Emotional Impact of Plant-Mediated Activities in the Late Joseon Dynasty: Focusing on 18th-Century Literary Records

Background and objective: Today, "horticulture" has become synonymous with a healthy lifestyle. But when did people start believing that plant-mediated activities were beneficial for mental health and begin engaging in them? While records of garden creation and flower planting can be found in historical texts like the Samguk Sagi and Goryeosa, detailed accounts are scarce, and research into plant-mediated activities within a historical and cultural context is extremely limited.Methods: This study aimed to investigate the plant-mediated activities that induced positive emotional changes, as documented in records written by literati in the late Joseon Dynasty (18th century), a period when horticultural culture flourished alongside urban development. It also sought to analyze the causal relationship between plant-mediated activities and emotional changes. This research utilized translated documents of classical texts written in Chinese characters. From 245 classical documents in the Korea Classical Literature Translation Institute's comprehensive database, 159 personal literary collections were selected. Among these, 33 documents written by 18th-century literati were chosen, and two additional single-volume publications were added, totaling 35 documents for the study. To extract plant-mediated activities, we established four analytical elements: activity space, activity behavior, and expression of emotional change. We only selected records that included expressions indicating positive emotional changes after a plant-mediated activity.Results: Our research identified 12 plant-mediated activities that met the analysis criteria. These activities included appreciating flowers and trees, listening to rain fall on plantain leaves, writing on or admiring leaves, and strolling in gardens, all of which contributed to positive emotional changes.Conclusion: The 18th-century plant-mediated activity records extracted in this study align with previous research findings that plant-mediated activities can influence stress reduction and recovery. However, experimental studies are needed to verify their psychophysiological effects.