사상의학의 ‘사상’은 변화원리인가?

Abstract

This essay premised that 'Sasang' of the Sasang consitutional medicine is not used as a principle of changes in the Yijing, and examined the foundation of the premise and the theory. For this purpose, I studied major issues in the interpretations of the concept of Sasang. Later I analyzed a transformation in the understanding of humans and a reconstructed theory of internal organs, and examined the relationship between the concept of sasang in the Sasang constitutional medicine and the traditional Korean medicine, and the Yijing and Neo-Confucianism. The theory of sasang is based on Confucianism, which sees humans as organic beings, but understands them as beings to recognize and practice knowing and acting and talents from a perspective of the Heavenly qi 氣 and human affairs. This is different from a prior viewpoint in which humans are oriented toward the unification of them and the Heaven. On the basis of the new theory, the Sasang constitutional medicine understands emotions as key causes of disease, finds that different constitutions result in different aspects of partial attachment, and therefore invents a new theory of internal organs to be used for diagnoses of and cures for diseases. The Sasang theory is composed of different concepts, but is not based on the principle of changes in the Yijing or the Heavenly principle. This fact means that the Sasang theory breaks itself of any transcendental concepts, and is transformed to an empirical and verifiable one. In this regard, the Sasang constitutional theory without any transcendental principle of changes can be said to provide a new perspective of human beings and cure for disease.