• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.195-213
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the meaning of 'Good Death' that the Korean aged people are generally thinking based on their values and the sentiments. For this purpose, we carried out individual and in-depth interviews with 40 aged persons living in Seoul taking their genders and social-economic status into consideration from March to May 2003. We applied qualitative research method to this study. Eight graduate students were responsible for the interviews. They majored in gerontology or had experiences of field work with old persons. It took an average of one and a half hour and maximum of two hours for each of the interviews. All of the processes of each interview were tape-recorded under the agreement with each interviewee. The main and sub themes from the data can be classified to seven categories according to the Phenomenological Approach designed by Colaizzi(1978). The main theme of good death that most of the interviewees considered was 'Blessed Death', very similar to 'Death Fortune' in the five good fortunes found in Korean tradition and the Confucianism. Also, the main concept is classified to seven sub-themes: (1) Not seeing their children's death; (2) Dying in front of their children; (3) Not to be a burden of their children during their lives; (4) Dying after doing all of their duties as parents; (5) Dying with no pain; (6) Completing the natural span of their lives; and (7) Prepared death. Thus, 'Blessed Death' that Korean aged people consider seems to be very closely related with the lives, health, happiness and success of their children. Based on the findings, we concluded that both social policy makers and social service providers are required to keep in mind the meanings of 'Good death' that most of the Korean aged people consider in order to help them enjoy successful aging during their remaining lives.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.61-73
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to improve interest and attitude of student's Technology-Home Economics Curriculum and to recognize the change of recognition on Traditional image through Natural Dyeing and Jogakbo making on the unit of making living goods with fabrics in Technology-Home Economics curriculum on first year high school. The abridged result of study following this: First, in Natural Dyeing and Jogakbo making, teaching-learning plan applying LT cooperative studying and learning materials have been developed. Second, after applying the developed lesson plan, the result showed that the change in learning interest and attitude about Technology-Home Economics curriculum was positively improved. After executing the class on Natural Dyeing and Jogakbo making, the interest and concern about tradition were very positively upgraded through the result analyzing the change of recognition on traditional image. Through these results, The Teaching-learning plan and learning materials would show high possibility of application as educational contents about traditional culture in the field of education. After executing the class on making of Natural dyeing and Jogakbo, the learning interest degree and attitude was very positively upgraded, and the recognition on traditional image had been changed to the active and positive recognition.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 2010

Palaces of a country can be representative aggregate of the culture and arts of the country. Palaces were used not only as a living place to protect kings and royal families and to live cultural lives, but also a political place to govern the country. Kings in Choseon founded the country on the Sung Confucianism, their philosophical background. They built Bangji and Wondo as constant reminders of their philosophy. Bangji is the most apparent characteristic in the palace gardens of the Choseon Dynasty. Finding out the original form of Jidang, restoring the original and passing it on to future generations can be passing on the spiritual culture of our ancestors. This study is done to find out or locate well preserved Jidang, transformed Jidang and lost Jidang in Changdeokgung, which is the best conserved palace of Choseon. This study is composed of Jidang which has been kept in its original state, transformed Jidang, locating lost Jidang and Jidnang which has been unearthed. The total number of Donggwoldo's Jidangs is 17; those that are kept in their original state, 4; transformed Jidangs, 5; Jidangs that were lost and have been located, 8; and newly appeared Jidangs, 2. From the results, opinions on restoration are presented. This study can be a small drop in the thin stream of tradition passing onto future generations in this world where knowledge and information are transported momentarily and the classification of culture and border is mixed, yielding vagueness.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.126
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• pp.321-343
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• 2013

The Reformation seems to have nothing to do with modern philosophy, but in reality closely related to it. From a philosophical point of view, the Reformation had a profound effect on the formation of modern philosophy in two respects. Voluntarism, asserting the predominance of divine will over divine reason, which is the basic principle of the Reformation, allowed an arbitrary interpretation of the Bible by ignoring the tradition of the Church and emphasizing 'Sola Fide'. As a result, the severe religious disputes arose and the modern intellectuals sought a deism and natural religion as an universal religion which is expected to put an end to religious conflicts. Moreover, voluntarism changed the way of inquiring nature from the speculative to the experimental based on observation and experiment, and provided the clues of the birth of experimental philosophy (empiricism) which is the experimental inquiry of human nature. In short, the Reformation brings about the search for universal religion on the one hand, but on the other the advent of experimental philosophy. Universal religion is not a mystic religion on which the religious behaviors and practices are based but just a world view that is the basis for scientific inquiry, and it was nothing but a philosophy for science. And also the experimental philosophy was a philosophy by science in that it is a science of human nature through experiment and observation, After all, the Reformation expelled religion from the main living room of philosophy and placed science on the spot instead.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.212-231
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• 2021

This study examines the types of gods worshiped in the homes of Utsunoya village, the places where they are enshrined, the rituals and food offered to the gods, the decorations during the rituals, and the people's beliefs. Also, by comparing the gods worshiped in houses in remote Utsunoya with those of downtown Shizuoka, the differences and changes in the gods worshiped in the two contemporary spaces were predicted. Today, the gods enshrined in Utsunoya's houses are amatelaseu oomikami (天照大神), ancestor, ebisu, daigoku, kojin, inari, the god of the toilet, the god of land, and the god of water. From December 31st to January 3rd and on January 15th, Obon (July 15th), October when there is a festival at the village shrine, and on Ebisu Day (October 19th and 20th), residents offer drinks and food to the gods. Japanese beliefs at home are polytheistic in nature. They maintain national identity through kamidana and maintain family identity through ancestor worship linked to the Buddhist altar. The Japanese beliefs at home are firmly established in the background of the home, the base of family life. Japanese houses have a strong character as a religious space where they coexist "with the gods," and the residents have a cultural tradition of living with the gods.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.54-71
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• 2018

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first inscription of 12 UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1978. Based on an overview of the implementation of the 'Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage', this article examines the current issues of the inscription of cultural heritage over the past 40 years. In particular, this paper focuses on the case study of 'Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Munakata Region' nominated by Japan, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 41st World Heritage Committee in 2017. Also, it demonstrates the recent trend and investigates the issues of imbalances in the evaluation and the decisions among relevant actors in the nomination process of World Heritage. Furthermore, this article attempts to derive feasible implications and lessons, and to generate heritage discourse by examining Japan's management in 'heritage diplomacy' of the World Heritage Convention, which is rapidly changing in the course of its nearly half a century of implementation. In conclusion, the research is expected to provide Korea with strategic guidance marking the 30th anniversary of its entry into the Convention, and to steer the future direction for the inscription and conservation of cultural heritage.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.32
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• pp.245-278
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to create an inter-religious dialogue between the Western Christian concept of the spirit and Eastern ch'i philosophy within the category of panentheism. The Hebrew term ruah means 'moving air' and 'wind' which derive from the particular experience of the ancient Hebrew people living in the desert. The Greek pnuema also means 'life' and 'wind' which denote the natural power. Both ruah and pneuma consist of the main idea of the spirit exploring the symbol of relationality of the divine in Western tradition. Eastern ch'i philosophy indicates a vital force for keeping the body and soul alive, which is unconscious and spontaneous. Ch'i as a vital force constitutes cosmogony and cosmology with the constant movement of yin and yang. Yin and Yang as representing earth and heaven are dynamic breaths, blending harmoniously to become all existence. The ethical implication of the inter-religious dialogue between the spirit and ch'i would be the integration and interconnection of heaven, earth, and human beings. The dialogue suggests becoming one body with nature and human community through embodying the non-dualistic spirit of life. The inter-relationality means that since all modalities of existence are made of the cosmic life, human beings are part of the divine cosmic process. This is related to degree of spirituality in the entire chain of being: rocks, trees, animals, humans, and goods represent different levels of spirituality based on the varying composition of the spirit and ch'i. All beings that internally embody with the spirit and ch'i are organically inter-connected, and they are integral part of a continuous process of transformation of life towards holistic liberation of human and nature community.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.95-116
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• 2014

Paul Auster's The Locked Room, the third novel of The New York Trilogy, has been examined by many critics in terms of anti-detective fiction or postmodernism. However, this paper focuses upon how the author adopts and utilizes some key elements of the traditional detective novel and its literary tradition. Mystery storytelling is one of Auster's literary strategies and the theme of the double is another. For his novel Auster explores the theme of the double as in Poe's "William Wilson." In The Locked Room, the narrator "I" is described as a shadow of his childhood friend Fanshawe. After Fanshawe's disappearance "I" becomes a literary agent for his friend, and becomes a husband of his friend's wife and a father of his friend's child. Searching for information to write a biography of his friend, he realizes that his friend has always been living inside his skull condemned to a mystical solitude. When Fanshawe appears in the narrator's mind as an image of the door of a locked room, the locked room is also a metaphor for the closed consciousness of the narrator. In his strategy of mystery storytelling, Auster employs the quest of detective fiction as well as the irony of Oedipus the King, where the criminal pursued by the king turns out to be himself. The Locked Room starts with the mystery of Fanshawe's disappearance, and as the novel develops, the narrator pursues numerous clues about his biographical subject like a private eye. Ironically, however, he finds that the ghost of Fanshawe has always been with him and that this is inevitable. As the narrator resolves to quit his life as a double, he contrives to name a strange man Fanshawe as if he tries to turn his biographical subject into a fictional character in the same way Fanshawe has controlled the narrator like a character in Fanshawe's novel. Beaten by the fictional Fanshawe and recovering from a near-death experience, the narrator prepares for his final showdown with Fanshawe. The transcendence of his existence as a double is epitomized by his act to tear off the red notebook handed to him by Fanshawe, which confusingly delivers a message that a life is doomed to be a failure. The narrator's act to cut off Fanshawe's influence bespeaks his breaking out of his locked consciousness and a new start for his life with his own identity.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.25
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• pp.355-379
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• 2009

According to the estimations in historical books and research achievements which have been produced, Ji-kang was a prominent Taoist in the Wei-Jin dynasty. But some philosophers, on their opinions, regard Ji-kang as a scholar who withdrawal from ordinary life in the real society. In this sense, this article investigates the Ji-kang's perspective of the life in seclusion, in particular, by analysing the letter to Shan Ju-yuan in breaking off relations與山居源絶交書. The purpose of this thesis is to clarify Ji-kang's the ideal of life, by discussing the reaction to the realistic society, the reflection on the confused society and the change into the new ideal of life of Ji-kang. Ji-kang's the ideal of life in the letter to Shan Ju-yuan in breaking off relations與山居源絶交書 have the following characteristics: First, he has pursued to participate in the real society by passive and immediate way, but he realized how difficult his ideal comes true. Thus, he seek the new ideal of life, hermit. Second, according to the view of hermit in the ancient Chinese tradition, his view of hermit implicates the change in his ideological tendency from the hermit of Confucianism and Taoism to the hermit of Taoism. Third, he tried whatever methods that were passive and seclusive to participate in the real society, but he isn't a common idealist. In this way, Ji-kang applied these thought of the social life and the ideal of life to the philosophy of living.

• 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.