Hur Jun, The Original Story
Hur Jun, The Original Story () is a 2013 South Korean television series about the life of Heo Jun, a commoner who rose up the ranks to become a royal physician in Joseon (he used the pen name "Guam"). It aired on MBC from March 18 to September 23, 2013 on Mondays to Fridays at 20:50 for 135 episodes. Heo Jun was the author of the famed oriental medicine textbook "Dongui Bogam" (lit. "Mirror of Eastern Medicine"), considered the defining text of traditional Korean medicine. This was the fifth dramatization of his life. Lead actor Kim  Joo-hyuk is the son of Kim Mu-saeng, who also played the same character in the 1975 series "Tenacity". Plot. Heo Jun is the son of a concubine and the governor of Yeongcheon. When he witnesses brilliant doctor Yoo Ui-tae save a dying person, he decides to become a doctor. First he works as a medicinal herb gatherer, then with the help of Ye-jin at Yoo Ui-tae's clinic, he studies rare medical texts imported from the Ming dynasty. With his expanded medical knowledge, Heo Jun begins to treat patients under Yoo Ui-tae's tutelage . But he later despairs of his inability to cure his mentor's stomach cancer. Despite the era's oppressive caste system and his commoner background, Heo Jun rises to the top of his field and becomes King Seonjo's royal physician.