• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.41-59
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• 2022

Caodaism is a new religion from Vietnam which began in late 1925 and spread rapidly across the French colony of Indochina. With a broad syncretic aim, the new faith sought to revivify Vietnamese religious traditions whilst also incorporating religious, literary, and spiritist influences from France. Like Catholicism, Caodaism kept a strong focus on its monotheistic nature and today Caodaists are eager to label their religion a monotheism. It will be argued here, however, that the syncretic nature of this new faith complicates this claim to a significant degree. To make this argument, we will consider here the nature of God in Caodaism through two central texts from two important stages in the life of the religion. The first is the canonized Compilation of Divine Messages which collects a range of spirit messages from God and some other divine voices. These were received in the early years of the faith. The second is a collection of sermons from 1948/9 that takes Caodaist believers on a tour of heaven, and which is entitled The Divine Path to Eternal Life. It will be shown that in the first text, God speaks in the mode of a fully omnipotent and omniscient supreme being. In the second text, however, we are given a view of paradise that is much more akin to the court of a Jade Emperor within an East Asian milieu. In these realms, the personalities of other beings and redemptive mechanisms claim much of our attention, and seem to be a competing center of power to that of God. Furthermore, God's consort, the Divine Mother, takes on a range of sacred creative prerogatives that do something similar. Additionally, cadres of celestial administrators; buddhas, immortals, and saints help with the operation of a cosmos which spins on with guidance from its own laws. These laws form sacred mechanisms, such as cycles of reincarnation and judgement. These operate not in the purview of God, but as part of the very nature of the cosmos itself. In this context, the dualistic, polytheistic, and even automatic nature of Caodaism's cosmos will be considered in terms of the way in which they complicate this religion's monotheistic claims. To conclude, this article seeks to demonstrate the precise relevance of the term 'monotheism' for this religion.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.639-666
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• 2010

Meditation on Christ's body is peculiar to late medieval female mysticism. The somatic meditation on Christ basically derives from the Incarnation, but the female mystics focused more on the Passion and the Eucharist, i.e., Christ's bleeding and feeding. Then, female body structure and the gender role of nurturing were combined to make facile her imitatio Christi, because the female body was aptly identified with Christ's body. The blood flowing in the side of Christ was often in medieval graphics and texts identified with a mother's milk for a baby to suck. Wound and food, suffering and nourishing, were inseparable in Christ's and the female mystics' body. Thus, in late medieval female mystical practice, it is important to note, first, female mystics' bodily pain was not to be cured but endured; second, that not only did a female mystic eat Christ's body, but her own body was to be "eaten" by poor neighbors, just as Christ gave his own body to be eaten by believers. As Christ's body is punctured, so does the female body have open holes, and as Christ is food, so is the female body. This female meditation on Christ's body developed the notion of "divine motherhood" to be accepted and enjoyed quite literally by the female mystics in late medieval times. Yet, in a sense, the female mystics' meditating on Christ's feminine function of nourishing can be considered as their accepting and interiorizing the socially constructed female gender role and thus lacking in subversive power. Nevertheless, this meditative practice at least functioned to redeem the female body which had typically been labelled inferior and even dirty. Through Christ's feminized body, the female mystics rehabilitated their bodily dimension, presenting it to be shared by male believers. Capitalizing on the gender stereotype of womanhood itself, they converted female weakness to power.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.224-264
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• 2010

A brief story of the tale follows : Mokdoryung was a son of an arbor tree and a fairly. When the boy was 7-8 years old, mother-fairy returned to the sky. By using father-tree, Mokdoryung survived from the flood where he saved ants, mosquitos, and a boy with the same age. They arrived on top of the highest mountain, met an old woman with two daughters, worked as servants. With help of insects, Mokdoryung passed the trials, married to a wise daughter and 2 couples became the ancestor of the mankind. Interpretation of the tale starts with amplification of tree which symbolizes Self and Libido. As the son of the tree-spirit and a fairly from the sky, Mokdoryung is a kind of 'divine child' which represents a psychic possibility to understand archetypal nature of unconscious. Adversities of early childhood due to mother's absence regarded as necessary condition for 'divine child' to attain highest good. Flood can be compensation of absence of feminine as well as to bring a new life. The notion of father·tree becomes a kind of life-boat has to do with union of opposite(vertical phallic tree and horizontal feminine boat). Ants and mosquitoes represent upper and lower level of unconsciousness, they mediate divine power. Therefore respecting insects means respecting unconscious, and reward of insects means salvation come from unconscious. The boy saved from the flood presents emergence of psychic energy in its latent unconscious condition to create mental dynamism. The old woman is Great Mother or anima, the controller or guider of unconscious. Working as servants can be an active service for the divine marriage. Trials of separating millet from sand, and finding right direction relate to separatio, means one needs to be separated from unconscious before conunctio, union of opposite. Two sets of couple becoming ancestor of man-kind has to do with number 4 (quaternity) as well as regeneration. Although the tale includes both positive couple (Mokdoryung, wise daugther in east room). and negative couple(shadow side of Mokdoryung, step daughter in west room)as ancestors of mankind, "Good" seems to be more valued than "evil".

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.529-552
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• 2011

My essay aims at reading Ginsberg's "Howl" and "Kaddish" with the concept of 'shaman-prophet-poet' to illustrate the dynamic relationship between his poetics and radical politics. Throughout his widely-ranging career, Ginsberg represents himself as a poet-prophet and commands a typical rhetoric of revelation as a way of decentering Cold War orthodoxies. While well aware of the oppressive and pervasive power of the dominant post-war ideologies, he adopts 'madness' to oppose conventional political, social, and religious institutions; by way of entering into the madness of this world and actively engaging himself as a victim, he can finally heal both himself and the world. This dual function of poet characterizes his rhetoric of revelation, but it doesn't appeal to the mainstream of American critical ideology where the post-structural approach to language and subject gives a skeptical look at any account of active human agency and humanistic belief in the possibility of language. In "Howl" and "Kaddish," Ginsburg persuades the reader of the truth of his own vision through the convincing and realistic portraits of his contemporaries as well as his own mother and family. Different from his visionary predecessors such as Emerson and Whitman, Ginsberg knew the difficulty of a negotiation between history and divine vision, and attempted to imbricate his family, friends, and even the larger social and political units within his visionary experience in order to avoid naive idealism, escapism, or solipsism. Furthermore, he deconstructs the Logos of Western prophecy and replaces it with the groundless identity and the nontheistic epistemology of Buddhism, which, in turn, leads to emptying his powerful language of absolutist meaning and prevents his prophecy from becoming re-reified as divine essentialism. Ginsberg's idea of poet and poem revitalizes the skeptical view on language and literary representation of our contemporary critical community which is unwilling to engage the experimental scope of his radical prophecy.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.99-148
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• 2022

This study aims at the psychological elucidation of some conscious aspects of the personality of Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598), the Korean national hero, and the unconscious teleologic meanings of his dreams mentioned in Nanjung Ilgi (Diary in War Time) from the viewpoint of analytical psychology of C.G. Jung. Yi Sun-sin was a man of discipline, incorporated with the spirit of Confucian filial piety, hyo (hsiao) and royalty, chung. He was a stern man but with a warm heart. In his diary, Yi Sun-sin poured forth his feelings of suffering, despair, and extreme solicitude caused by slanders of his political opponents, his grief for the loss of mother and son, and his worries about the fate of his country, which the Japanese invaders now plundered. The moon night offered him the opportunity to touch with his inner soul, by reciting poems, playing Korean string, 'Keomungo', and flute. Further, he widened his scope by asking for the answers from the 'Heaven' through divination and dream. Yi Sun-sin's attitude toward his mother who raised the future hero and maternal principles were considered in concern with the Jungian term 'mother complex'. Won Gyun, Yi Sun-sin's rival admiral, who persistently accused Yi Sun-sin of 'slanders,' certainly represents the unconscious shadow image of Yi Sun-sin. The reciprocal 'shadow' projection has intervened in the conflicting relationship between Yi and Won. In concern to the argument for the suicidal death of Yi Sun-sin, the author found no evidence supporting such an argument, No trace of latent suicidal wish was found in his dreams. For Yi Sun-sin, the determination of the life and death depends on Heaven. 32 dreams from the diary and 3 from other historical references were reviewed and analyzed in the Jungian way. Symbols of anima, Self, and individuation process were found. His dream repeatedly suggests that Yi Sun-sin is an extraordinary man chosen by the divine man (神人). In the dream, Yi Sun-sin was a disciple of the divine man receiving instructions on various strategies, and he alone could see the great thing or events. The dream of a beautiful blue and red dragon, whom he was friendly touching, indicates Yi Sun-sin's eligibility for the kingship. Yi Sun-sin seemingly did not aware of this message of the unconscious. Perhaps he sensed something special but did not identify with 'the disciple of gods' and 'royal dragon' in his dream. His modest attitude toward the dream has prevented him from falling into ego inflation. There were warning signals in two dreams that suggested disorders in the dreamer's instinctive feminine drive. Spirits of the dead father and brothers appear in the dream, giving advice or mourning for the death of Sun-sin's mother. Though Yi Sun-sin was a genuine Confucian gentleman, a dream revealed his unconscious drive to destroy the Confucian authoritative 'Persona' by trampling down the cylindrical traditional Korean hat. To the dreams of synchronicity phenomena Yi Sun-sin immediately solves the problem in concrete reality. He understood dreams as valuable messages from the superior entity, for example, the Confucian Heaven (天) or Heaven's Decree (天命). Furthermore, the 'Heaven' presumably arranged for him the way to the national hero and imposed necessary trials upon him. Both his persecutors and advocates of him guided him in the way of a hero. Yi Sun-sin followed his destiny and completed the living myth of the hero. His mother, King Seon-jo, and prime minister Liu Seong Yong, all have contributed to embodying the myth of the hero. Yi Sun-sin died and became god, the divine healer of the nation.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.963-978
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• 2008

This study examined the images and formative features of female characters portrayed in fantasy films. This study aimed at providing an applicable theory to modern fashion by reconsidering the images of women appearing in fantasy films and arranging fantastical features reflected in costumes of female characters. The followings were the results of the study: The first divine nature that human beings discovered was woman nature. The discovered stone worked of the prehistoric age had a meaning of the great mother of universe and expressed a positive image. Such positive images of the goddess were variously differentiated to negative images or reduced in their roles and meanings in the settlement process of patriarchy as well as sociocultural transition. The foremost examples of negative image were expressed as grotesque, destructive, otherness, sensual, and exotic. The positive image of a goddess in fantasy films was not especially emphasized. On the other hand, the negative images of the goddess and the case of costumes were variously expressed as well as emphasized the typicality of the negative image of the characters. It was reconsidered that the typical features of characters in fantasy films were a result of the image of women following sociocultural transition. In addition, it was confirmed that such result was being reflected in film costume.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.34
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• pp.107-139
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• 2020

This paper primarily focuses on the highest deity, the Upper Thearch of the Nine Heavens (officially translated as 'The Supreme God of the Ninth Heaven'), in the Korean new religious movement (NRM) Daesoon Jinrihoe and the true minister of the myriad spirits in the Taiwanese NRM, Yiguan Dao, the Upper Thearch of Manifest Luminosity. As the two both serve as highly representative "Upper Thearch" beliefs in emerging NRMs, I attempt a comparative analysis of the source of these beliefs, their characteristics, and the links that exist between them. On the basis of ancient Chinese classics and Daoist texts, along with Daesoon Jinrihoe's scriptures and works from Yiguan Dao's Canon, I try to understand the distinguishing features of cosmological ideas from both religious movements. For example, because the Upper Thearch of the Nine Heavens could not bear to see the human realm growing ever more disordered and in order to improve worldly conditions, he traveled to the harmonized realm of deities, and therefore descended into the world to make a great itineration and enlighten the people through his teachings. In the end, he came to Korea and was reborn as Kang Jeungsan (secular name: Kang Il-Sun) in Gaekmang Village. In the Human Realm, he spread his transformative teachings to the people which were later became the doctrines of the Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang, Harmonious Union between Divine Beings and Human Beings, the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence, and Perfected Unification (jingyeong 真境) with the Dao. Yiguan Dao; however, explains that the source of humanity is the "Heaven of Principle" (Litian 理天), and people are "Buddha's Children of the Original Embryo" (Yuantai Fozi 原胎佛子), created by the Upper Thearch of Manifest Luminosity, who came to world to govern and impart spiritual refinement, before returning to his native place in the Heaven of Principle. Yet, because he became infatuated with the world of mortals, he forgot the path of his return. Therefore, the Eternal Mother sent Maitreya Buddha, the Living Buddha Jigong 濟公, and the Bodhisattva of Moon Wisdom (Yuehui pusa 月慧菩薩) to descend to the human world and teach the people, so that they may acknowledge the Eternal Mother as the root of return, achieve their return to the origin, and go back to the home of the Eternal Mother in the Heaven of Principle. Both Daesoon Jinrihoe and Yiguan Dao refer to their highest deity, the true ministers of the myriad spirits, with the simple title "Upper Thearch." This phenomenon also has some ties to God in the western Biblical tradition but also has some key differences. In investigating the sources of these two deities, we find that they likely took shape during the Yinshang (殷商) period and have some relationship to the Upper Thearch of Chinese antiquity. The questions raised in this research are quite interesting and deserving of deeper comparative study.