• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.48
• /
• pp.199-237
• /
• 2024

Donghak-gyo, the Teaching of Eastern Learning, is a new religious order founded by Kim Ju-hee, centered around the Donghak (Eastern Learning) lineage. The core thought conveyed in the lyrics of Donghak-gyo songs (gasa) can be identified as the concept of 'Return to the Former World (先天),' considering the frequency of the term and the content of the recited verses. The view of time and destiny (時運觀) held by Eastern Learning emphasizes the concept of 'Another Great Opening.' Donghak-gyo's perspective on time and destiny is further rooted in the concept of 'Return to the Former World.' Donghak-gyo particularly emphasizes the term 'Former World,' and incorporates the Study of Changes (易學) into their songs. They recite verses that depict the situation of the Great Opening as an interaction between yin and yang. In Donghak-gyo, it is emphatically asserted that the completion of the Later World's destiny leads to the achievement of the 'Return to the Former World.' It is sung that with the restoration of destiny associated with the 'Return to the Former World,' the symbolic 'Spring (春)' represented by the virtue of Wood (木德) will return. Donghak-gyo describes the unfolding of a new cycle of destiny (運數) as the 'restoration of Changes (易).' When this occurs, they refer to the emerging new world, characterized by a new order and norms, as the 'Return to the Former World,' asserting that a 'moral world' will be established, leading to the development of a moral civilization. It is also sung that the restoration of the destiny associated with the Return to the Former World is akin to the restoration of the Heavenly Dao (天道). The characteristics of the concept of the Return to the Former World are threefold: firstly, it advocates a nostalgic system; secondly, it is a backward-looking thought; and thirdly, the idea of 'cyclical repetition' encourages tangible actions such as 'returning to the origin' or 'restoring fundamentals.' The concept of Return to the Former World in Donghak-gyo, unlike many new religions of those days, provided a unique conceptualization and understanding of the Former World and presented a new framework for interpretation. It moved away from the notion of discarding the Former World as a relic of an outdated era, and instead interpreted it as a new era to be embraced. Therefore, the concept of 'Return to the Former World' in Donghak-gyo should be re-assessed as one of the ideologies that inherits the pursuit of returning to and restoring the past in Eastern traditions. However, it can be criticized for lacking a concrete methodology with regards to the 'Return to the Former World.' Additionally, it is noted for deficiencies in ethical consciousness and moral virtues. Furthermore, its explanation about the Former World come across as insufficient. Thus, the concept of the 'Return to the Former World' in Donghak-gyo seems to be characterized more by declarative slogans than substantive content.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.47
• /
• pp.65-103
• /
• 2023

In The Canonical Scripture (典經), the core scripture of Daesoon Thought, the Former World and the Later World are divided into the Era of Mutual Contention and the Era of Mutual Beneficence. This concept of the Former World and the Later World appears in diagrams on I-Ching Studies (易學) in the text titled, The Comprehensive Mirror of Taegeukdo (太極道通鑑). In I-Ching Studies, Anterior Heaven (先天) and Posterior Heaven (後天) are the main concepts in Song Dynasty diagram books on I-Ching Studies. Among the diagrams of I-Ching Studies, Fuxi's Diagram of the Sequence of the Eight Trigrams, Fuxi's Diagram of the Positions of the Eight Trigrams, Fuxi's Diagram of the Sequence of the 64 Hexagrams, and Fuxi's Diagram of the Positions of the 64 Hexagrams correspond to the Anterior Heaven, and King Wen's Diagram of the Sequence of the Eight Trigrams and King Wen's Diagram of the Positions of the Eight Trigrams correspond to Posterior Heaven. In The Comprehensive Mirror of Taegeukdo, the diagrams of I-Ching Studies are reinterpreted according to Daesoon Thought. The Diagram of the Eight Trigrams of King Wen's Era corresponds to King Wen's Diagram of the Eight Trigrams in I-Ching Studies. This diagram was drawn according to the text in Chapter Five of the Treatise of Remarks on the Trigrams. This diagram corresponds to "the Era of the Nobility of Earth (地尊時代)" centered on the trigram kun (坤 / ☷ ground). Fuxi's Diagram of the Positions of the Eight Trigrams in I-Ching Studies corresponds to The Diagram of the Positions of the Eight Trigrams of Fuxi's Era in Daesoon Thought. The most significant feature of this diagram is that the trigrams assigned to the directions of north and south match the hexagram indicating the obstruction of Heaven and Earth. This is hexagram 12 (否), meaning "obstruction," and it depicts no exchange or communication between Yin and Yang. Naturally, this symbolizes mutual destruction overtaking Yin and Yang. Daesoon Thought expresses this as "the Era of the Nobility of Heaven (天尊時代)." The most significant feature of The Diagram of the Eight Trigrams of the Corrected Book of Changes in The Comprehensive Mirror of Taegeukdo is that the trigrams assigned to the directions of south and north are indicative of hexagram 11, Peace on Earth and in Heaven (泰). This is a diagram in which mutual destruction is resolved through the Five Phases because the trigrams for water (坎 / ☵) and fire (離 / ☲) are in a corrected orientation. Therefore, this diagram symbolizes a world "free from Mutual Contention" and "the Era of Human Nobility (人尊時代)." According to the contents of The Canonical Scripture, the Supreme God performed the Reordering Works of the Three Realms to correct the Mutual Contention of the Former World, and as a result, the Mutual Contention of the Former World will give way to the implementation of the Dao of Mutual Beneficence. The Supreme God's Reordering Works of the Three Realms have been completed in the realm of divine beings, but in the Later World, they appear as an Earthly Paradise where the Dao of Mutual Beneficence is realized. The diagram depicting the Later World is The Diagram of the Eight Trigrams of the Era of the Corrected Book of Changes in The Comprehensive Mirror of Taegeukdo.

• Journal of architectural history
• /
• v.7 no.1 s.14
• /
• pp.81-92
• /
• 1998

According to Post-modernists including deconstructivists, as Modernism is changed into Post-modernism, the paradigm is shifted from consciousness to language. The paradigm of consciousness corresponds to representational language, and the paradigm of language to self-referential one. In post-modern age most of architects are wandering what kind of language architecture is. Some theorists contend that architecture is representational, and others that it is self-referential. Allan Colquhoun, who is known as one of the best architectural theorists inUnited States, accepts both the former and the latter, but fails to reveal the meaning and the limitation, of the two languages. Although he believes that the representational language of architecture ('figure') is the source of self-referential language of architecture('form'), he never clearly answers what kind of language architecture. In order to overcome the limitation and the meaning of Colquhoun's figure and form, and synthesize the two language, this essay appropriates Martin Heidegger's some concepts, 'ready-to-hand,' 'present-at-hand' and 'being-in-the-world' to make a theoretical framework for 'image' which prevails over and synthesizes 'form' and 'figure.' Since Image is based upon both 'being-in-the world' and 'ready-to-hand,' it is the source of 'form' and 'figure.' When 'image' is fragmented, the former and the latter emerge. Image is therefore both the former and the latter because it represents and self-refers a world as a reality.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.39
• /
• pp.33-67
• /
• 2021

This paper aims at revealing the core concept of Injon (Human Nobility). The concept of Injon is one of the salient fundamental ideas which makes Daesoon Jinrihoe recognizable as Daesoon Jinrihoe. The concept of Injon has the basic meaning of 'human nobility,' but within the context wherein the nobility of humankind is considered to be greater than the nobility of Heaven and Earth. Although the religious and ideological interpretations of Injon (human nobility) that have developed over time have been quite diverse and abundant, these interpretations are all limited in that they generally assume the relationship between 'Heaven and Earth' and 'Humanity' to be antagonistic. However, if human nobility is relativized in that manner, it can reduce the potential broader meanings of mutual beneficence and the earthly paradise of the later world. These interpretations are grounded in the view of semiotic interpretation. Such interpretations have composed their view point via the semiotic meaning of the words. The semiotic point of view suggests that meanings of words consist in the relation of the word and the object to which it denotes. We will introduce a new view point which can be termed the transcendental view point. This view focuses on how the exact interpretation of words and sentences depends on the comprehension of the triad of systematic relations among the word, object, and speaker. In the Daesoon Thought, the Former World is considered to be the world wherein all creations unfolded according to the principle of mutual contention. This led to the accumulation of grievances and grudges which condensed and filled the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. The Former World was dominated by Western material civilization, selfishness, and exclusivism. It was also a world where humans suffered from various natural disasters such as floods, droughts, plagues, and wildfires. The Former World lost the constant Dao and was overwhelmed with all kinds of disasters and calamities. That world fell into various kinds of wretchedness. The causes which made the Former World so cruel came from humans misunderstanding their relation to nature and life in general; including human life. The anthropocentric modern cosmology insisted that the human race was the only one to have the powers and rights to exercise dominion over nature. On the other hand, there is the Later World, which means the ideal and perfect, immanent eternal world for all humankind in Daesoon Thought. This world consists of life, peace, and equality and is also characterized by three typical attributes: goodness, peace, and all kinds of life. All living beings previously struggled for survival, but in the Later World, those lifeforms will embrace each other; even across different realms. In Daesoon Thought, the world and cosmos contain diverse forms of life, and human have both an earthly life and life in the after world should they die before the Later World. There are also the lives of divine beings and animals, and other such living entities. Daesoon Thought subsumes pan-vitalism, which allows they acknowledgement of myriad possible lifeforms. The concept of the Later World in Daesoon Thought, which mainly revealed in The Canonical Scripture and the words of Sangje (Kang Jeungsan), suggests that all kinds of life, including humans, animals, and even spirits in the afterworld, can live together in a perfect coming earthly paradise which is immanent. The concept of Injon can be interpreted though the view of transcendental pragmatics as an alternative to the typical views discussed in Daesoon Thought. Thinkers should attempt to improve current discourse on Injon in Daesoon Thought by focusing on the point that all kinds the original teachings demonstrate a value of all lifeforms. Therein, Injon would indicate not only the human nobility and dignity but also the nobility and dignity of divine beings, divine humans, and all other forms of life that have existed across time. The dimension of time allows for recognition of lifeforms from the Former World, the afterworld, and the Later World. This revised appraisal of Injon could further accommodate denizens of the afterworld, animals, ghosts and spirits, the earth and cloud souls of humans, and other lifeforms held to exist in the cosmology of Daesoon Thought.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.55-68
• /
• 1994

It has been generally agreed that the city form especially in the preindustrial age resembled their own world view, either in the western or the eastern cultural sphere. So, we aimed to redefine the characteristics of oriental world views compared with the western one, in order to find the relative nature of the Korean townscapes. It is said that the both world views(of western and oriental) are composed of the contrastive binary concepts in common, but there seems to have been nearly contrary differences in these two world views. Wheareas the former was based on the passively segregational and oppositional dualism, the latter, on the dynamically harmonious and complementary dualism, called generally as 'Yin(陰) and Yang(陽)'. Thus, the oriental world view can be thought as the 'philosophy of the relationship', which aim to unify the dualism ultimately with the help of this relationship. So, we can assume a certain third and intermediate concept between these dual concepts of the world view, which can unify these two into the one holistic whole. And the focuses of the most traditional oriental philosophies were concentrated on this, so called, 'the third concept', namely Taoistic 'Tochu(道樞)', Buddhistic 'Kong(空)' or Confucian 'Chung(中)'. And this triple concept, including the third one, of the oriental world view revealed a more concrete form of the cosmological relationship, as the triple structure; 'Heaven(天), Earth(地), and Man(人)', in which the 'Man' is thought as the middle or the center of the world. In this manner, we could found this oriental 'triple world view' was revealed in the real topology of most places in the Korean traditional city and the whole townscape itself. So, in the scale of houses and the roads around them, we can construe the 'Maru(a central board-floored room)' and the 'Madang(a inner court)' as the 'third and intermediate space(中)' between the interior space(陰) and exterior space(陽) in the former, and between the private house(陰) and the public residential road(陽) in the former case, and between the dual parts(陰,陽) of the city representing the contrary social classes and the contrastive visual landscapes. So, we insist that this 'triple world view' represented in the townscape can be one of the most important characteristics of Korean traditional townscape. And this third intermediate spaces, which generate the active social contact and the harmonious relationship among the people, can be the most important cues, as the central places, in the interpretation of the Korean townscapes even in contemporary circumstance, which inherits its spatial and social frame more or less from the preceding one.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2001.05a
• /
• pp.207-211
• /
• 2001

Revision and establish of KS(Korean Standards) is currently actively discussed. It is just the time for a new world class standards under the new system with WTO(World Trade Organization). This paper is a part of "Researchs on the Standards in Railway rolling stock Field", as one of KS establish projects. The aim of this study is to define the requirements of railway rolling stock-designs, manufacture, and test methods for automatic complex coupler. In the former KS, there is no items matched with this purpose. Therefore a new part of KS is proposed.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.33
• /
• pp.1-30
• /
• 2019

There have been three trends in the study of the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought: insider theology, outsider theology, and religious studies. This article is intended to interpret the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought from the perspective of Mircea Eliade's New Humanism. We find similarities between Daesoon Thought and Eliade's New Humanism. Daesoon Thought deals with the complexities of life as being labyrinth-like and puts Jeungsan's view of humanity at the center of a Daesoon worldview. Jeungsan examines the existential problems which humans face in the Former World, and gives the religious remedies of Haewonsangsaeng (the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence) and Boeunsangsaeng (the grateful reciprocation of favors for mutual beneficence) to transform humanity's worldview for usage in the Later World. Jeungsan suggests a way of peace instead of the revolution of Donghak. Through the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth, Jeungsan changes the mutual contention of the Former World into the mutual beneficence of the Later World. The cosmology of Daesoon Thought recovers the relationship between divine beings and human beings in the three realms, and proposes a system of ethics that promotes virtue and reproves vices and human-centericism. In conclusion, the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought is an unapologetic view of homo-religiosus from within a new humanism.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2001

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between materialism and clothing buying behavior (clothing shopping orientation, clothing selection standards, use of information sources, store selection standards, purchase and purchase intention of imported clothing). The data were obtained from questionnaires completed by 400 women in the Taegu area whose age was 20 years and older. The SPSS/PC$^{+}$ package was used for data analysis which included a test of reliability, frequency, percentage, factor analysis, t-test, and x$^2$ test. There were significant differences in clothing buying behavior between groups who had a higher tendency and a lower tendency toward materialism. In other words, those who had a higher tendency toward materialism enjoyed their shopping and pursued the world-known brands, imported brands, the latest fashions, and conspicious consumption more than those who had a lower tendency of materialism. The former put a greater focus on the latest fashion styles, brand image, and design then the latter when the\ulcorner bought clothing. Those who had a higher tendency toward materialism utilized more information sources than those who had a lower tendency. The former made purchases from the stores where they stock famous world-known brands and well-advertised stores, and had a greater purchase intention of imported clothing than the latter. In the purchase of imported clothing there was no significant difference between two groups.s.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.27
• /
• pp.85-118
• /
• 2009

Kim Hang(金恒: Il-Boo 1826-1898) presented that in the end of 19 century The Book of Correct Changes(正易) alternated I-Ching(周易) in Korea. He predicted that the New world would be realized soon. In other words, the Former-Heaven(先天) would be changed in to the After-Heaven(後天). The New world means the highest well-being society and harmonized world. He named the New world as the Yuli world(琉璃世上). The Book of Correct Changes contained the idea of reformation of society with great cosmic changes and taught us to cultivate and train our mind for transformation of human beings. The New world will be come true, and there the struggling will be ceased. The New world will be accompanied by the transformation of human beings. Each person has to persevere changing him(her)-Selfin his(her) efforts to be a holy man. All people will achieve the high spirit. Kim Hang taught us to renew ourself and made the new world where every person will live with Truth and have an equal right and treat others without discrimination.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.24_2
• /
• pp.85-115
• /
• 2015

The Reordering of the Universe(天地公事) pursuing the Latter world(後天)'s ideal world while denying the Former world(先天) is composed of enormous rituals. The Dosu(度數) is formed through these rituals and the world is transformed according to the Dosu. The people who follow the Sangje(上帝), the subject of this universe reordering and also participate in the Reordering of the Universe are called as the followers. The follower group can be said as a ritual group in the aspect that they participate in the ritual for the Reordering of the Universe. They not only observed the rituals but also actively participated in them, so took certain roles in forming the Dosu. That is, they performed certain, given roles in developing the rituals, or actively proposed their ideas under the Sangje's leadership, and participated in the process realizing the Dosu. Therefore it can be said that they were a group initiatively participating in the process overcoming the Former world's Sangguk(相克) world, and making the latter world's ideal world. It seemed that the followers at that time might have gone through a certain entrance ritual process in order to join in such a follower group. The 『Jeon-Gyeong』 recorded the entrance rituals of a man called as Cha Gyeong Seok among tremendous followers relatively in detail. According to the 『Jeon-Gyeong』, he first had to get a unique test in the entrance process, and the test was proceeded in several stages: the wisdom test reflecting the Sangje's unusual intelligence, the patience test to endure physical, psychological pains for the great ethic, and the test to evaluate the testee's ability to give up past oneself and to follow the Sangje with a new body & mind. In the process separating himself from the past his appearance, Gyeong-Seok, the candidate to enter, faced a liminal situation, and then performed the incorporation rite. In this process, the purification rite going him out of the past relationship of benefits & grudges was performed, and he was given the regulations to comply as a member of the follower group. Through such serial processes, his entrance in the follower group was allowed. What requested to the candidate in this entrance process was the severance from one's past. For that, the candidate was needed to go out of his past life habits, to free from the relationship of benefits and grudges, and to sever him from his past faults. Such severance was the precondition for him to go out of the Former world's negative reality and to break from the Sanggeuk habits. Another thing requesting to the candidate as well as the severance from his past was to establish a new ideal. The new ideal should be matched with the ideal of the Reordering of the Universe whose main ideology was the Haewon-Sangsaeng(解冤相生). Such ideal can be said as the driving force to proceed toward the new ideal world of Latter World. And the candidate was requested to purify his mind and to participate in the Universe Fair Judgement (天地公庭). That can be said as an important condition for the new member directly to participate in the ritual of the Reordering of the Universe dramatically transforming the world. Finally, the candidate was given the regulations for his ascetic practice(修道) as well as his participation in the Reordering, and was requested to comply them. After becoming a member of this follower group, one had to practice his asceticism through the compliance with such regulations and the training of mantras(呪文) in order to accomplish the goal called as Dotong(道通). By fulfilling these requirements, the newly entered member could have the qualification to perform a certain role in the ritual of the Reordering of the Universe, and could accomplish his religious ideal.