Influenza

The Hyangyak chipsong pang, the Tongui pogam, and other medical texts of the Yi Dynasty discuss symptoms of epidemic disease best explained as in­fluenza. Although large and small epidemics of influ­enza probably occurred many times during this pe­riod, the historical records are ambiguous; perhaps the outbreaks were not sufficiently striking or wide­spread to be separated from other epidemic diseases. However, major influenza epidemics occurred in Ja­pan during this period, and it seems reasonable to assume that there were comparable epidemics in Korea. Moreover, given the nature of influenza, epi­demics could have ricocheted back and forth be­tween Korea and Japan (Fujikawa 1934).