has been regarded as one of the medicines classified as top medicines, as the Boncho (medical herbs) study which is influenced by the idea of guidance's costume and food concept mainly in China is gaining its bona fide form. As the demand for ginseng has been expanded to other levels, the demand for ginseng has been increasing. Ginseng from the nature reached its supply chain limit due to its extinction and difficulty of picking, so it translated into ginseng cultivation of economy rather than harvesting in nature. After the start of ginseng cultivation, the ginseng cultivation was further enhanced by the rapid development of processing methods such as white-ginseng and red-ginseng, and the surge of consumption due to the traditional belief in ginseng drug efficacy and support of scientific research. In the Joseon Dynasty, the name Gasam (cultivated ginseng) had been created as ginseng was cultivated on farmland after the stage of SanYang (wild cultivated ginseng), the purpose of the new name Gasam is to differentiate from natural ginseng, and natural ginseng lost its firm position as the genuine ginseng as the Gasam replaced the genuine ginseng, and the natural ginseng got a new name of SanSam (wild ginseng). Because the real ginseng substance concept dissipated, and as Gasam is being called ginseng, the name Gasam was also disappeared. As a result, it was possible to grow large quantities according to the arrival of the Gasam era, and it was possible to supply the demand for ginseng, and it could become one agricultural industry. In this ginseng cultivation, in Japan where ginseng did not grow naturally, it was difficult to obtain ginseng from Joseon and faced with a shortage of ginseng at all times. Therefore, the shogun cultivated the Gasam systematically at the national level by the inside of the shogunate. However, since the natural ginseng is native to China and Korea, there is a concern about the deterioration of the quality of natural ginseng due to the incorporation of cultivated ginseng (Gasam). To protect the interests, the cultivation of ginseng was subject to control. For this reason, the lack of historical information on Gasam cultivation, which had to be started secretly, would be a natural result. In this paper, althouh not sufficient enough, the historical informations were used to summarize the history of ginseng cultivation in China, Japan and Korea.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2020

Ginseng, also known as Insam, has solidified its status as one of the supreme drugs classified as life time expansion drug since ancient times and was used as a panacea based on its pharmaceutical effectiveness. The demand for ginseng rapidly increased as the demand for ginseng, which targeted only noble class people, expanded to other social class people. Accordingly, the wild ginseng supply reached its limit due to the extinction caused by indiscriminate harvesting and the difficulty of harvesting, and thus the ginseng supply method shifted to the cultivation of high-priced ginseng rather than complicated wild ginseng foraging. Although the timing of ginseng cultivation (also called gasam) in Korea has been studied, the research on the first cultivation area has not been reported yet. In this study, we critically reviewed Korea's first ginseng cultivation site by arranging data related to ginseng cultivation, and the historical data cited here include Joseon Wangjo Sillog (The Annals of Joseon Dynasty), Imwon Gyeongjeji (The Mid-19 Century Encyclopedia Koreana on Rural Living, Edible plants and Herb Volumes), Oju Yeonmun Jangjeon Sango (An Encyclopedic Writing during the Latter Half Period of the Joseon Dynasty), Junggyeongji (The Junggyeong Town Chronicle), Jeungbo Munheon Bigo (The largest encyclopedia of Joseon Dynasty), Insamsa (The Ginseng History) and etc. As a result of data assortment and critical review, the first ginseng plantation in the Joseon Dynasty resulted in the Yeongnam region, and in Yeongnam region, I have no choice but to conclude that it is Punggi-myeon (currently Punggi-eup, Yeongju-si, Gyeongbuk).