Abstract (English)

ABSTRACT

Comparative Study on Indigenous Modernity of Donghak Thought and Daesoon Thought: Focusing on the Trinity of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity

Choi Wonhyuk Department of Daesoon Studies Graduate School of Daejin University

Today, the Eastern Learning (Donghak 東學) Peasant Movement is being re-evaluated as a modern movement comparable in historical significance to the French Revolution, and Daesoon (大巡) Thought is attracting scholarly attention as an indigenous ideology capable of explaining transformations in the modern world through the lens of traditional Eastern thought. This dissertation centers on the concept of "Donghak" as a methodological framework within Eastern philosophy, and aims to demonstrate that both systems of thought — Donghak and Daesoon — constructed East Asia's indigenous modernity through a reconstruction of the trinitarian cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

Donghak and Daesoon Thought have been widely discussed separately as expressions of East Asia's indigenous modernity in comparison with postmodern philosophy. However, existing scholarship on indigenous modernity has not sufficiently emphasized the shared Eastern origins that distinguish these traditions from Western modernity. Moreover, the two ideologies have not been examined in relation to each other within the overarching framework of the Eastern philosophical tradition expressed through the concept of "Donghak." Drawing on the concept of multiple modernities as the "rearrangement of the sacred and the secular," this dissertation employs the Eastern philosophical method of correlative thinking to compare the self-generated modernities embedded in the Heavenly, Earthly, and Human views, and aims to illuminate the value of each tradition more clearly through this comparative lens.

As a detailed methodological approach to this comparison, this dissertation draws on three anthropological theories of religion: A. C. Graham's theory of correlative thought, Victor Turner's theory of liminality, and Anthony Wallace's theory of revitalization movements. These three theories are applied in conjunction because they complement one another effectively in a comparative study. First, correlative thought theory clarifies the epistemological differences between Eastern and Western modes of thinking, thereby elucidating the distinction between indigenous modernity and Western modernity. Second, liminality theory is well-suited to explaining the process of relocation in modernity — specifically, the relocation of sacred ritual — and third, revitalization theory is useful for explaining the transmission and inheritance of tradition within that process of relocation.

The indigenous modernity of Donghak and Daesoon Thought emerged as a response to a challenge posed by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary active in East Asia prior to the era of European imperialist expansion. Ricci criticized the East Asian view of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity for overemphasizing rationalization — attending only to the impersonal attributes of Heaven and Earth — while lacking the qualities of a personal, transcendent divinity. In response, both Donghak Thought and Daesoon Thought proposed a reorganization of the sacred and the secular that integrated Eastern and Western conceptions of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity through the concepts of an externally manifest Heaven and a human avatar of the transcendent Heaven. Grounded in correlative reasoning, the transcendent Heaven envisioned by these two systems of thought was thus able to integrate the most valuable aspects of both Eastern and Western views of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

Whereas the Western view of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity — which emphasizes substance — treats these entities as differentiated, the Eastern trinitarian cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity — which emphasizes relational attributes — holds them to be assimilative, condensed, and mutually engrafted. In response to this contrast, Donghak Thought sought to reconcile East and West by proposing a transcendent view of Heaven, a subsequent materialization of Earth, and an anthropocentric view of Humanity as co-equal to Heaven. First emerging within the 4,617-year civilizational history of East Asia tracing its origins to the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), Donghak's conceptions of Heaven and Earth resonated deeply with Joseon society and developed into a large-scale peasant movement. However, because it ultimately failed to overcome the limitations inherent in its Confucian framework, Donghak Thought lost its unifying force and gave way to disruptive social upheaval.

In response to these limitations, Daesoon Thought rediscovered the latent functions of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity within the Eastern philosophical tradition by integrating the concepts of Heaven, Earth, and Divinity into a materialization theory premised on divine incarnation through a human body and on the principle of mutual interdependence between divine beings and human beings. The latent functions of the external Heaven and of divine beings within Eastern thought were rediscovered through the concept of mutual guidance between divine beings and human beings, and the realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity — viewed from the perspective of the external Heaven — were reactivated where Donghak Thought had failed to realize them due to its Confucian constraints. Daesoon Thought reinterpreted Donghak Thought through the doctrines of Haewon Sangsaeng (解冤相生, the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence) and Boeun Sangsaeng (報恩相生, the Grateful Reciprocation of Favors for Mutual Beneficence), and constructed an indigenous modernity grounded in the correlative relationships among Heaven, Earth, and divine beings that could be applied to everyday phenomena. In accordance with Daesoon Thought's core tenets — the Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang (陰陽合德), the Harmonious Union between Divine Beings and Human Beings (神人調化), the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence (解冤相生), and the Perfected State of Unification with the Dao (道通眞境) — Daesoon Thought presented a new indigenous modernity aligned with correlative ideas such as the Three Realms (三界 samgye) of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, the Later World (後天), Mutual Beneficence (相生), the Way of the Gods (神道), the earthly paradise, and earthly immortality. In doing so, Daesoon Thought affirmed the Trinitarian Cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity as the True Eastern Learning (Chamdonghak 참동학).

Keywords: Indigenous Modernity, Eastern Learning (Donghak 東學), True Eastern Learning (Chamdonghak 참동학), Daesoon (大巡) Thought, Trinity of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity (天地人 三才), Correlative Thought, Liminality, Revitalization, Materialization Theory, Principle of Mutual Interdependence between Divine Beings and Human Beings (神人依導), Disruption (作亂), Alleviation (治亂)