• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.31
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• pp.375-406
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• 2011

The paper investigates the ideal image and the ideological tendency of the traditional intellectuals in the East Asian Societies by analyzing the religious thoughts of Donghak, Tenrikyo and the Society of God Worshippers, which were the representative religious bodies in Korea, Japan and China. In particular, this paper focuses on the founders' thoughts of the religious organizations, such as Choi Jewoo(崔濟愚, 1824-1864) of Donghak, Nakayama Miki(中山みき, 1798-1887) of Tenrikyo and Hong xiuquan(洪秀全, 1814-1864) of the Society of God Worshippers. The results obtained from the study are as follows:Choi Jewoo's father was a teacher in a rural village, and so Choi Jewoo also wanted to be a teacher. Afterward when he had religious experiences, in the trance state, he became a teacher. Consequently, his religious thoughts were based on the ideal teacher's stance. Nakayama Miki respected her father, who was a low-ranking warrior or bushi(武士). And when she experienced strange experiences, she became a high-ranking warrior or shogun(將軍). On this account, many of her religious thoughts were based on the ideal bushi's position. Hong xiuquan's father was a low-ranking local official, therefore Hong xiuquan wanted to be a high-ranking official since childhood. Later, he took the civil service examinations only to failed. And so when he had religious experiences, he became an official appointed by God. And his religious thoughts, in many cases, depended on the ideal official's stance.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.329-352
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• 2006

This study investigated the background of the first and revised editions of the Han-Un Decimal Classification(HUDC), and analyzed their relationships to and influences on other major related classification systems. HUDC was compiled in 1954 and revised in 1981. HUDC was influenced by NDC in most classes of main classes and mnemonic schedules, and influenced by KDCP in the classes Religion, Language and Literature.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.46
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• pp.33-68
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• 2023

Simwudo (尋牛圖), known as Ox Seeking Pictures, originated in the 11th-12th century and have consistently played a guiding role in the teachings of various religions in East Asia. Some Korean religions that emerged during modern times conveyed their teachings through depictions of ox seeking or herding. Among them, Daesoon Jinrihoe stands out as a representative religion. The belief system of this particular religion elucidates its distinct doctrine and worldview by reimagining Simwudo, into a new set of six panels (seven or nine panels in some variations). The Simwudo of Daesoon Jinrihoe differs from that of Buddhism, particularly in its treatment of meditation (禪), both in terms of context and significance. While they share similarities in the aspect of ox-seeking, the Buddhist Simwudo symbolizes human nature, whereas the Simwudo of Daesoon Jinrihoe represents the great Dao of Heaven and Earth propagated by Kang Jeungsan and brought into completion by Jo Jeongsan. In the Buddhist context, the subject of the search is the Ox, signifying the restoration of a deluded human's pure nature in order to achieve personal salvation and in some version of Simwudo, reenter society to perform salvific actions for others. On the other hand, in the Simwudo of Daesoon Jinrihoe depicts the process of a human attaining immortality and following the teachings of Jeungsan and Jeongsan. This culminates in the final image which is the redemption of the world. The final phase of the Buddhist Simwudo, depending on the version, is either enlightenment (personal salvation) or reentering society to perform salvific actions (as a bodhisattva), whereas the Simwudo of Daesoon Jinrihoe show the simultaneous achievement of the perfection of humanity and the redemption of the world. This distinction highlights the fundamental differences between the Simwudo of these two distinctly different religious traditions. These differences arise from the contrasting purposes pursued by Buddhism and Daesoon Jinrihoe.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.32
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• pp.109-136
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to look at the concept of Gaebyeok as used by Kang Jeungsan (姜甑山) from a civilizational perspective. The combination of East Asian civilization during the period of Korea's port-opening and the subsequent inflow of Western powers with material civilization all at the forefront in the late Joseon Korea, served as the driving force for a new civilizational transition. Unlike the Chuk-sa Party and the Gae-hwa Party, modern Korean religions that emphasized Gaebyeok also responded to Western civilization and suggested a new view of civilization. Kang Jeung-san, resisting discrimination and oppression, presented a civilization built upon mutual beneficence while criticizing Western civilizations which centered on reason. Amid this process of the spread of modern Western civilization, Jeungsan declared the construction of a new civilization to the people who were negatively impacted by various social factions, such as class and gender discrimination, political corruption, exploitation via political corruption, and the inflow of Western powers. Jeungsanist Thought developed criticisms of materialism and human alienation, and this resulted in the claim of Gaebyeok. This was an expression of efforts to build a new civilization that aimed to harmonize, integrate, and thrive. The new civilization envisioned by Jeungsan was that of a society run according to mutual beneficence, and it can be summarized as a 'Civilization of Harmonious Union' that integrates philosophical thought and civilizational models of both East and West. This could also be referred to a 'Civilization of Public-commons and Harmony between Divine Beings and Human Beings (神人公共).' The life of Jeungsan was a life spent in the service of curing the world to save the lives of humanity. Since then, his 'movement of mutual beneficence' as observed in Mugeuk-do and Taegeuk-do were also efforts to build the new civilization envisioned by Jeungsan.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.26
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• pp.150-193
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• 2014

The point in the thought of modern Japanese State Shinto(國家神道) liesin the concept of "kokutai"(國體) which was highly connected with theideology of Emperor system. The kokutai, mainly made up of "the oracle byAmaterasu blessing Japan to be as eternal as heaven and earth"(天壤無窮の神勅), "an unbroken line of Emperors"(萬世一系), and the notion of"Emperor as living God"(現人神), was clearly manifested at Kokutai noHongi(國體の本義), published by the Ministry of Education, Science andCulture 1n 1937. Then, the notion of public-private represented by "selflessdevotion"(滅私奉公) was the prevailing substance of that kokutai. Thepurpose of this essay is to examine the way how the "theology of kokutai" -kokutai ideology based upon such a notion of public-private represented by"selfless devotion" - had been described at Kokutai no Hongi, and tounderstand the mythological, theological meaning of that "theology ofkokutai" associated with the religiosity of State Shinto. Additionally, this essaywill explore a kind of aesthetical way how to reproduce the State Shinto incontemporary Japanese society from the perspective of "collusion betweenpublic and private". In doing so, this paper will pay attention to the principaltexts of State Shinto such as Meiji Constitution(大日本帝國憲法, 1889),Imperial Rescript on Education(敎育勅語, 1890), Kamunagara no Taido(惟神の大道, 1940), Shinmin no Michi(臣民の道, 1941), Kokushi Kaisetsu(國史槪說, 1943), and Jinja Hongi(神社本義,1944), including Kokutai no Hongi.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.52
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• pp.185-211
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• 2017

Lee Neung Hwa is a scholar of the late Joseon Dynasty, renowned for his studies of Korean studies. In this thesis, the study of Confucianism and Buddhism removed the research and teachings of Confucianism as a traditional study of Confucianism. Lee Neung Hwa criticized the social functioning of Confucian texts during the late Joseon Dynasty. His criticisms reflect the historical consciousness of the late Joseon Dynasty. Lee Neung Hwa is also known as the Buddhist religion. The History of Chosun Buddhism is his masterpiece. He pointed out the differences between the Buddhist scriptures of the Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese Buddhist scriptures. Moreover, the Joseon Dynasty felt more integrated into the Japanese Buddhist kingdom than in Japan. And ineunghwa also studied the mythology of Korea. He established a universal cultural phenomenon as a universal cultural phenomenon, which belongs to any ethnic Koreans. He insisted that the Sin Gyo of Dan Gun is the identity of Korean culture. His Founding Myth was not a matter of historical fact. His Founding Myth was a tool of ideological struggle to fight against Japanese imperialism.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.44
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• pp.53-96
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• 2023

This article apprehends Yeongdae (靈臺), the most sacred shrine of Daesoon Jinrihoe which has earlier historical precedents, as an example of material religion. In East Asia, the first Yeongdae was a structure that King Wen of Zhou commissioned to be built. As the time passed by, the meaning of Yeongdae was changed to signify a mental yeongdae, the object and the aim of cultivation, and the notional mindset that appears in the Daoist meditation, Cunsi (存思, visualization). This implies that Yeongdae has signified both material and non-material objects. Throughout most of history, these two concepts had never been related to each other, but shifted in form and meaning depending on context. Daesoon Jinrihoe, which emerged in the modern era of Korea, used the concept of investiture of gods and combined the two into one. Accordingly, the Yeongdae, referred to by King Wen to indicate his shrine, was expressed as a spot wherein the gods were enshrined on the earth. As an innovation, Daesoon Jinrihoe argued that gods correspond to properly eligible human beings according to the degree of their cultivation and that sacred space was instead defined a spot within the human mind, a mental yeongdae, where the gods could be enshrined into humanity (神封於人). From the perspective of Lévi-Strauss, the factors that are discovered in the tradition of East Asia, namely, the Yeongdae of King Wen and the mental yeongdae of Zhuangzi can combined with consistency and established in the doctrinal system of Daesoon Jinrihoe. Such an attempt refers to bricolage which re-creates the traditional concepts of the past. In this regard, the concept of invented tradition coined by Eric Hobsbawm could also be used to conclude that the Yeongdae (the shrine of gods) of Daesoon Jinrihoe can be expressed as an invented Yeongdae, which transcends the existing categories of material yeongdae and non-material yeongdae.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.41
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• pp.27-61
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• 2022

Documentation related to Mugeuk-do (Limitless Dao) is rare in comparison to other Korean new religions given that it has been open to the public and translated since the 1970s. Due to its rarity, the documentation has been used uncritically, without there being any comparative study or historical research. It is undeniable that distortions and fallacies are embedded in these documents, and this has resulted in quite a few problems in precisely understanding Mugeuk-do and Daesoon Jinrihoe (The Fellowship of Daesoon Truth), an order that has inherited the legacy of Mugeuk-do. In this regard, this study aims to critically define the characteristics and limitations of the major documents related to Mugeuk-do that were published by the colonial government in the 1920s~1930s and recorded by multiple orders in the 1970s-1980s through comparisons. An attempt to conduct this research allows for the discovery of a solution to the problem of uncritical usage of those materials. The documents produced by the colonial government that can be used as basic texts to study Mugeuk-do are The General Conditions of the Religion Mugeuk-do (無極大道敎槪況) and Unofficial Religions of the Korea (朝鮮の類似宗敎). These can be found through bibliography, comparison, and historical research. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of The General Conditions of the Religion Mugeuk-do are a possible source on the order that reflects the circumstances of Mugeuk-do until 1925. In the case of Unofficial Religions of the Korea, if the descriptive perspective on unofficial religions is excluded, the articles written about the circumstances post 1925 have credibility. Another document that describes multiple orders and can be used as a basic text is chapter 2 of 'Progress of the Order' in Daesoon Jinrihoe's The Canonical Scripture. This is because its record precisely reflects the conditions of the era, with regard to the fact that it is the freest from distortions caused by changes in the belief system and it is less biased towards certain sects or denominations. Furthermore, the collection period of the articles is the earliest. Accordingly, as basic texts, Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of The General Conditions of the Religion Mugeuk-do and the articles from Unofficial Religions of the Korea after 1925, as well as chapter 2 of 'Progress of the Order' in The Canonical Scripture are appropriate for studying Mugeuk-do. In addition, Overview of Bocheonism, History of Jeungsan-gyo, and The True Scripture of the Great Ultimate can be utilized as references after removing distortions and fallacies through comparative study. Henceforth, relevant documents should be utilized to establish comprehensive data on Mugeuk-do through comparative and historical research.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.135-156
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• 2010

While there are a few ways of giving meanings to the term, "Altai" ranging from a language family to a national residing around the Altai Mountains in Russian Federation, and to the people speaking the language or the whole area where they live, there have been controversial debates whether it is a meaningful categorization. This paper argues that the basic cause lying beneath the controversies is the underdevelopment of the subject that identifies itself as a representative of the whole area where the Altaic language family is spoken. It might be true, as some Korean and Russian scholars insist, that what deserves to be called Altaic culture (or civilization) has provided a common culture and mutual interactions with the people. However, the Altaic people failed to constitute themselves as a meaningful modern group, that is a nation, and they did not fully develop national consciousness, As a result, although their way of life may be regarded as an origin of various cultures across North-East Asia, Altaic culture is not sufficient to give a momentum to claim for cultural initiative in the region. This comes at least partly from the reconfiguration of ethnic identity through a Soviet type of modernization and its geopolitical situation surrounded by super-powers such as China and Russia, as well as belated import of religions such as Buddhism and Christianity. From a wide perspective, the trouble about delimiting an area is not unique in Altai, but universally found in anywhere, as far as area studies are concerned. The delimitation of an area is not a natural outcome of physical environment but an artificial production of how cultural-political relationships have been distributed. Therefore, while the case of Alai has its own specificities, its implications that a national or regional boundary in area studies should not be taken for granted may be applied to other areas.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.36-42
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• 2004

People's Interest about culture is increasing to reach in today's knowledge based society on age of modern industrial society. Conversion of human based idea arrived in step that human through scientific technique development such as life reproduction approaches gradually in God's sacred ground. Evolution of human's culture was proceeded slowly in current of such radical change.Life underestimate, religion war, pollution etc. are seeming to keep away human development.This treatise wishes to redefine concept of suitable culture in new terminology of 'SeaCricle' that have characteristic of water at 21C's New Age.