Taejonggyo
Taejonggyo (the Religion of the Divine Progenitor; sometimes spelled Daejonggyo) was founded by Na Ch'ol (1863–1916) in 1901, a time when Christian missionaries were challenging the traditional religious beliefs and practices of Korea, and Japan was threatening Korea's existence as an independent nation. Taejonggyo arose as a nationalistic response to this political and spiritual crisis. The central tenet of Taejonggyo is that Koreans need not worship any foreign gods such as Jesus or Buddha. They have a god of their own, the same god who, as the legendary ruler Tangun, ruled over a vast and powerful Korean kingdom five thousand years ago. Na taught that the worship of this Divine Progenitor had been the primary religion of the Korean people until the Mongols invaded the Korean peninsula in the thirteenth century and allowed foreign ideas and religions to penetrate and weaken indigenous Korean culture.
Taejonggyo scriptures include texts that are said to have been composed five millennia ago, when Tangun ruled Korea. Unfortunately, those texts were lost for centuries and were recovered only early in the twentieth century. They include the Ch'onbugyong (The Heavenly Amulet Classic), which explains the origin of the universe in only eighty-one Chinese characters. Another, the Samil sin'go (The Teachings of the Trinitarian God), only 360 characters long, describes the terrestrial and celestial realms and their inhabitants. According to Taejonggyo doctrine, ancient Koreans worshiped three persons in one God: God the Creator (Hanim), God the Teacher (Hanung), and God the Ruler (Tangun Hanbaegom).
Taejonggyo claims to have half a million followers. A government survey in 1995, however, found less than 10,000 Koreans who listed Taejonggyo as their religious affiliation. Nevertheless, Taejonggyo has helped shape the contours of Korean history in the twentieth century. During the thirty-five years of Japanese colonial rule, from 1910 until 1945, it encouraged nationalists, such as the anti-Japanese writer and activist Sin Ch'aeho (1880–1936), to assert pride in their country by claiming that Korea was once a powerful empire ruled by a divine being. After liberation from the Japanese, the Republic of Korea designated 3 October, the date on which Taejonggyo celebrates God's appearance among men as the ruler Tangun, a national holiday. The sacred texts of Taejonggyo are increasingly becoming accepted as authentic ancient historical documents even by those who do not believe Tangun is a god. Though it is a religion with relatively few adherents, Taejonggyo is nonetheless influential.
Further Reading
An Hosang. (1963) "Dae-Jong-Gyo: Religion of God-Human Being." Korea Journal 2, 5: 9–13.
Ministry of Culture and Sports, Republic of Korea, ed. (1996) Religious Culture in Korea. Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym.
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