• 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.31
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• pp.199-235
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• 2018

Most of the new religions derived from Jeungsan have claimed that Jeungsan's religious thought reproduced Dangun [檀君] Thought in its original form. However, Daesoon Jinrihoe is the only religious order out of the many new religions within the Jeungsan lineage, which has constantly kept its distance from Dangun Thought since 1909 during the earliest period of proto-Daesoon Jinrihoe. Even a mere trace of Dangun cannot be found in the subject of faith or the doctrinal system of Daesoon Jinrihoe. In this context, this study aims to examine possible connections between Daesoon Thought and Dangun Thought in order to determine why other Jeungsanist religions frequently exhibit Dangunist features. Specifically, a major part of this study will be devoted to comparing and analyzing the narrative structure of Daesoon Thought and Dangun Thought as well as their respective motifs. In fact, Jeungsan does not seem to have ever mentioned Dangun in his recorded teachings, therefore, after his passing into the Heaven, most of the religious orders including Daesoon Jinrihoe derived from him did not pay any attention to Dangun Thought for almost for 40 years. These orders did not originally perceive Dangun as an object of belief. After Korea's liberation, Dangun became widely accepted as a pivotal role among the Korean people. As Dangun-nationalism claimed to unify Koreans as one great Korean ethnic society, the religious orders of Jeungsan lineage also climbed aboard this creed and their faiths or doctrines were acculturated to reflect this change. The reason for this has been attributed to following modern trends to increase success in propagation. In the meantime, Daesoon Jinrihoe was the only order that did not accept Dangun-nationalism because it was not a teaching given by the order's founder. And the two systems of thought have more dissimilarity than parallelism in terms of philosophical ideology. These seem to be the main reasons why Daesoon Jinrihoe did not adopt Dangun into its doctrine or belief system.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.36
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• pp.203-228
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• 2009

ChaeHo Shin's major interests were in the ancient history, among other periods of the Korean history. Shin's depiction of history is characterized by having nation in the heart of history, whose tendency of nationalism was purposefully strong. In general, the nationalism of those times was emphasizing a 'strong' nation, just as in the case of Shin's theory, and at the same time stood for the theory of social evolution with a view to raising the nation in the front line of history. The nationalism, in association with the theory of social evolution, ended up having a propensity that criticizes imperialism on the one hand, and envies it on the other. This inclination is literally shown in Doksasillon (A New Guide to Reading History), which is ChaeHo Shin's research on the ancient history. Doksasillon is a historical essay that was published serially in 50 installments from August 27th through December 13th in 1908. Unlike the existing views in the late 1900s on the ancient history, among other ages of the Korean history, Doksasillon can be called a treatise with a focus on nation. Doksasillon is an incomplete study which can be divided into two parts, introduction and ancient times that is the first volume. It, nevertheless, shows the aspect of a powerful nation activist who tried to surmount the life-and-death crisis of nation by 'recalling' the nation in the period of the late-Joseon and the Korean empire in 1908 and 'rediscovering' the territory. It also reflects a slice of a historian's anguish that attempted to cope with the national crisis by virtue of the 'power' of history. It is ChaeHo Shin who 'rediscovered' the Buyeo tribe as the mainstream of the ancient history of Korea, and recomposed and materialized the ancient history. Shin chose the 'Buyeo tribe' as a principal race, and used it as a representative of the Korean nation in the ancient era, which was because Buyeo and Goguryeo were the strongest. The emphasis laid on the powerful nation in the history of Korea well reflects the efforts of a powerful nation activist in the age of the late-Joseon, and on the other hand, it shows how nationalism came to be formed in Korea. ChaeHo Shin is regarded as a person who lived in the age in which nationalism, which underscores the homogeneity of a nation, had to be stressed as a sole weapon for a nation who was left behind in modernization and whose rights were disseized. Dosasillon shows a process of reconstructing the history of DanKun and the Buyeo tribe and unearthing a hero who was valued as a savior of the nation, which was the reason that ChaeHo Shin wrote a history.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.41
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• pp.7-40
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• 2008

The aim of this study is to examine the role of publishing in emerging process of nationalism in modern Korea. In the process of coping with the imperialist invasion, the Korean nationalism had begun to emerge. With the Patriotic Enlightenment movement from 1905 till 1910, the publishing in Korea had become activated remarkably. With the books of enlightenment the Korean society could try to overcome the traditional China-centered world view and try to build up a new recognition of 'others'. In addition the books of enlightenment provided information on the various aspects of modern nationalism. And the republishing the Korean classical books seemed to have been very conducive to improve national self-esteem of Korea. The books on history contributed to building up new national identity which was an indispensable to the nationalism. The Korean history was reinvented from the nationalistic viewpoint. The biographies of historic heros presented some historic model of overcoming the national crisis. In conclusion the publishing in modern Korea played an important role in emerging process of the Korean nationalism.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.52
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• pp.213-241
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• 2017

The systematic research on the Joseon history under Japanese imperialism in the 1920s, including that of the Joseon History Compilation Committee, was one of the stratagems that Japan employed to perpetuate the colonization of Joseon. The 'renovation of national traits', one of the three cultural measures taken by Japanese imperialism after the 1919 Independence Movement, was an attempt to degrade Joseon's nationality as extraneous, dependent, factional, and uncivilized. Against this, Koreans tried to create their own tradition that could prove Joseon's uniqueness and independence. The purpose of their study on ancient history, which became animated in the 1920s, was not to escape from the reality of Joseon into the idealized past, but to construct the history of Korean people anew. In this context, Dangun could refer to cultural identity as the communal origin of the nation, and this invented identity could lead to the healing of the injured subject. An Hwak's attempt was part of this efforts to call out myth as history. He suggests that Joseon's national traits are superior even to the Western civilization in several ways, and his vast plan to set up Joseon's cultural uniqueness and identity as history of universal civilization bore fruit in the History of Joseon Civilization. With cultural research for figuring out Joseon's national peculiarity and identity and historiography for revealing Joseon's national potential, he makes it possible for people to imagine various agents in the Joseon's past as belonging to a single nation with an identical history. Through his study on Joseon, he fought back the Japanese colonial view of history and tried to exalt national consciousness. Asserting independent and rational individuals as agency of civilization and culture though firm in the national perspective, he eventually went a way quite different from that of Japanese history of culture.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.29
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• pp.101-133
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• 2016

The term 'myth' is modern terminology. It was introduced to the East Asia from late 19th century to early 20th century. Under the rule of Japanese imperialism, some Japanese historians insisted that Dangun(檀君) has no relation with Kochoson(古朝鮮). Some Korean historians have refuted their conjecture. The arguments between Japanese and Korean historians bring about the motives of making the concept of Shinwa(神話) The purpose of this study is to investigate the historical procedures of making myth of Homogeneous Korean as a case study of "teaching religion". For the scholar the historic beginning is to be distinguished from later myths of origins. The scholars, particularly among the historians of China, Japan and Korea take it as the beginning of the history to investigate myths, for the ending parts of narratives are in themselves involved in a social constructs in order to give legitimacy to the story. It is apparent to satisfy for the current social demands of the nation-states building. It is also an act of casting and projecting their national values into the far distant past which is considered to be authentic and authorative. The western term 'myth' had been made up in Japanese historical context in order to build "nation-state concept". In Korea, the myth of homogeneous ethnicity of Koreans had been also reconstructed as modern myth during the late 19th and the early 20th century. We can call it the invention of the tradition accordingly.