Jeungsando

Jeungsando, the Dao (Way) of Jeungsan, is a Korean new religion (sinheung jonggyo, literally ‘newly emerged religion’) based on the teachings of Jeungsan Gang Il-sun (1871–1909), who is believed by Jeungsando to have been the human incarnation of Sangje (Shangti, in Chinese), the Jade Ruler of the Universe (Okhwang Sangje) of religious Daoism. This claim is predicated on the Donghak (Eastern Learning) religion of Su-un Choe Je-u (1824–64), whom Sangje allegedly promised in 1860 that he would soon incarnate in this world as a human being.

Jeungsan, literally ‘Cauldron Mountain’, was Gang Il-sun’s honorific name (jonho). Gang Il-sun is referred to in Jeungsando as Jeungsan Sangjenim. Jeungsando also reveres Gang Il-sun as Maitreya (Korean, Mireuk), the future Buddha, who has since the introduction of Buddhism to Korea in the fourth century CE figured in the millennial imagination in Korea. Like Korean new religions in general, Jeungsando is a syncretistic religion in which elements selected from Korean religious traditions are combined with a unifying millenarian worldview (Flaherty 2004, 2011).

The central belief of Jeungsando is the hucheon gaebyeok, the Great Opening (gaebyeok, literally ‘opening dawn’) of the Later Heaven (hucheon). In Daoism, seongyeong (in Chinese, hsien-ching) is the land of the Immortals (Korean, sinseon), which has become Jeungsando’s paradise of immortal life on earth.

The supreme ruler of the universe Jeungsan Sangjenim stated ‘The whole world is suffering from a terminal disease. Now I will exercise the great divine authority over the three realms of the universe (Heaven, Earth, and humanity) and open up a new Heaven and a new Earth. I will build Seongyeong (paradise of immortal life) on Earth in which no one will grow old or get sick. I am the Okhwang Sangje.’ (Teachings of Jeungsando 1:2)

The Dao of Jeungsan is the Reconstruction of Heaven and Earth (cheonji gongsa) through the resolution of the accumulated grudges and bitterness (weonhan) of the Early Heaven (seoncheon).

In 1901 Jeungsan Gang Il-sun founded Humchigyo, the name by which Jeungsan’s original religion was known. Jeungsando (the Dao of Jeungsan) claims apostolic succession from Tae-eulgyo, Teachings of the Primordial Monad (Tae-eul) (Lee 1967, 32), a sect of Jeungsan religion established in 1914 by Jeungsan Gang Il-sun’s female disciple and Dao consort Taemonim (Revered Great Mother) Go Ban-rye (1880–1935) with her cousin, Jeungsan Gang Il-sun’s disciple Cha Gyeong-seok (1880–1936). Jeungsan Gang Il-sun had passed away in 1909. Humchi is the first part of the Tae-eul mantra (Tae-ulju), which was central to Gang Il-sun and Go Ban-rye’s teachings and which remains central to Jeungsando practice.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–45), there were an estimated sixty different sects based on Gang Il-sun’s teachings, most of which no longer exist. Bocheongyo (Teachings of Universal Heaven), founded in 1922 by Cha Gyeong-seok after he and Go Ban-rye parted ways, is said to have had upwards of six million followers during the Japanese colonial period (Ro 2002, 46). At present there are an estimated one hundred sects of Jeungsan religion.

The largest sects currently claiming to represent Gang Il-sun’s teachings are Jeungsando and Daesunjinrihoe (Association of the Truth of the Grand Tour) (Jorgensen 2001; Introvigne 2018), which represent different lineages of Jeungsan religion. Like Jeungsando, Daesunjinrihoe is based on the gaebyeok teachings of Gang Il-sun. Daesunjinrihoe is also based on the teachings of Doju (Dao Master) Cho Cheol-je (1895–1958), whose claim to legitimacy rested on alleged direct revelation in 1917 from the heavenly Jeungsan Sangje, from whom Cho Cheol-je claimed to have received the heavenly mandate.

In 1918 Cho Cheol-je founded Mugeukdo, the Dao of Mugeuk (the Dao of Emptiness), which in 1948 was renamed Taegeukdo (the Dao of Taegeuk: the supreme ultimate, in Chinese Taiji). When Cho Cheol-je died in 1958, Taegeukdo split into an old sect of Taegeukdo under the direction of Cho Cheol-je’s son Cho Yongnae (1934–2004), and a new sect under the direction of Pak Hang-yeong (1917–96) that in 1972 was renamed Daesunjinrihoe. Both Jeungsando and Daesunjinrihoe teach hucheon gaebyeok (the Great Opening of the Later Heaven), haeweon (the resolution of grief and bitterness), sangsaeng (mutual life bettering), and cheonji gongsa (Reconstruction of Heaven and Earth).

While there are theological similarities between the two sects, there are differences as well. Daesunjinrihoe does not recognize the authority and programme (Dosu) of Go Ban-rye, whom Jeungsando reveres as Gang Il-sun’s true successor (Sangjenim ui gyeseungja). Daesunjinrihoe teaches that Gang Il-sun was the Gucheon Gangseong Sangje, the Gang Star (Gangseong) Sangje of the Ninth Heaven (Gucheon), while revering Cho Cheol-je as the Choseong (Cho Star) Okhwang Sangje and Pak Hang-yeong as Maitreya (Mireuk). Jeungsando reveres Gang Il-sun as the incarnation of both the Okhwang Sangje and the Gucheon Sangje (the Sangje of the Ninth Heaven), the same Sangje called by different titles, as well as Mireuk (Maitreya), the Future Buddha.

After Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, Jeungsando’s founder Jongdosanim (Revered Head Dao Master), An Un-san (1922–2012), also called Taesabunim (revered Great Master), started a movement he called Jeungsangyo (Teachings of Jeungsan). An Un-san’s parents had been followers of Gang Il-sun and Go Ban-rye. An Un-san stopped teaching in 1955 after the Korean War, but in 1974 resumed teaching and, with his son An Gyeong-jeon (b. 1954), the current Jongdosanim, changed his group’s name to Jeungsando (the Dao of Jeungsan). In 2012 An Un-san passed away, and An Gyeong-jeon became Jongdosanim.

Jeungsando’s headquarters in Korea are in the city of Daejeon, which was chosen because Jeungsando believes that Daejeon will be safe during the cataclysm preceding the hucheon gaebyeok . Currently there are an estimated one hundred thousand followers of Jeungsando in South Korea, where there are forty-three dojang (Jeungsando centres). There are seven dojang in the United States. There are also dojang in Japan, Germany, Canada, England, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates.

To understand the development of Jeungsando, one must, according to Jeungsando, understand the ‘Three Step Changes’ (sambyeonseongdo): (1) Taemonim’s establishment of Tae-eulgyo in 1914, (2) An Un-san’s Jeungsangyo between 1945 and 1955, and (3) the current period from 1975 (when Jeungsando was founded) to the hucheon gaebyeok.

All records of Gang Il-sun’s life and teachings were recorded after his death in 1909. One of the most important documents is the Daesun Jeongyeong (Scripture of the Great Peregrination) by Yi Sang-ho (1886–1966), who had been a member of Cha Gyeong-seok’s Bocheongyo sect. Portions of the Daesun Jeongyeong were included in the Jeungsando Dojeon (Dao Book), Jeungsando’s sacred scripture. The Dojeon is also based on interviews that Jeungsando Supreme Master An Gyeong-jeon conducted with former disciples of Gang Il-sun and Go Ban-rye, their descendants, and their students. The Dojeon project took twenty years to complete. The first edition of the Dojeon was published in 1992. Portions of the Dojeon were published as Jeungsan Sangjenim ui Gareuchim (literally, Teachings of Jeungsan Sangjenim), The Teachings of Jeungsando (1997). A revised edition of the Dojeon was published in 2003.

Like many Korean new religions, Jeungsando is in large part predicated upon the Donghak (Eastern Learning) religion of Su-un Choe Je-u (1824–64). Donghak (Beirne 2009) was a syncretism of elements from Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Korean shamanism (Musokgyo). In 1860 Sangje, the Ruler of the Universe, allegedly promised Su-un Choe Je-u that he (the Ruler) would soon incarnate to bring about the Great Opening of the Later Heaven (hucheon gaebyeok). Gang Il-sun’s earliest followers saw in him the incarnation of Sangje prophesied by Su-un Choe Je-u, a belief that remains central to Jeungsando. Twelve of Gang Il-sun’s original twenty-four disciples had been Donghak followers (Lee 1967, 33). Cha Gyeong-seok, who with Gang Il-sun’s widow Go Ban-rye founded Tae-eulgyo in 1914 and later Bocheongyo in 1922, had been a Donghak priest before becoming a close disciple of Gang Il-sun.

According to Jeungsando, Gang Il-sun was also the incarnation of Maitreya (in Korean, Mireuk), the Future Buddha, who has figured prominently in the millennial imagination in Korea since Buddhism was introduced to Korea in the fourth century ce. Gang Il-sun claimed that before he (Sangje) incarnated as Gang Il-sun, he had spent thirty years abiding in the statue of Maitreya at Geumsansa Buddhist Temple in Jeolla Province listening to humanity’s prayers. Some Buddhist scholars in Korea regard Jeungsan religion in general as being primarily a form of Maitreya Buddhism (Mok 1994, 200).

Jeungsando reveres Gang Il-sun’s female disciple and Dao consort, Go Ban-rye (1880–1935), as Jeungsan Sangjenim’s (Gang Il-sun’s) true successor (Sangjenim ui gyeseungja), and teaches that in 1907 Gang Il-sun transferred all authority and lineage to Go Ban-rye. Gang Il-sun called Go Ban-rye Taemonim (Taemo, Great Mother; nim, the honorific suffix in Korean) as well as Subunim (Subu, First Lady). Jeungsando teaches that the Early Heaven was the age of oppressed yin and revered yang (eokeumjonyang), and women were thus subordinate to men. However, in the Later Heaven, yin and yang will be in balance (eumyangdongdeok, the equality of yin and yang), and women and men will be equal (Teachings of Jeungsando 5:2,12).

According to Jeungsando, Go Ban-rye is the head of all women in this world. Whereas Jeungsando reveres Gang Il-sun as God the Father, Go Ban-rye is revered as God the Mother.

Sangjenim and I predestined Our bond and vowed to bring forth the Later Heaven’s fifty-thousand-year Paradise of Immortality. In concord with the tides of destiny, I then followed Sangjenim into the human world to deliver it and its people. (Jeungsando Dojeon 11:17,2–3)

The idea of gaebyeok (literally Opening Dawn, but referred to in English by Jeungsando as the Great Opening) is central to Jeungsando (An 2003). Gaebyeok was also central to Su-un Choe Je-u’s Donghak religion, as well as the Revised Book of Changes (I Ching) Movement of Kim Hang Ilbu (1826–98), whose teachings greatly influenced Gang Il-sun. Daesunjinrihoe also teaches the gaebyeok, as do Jeungsan religions in general. The universe of Jeungsando is that of Daoism: cyclical, without beginning or end, and always changing in accordance with yin and yang (eum and yang, in Korean). Sangje is not a Creator God; rather, he is the Lord and Ruler of the Universe. The cosmic year is divided into the Early Heaven (seoncheon) and the Later Heaven (hucheon). According to Jeungsando, humanity arises during cosmic summer through the interaction of yin and yang, matures during the Early Heaven (seoncheon), and is harvested during the hucheon gaebyeok, the Great Opening of the Later Heaven. According to Jeungsando, the Later Heaven (hucheon) will last for 64,800 years; then the universe will re-enter the Early Heaven (seoncheon) and the cycle will begin anew. An entire cycle takes 129,600 years. According to Jeungsando, we are now well into hucheon gaebyeok. The three most important situations during hucheon gaebyeok are a reversal of earth’s poles, a world war, and a mysterious global epidemic (goejil).

According to Jeungsando, the first trigger of hucheon gaebyeok is a reversal of earth’s poles. The polar shift is also a general feature of many Western new age religions, but Jeungsando’s prediction of a polar shift is not predicated upon the prophecies of Western new age religionists such as Edgar Cayce or George Michael Scallion, although there is a section devoted to Cayce and Scallion in An Gyeong-jeon’s Igeosi Gaebyeok Ida (This is Gaebyeok) (An 2003). Rather, Jeungsando’s teaching of a polar shift is based upon the Cheongyeok ‘corrected changes’ teachings of Kim Hang [Ilbu] (1826–98), whom Gang Il-sun met in 1897. In the book Cheongyeok (Ilbu’s corrections of the I Ching), written between 1884 and 1885, Ilbu described the gaebyeok of the Later Heaven when eum (yin) and yang will be balanced, the lunar and solar calendars will coincide, and earth’s axis will shift upright, causing the year to become 360 days with no leap years (Lee 1967, 32). Ilbu’s teachings influenced a number of subsequent new religions, particularly the family of Jeungsan religions.

The second trigger of the hucheon gaebyeok, according to Jeungsando, will be a world war beginning in the divided Korean peninsula. ‘The world comes to a close through a war. How could there not be a war at the time of Gaebyeok?’ (Jeungsando Dojeon 7:67). Gang Il-sun likened the final war to a traditional Korean wrestling (ssireum) tournament (ssireumpan), which is fought in three rounds: a preliminary children’s match (aegipan), a second youth match (chonggakpan), and a final adult match (sangssireumpan). According to Jeungsando, the first match (aegipan) began with the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and ended with World War I (1914–18). The second match (chonggakpan) began with the second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and culminated in World War II (1939–45). The final match (sangssireumpan) began with the division of the Korean peninsula at the thirty-eighth parallel in 1945 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.

‘How will You stop war?’ a disciple asked. ‘I will stop it with a disease’, Sangjenim said. ‘In the future, war will be ended by disease. When war breaks out, the disaster of disease will follow. The disaster of war is the disaster of disease. For a good world to come, all diseases must be washed away by a catastrophic disease.’ (Jeungsando Dojeon 7:2)

The third trigger of the hucheon gaebyeok, according to Jeungsando, is goejil, a mysterious disease that will begin in Korea, infecting the country for forty-nine days before spreading across the world for three years, killing four-fifths of humanity. According to Jeungsando, not only the mysterious disease but also all the cataclysms of the hucheon gaebyeok are attributable to all the bitterness and resentment (weonhan) that has accumulated during seoncheon (Early Heaven). The Early Heaven has been governed by sanggeuk (mutual conflict). ‘All the evil karma (akeop) of the Early Heaven, bitterness and resentment (weonhan), and vengeance (popok) of spirits (sinmyeong) will cause diseases in the world culminating in the mysterious disease (goejil)’ (Teachings of Jeungsando 9:4).

The Dao of Sangje is the Reconstruction of Heaven and Earth (cheonji gongsa) through the resolution of bitterness and resentment (haewon) and mutual life bettering (sangsaeng). From 1901 when he proclaimed Humchigyo until shortly before his death in 1909, Gang Il-sun performed cheonji gongsa, a nine-year-long ritual to relieve all the weonhan of the Early Heaven (seoncheon) using various mantras (chumun) and bujeok (youngbu, in Japanese; hobu, in Chinese), paper talismans on which are written mantras or incantations that are burned during rituals. One of them—eoncheonggyeyongsin (according to Jeungsando, ‘the spirit that guides humanity and the universe to a new world of new life’, Teachings of Jeungsando i)—will be used by Jeungsando during hucheon gaebyeok.

In addition to the cosmic principles of Early Heaven (seoncheon) and Later Heaven (hucheon), according to Jeungsando, there are thirty-three vertical heavens and nine horizontal heavens. Tae-eul Cheon (Tae-eul Heaven) is the central heaven, the heaven (cheon) of the supreme monad (tae-eul) that is ruled by Tae-eul Cheon Sangwongun (Supreme Lord). According to Jeungsando, Sangje and Tae-eul Cheon Sangwongun are not identical. Sangje is the Ruler of the Universe. Sangwongun (Supreme Lord) is the god of Tae-eul Cheon and the original God of Heaven and Earth, Cheonji ui Wonsin. Sangwongun was the Sangje during an earlier heaven. Jeungsando teaches that humanity was unaware of Tae-eul Cheon until Gang Il-sun revealed its existence, and that Gang Il-sun has given humanity the means of opening Tae-eul Cheon, the Tae-eul Mantra (Tae-eulju).

Jeungsando practitioners recite a number of mantras, but the Tae-eul Mantra (humchi humchi Tae-eulcheon Sangwongun hum ni chi ya do rae hum ni ham ni sa pa ha) is central to Jeungsando practice. Jeungsando teaches that the heavenly mandate will be fulfilled through the Tae-eul Mantra (Jeungsando Dojeon 8:55). The Tae-eul Mantra is also practised by other sects of Jeungsan religion, including Daesunjinrihoe.

The main part of the Tae-eulju Mantra (hum ni chi ya do rae hum ni ham ni) is the guchukbyeongmachu, a Buddhist mantra against disease. The second part of the Tae-eul Mantra, Tae-eulcheon Sangwongun (Supreme Lord of Tae-eul Heaven), was added by Kim Gyeong-hun (no reliable dates), a sixteenth-century Korean Daoist and author of the Tae-ulgyeong (Ta-eul Sutra), from which Gang Il-sun learned the Tae-eulju Mantra. The first part of the Tae-eulju Mantra (humchi humchi) was added by Jeungsan. ‘Humchi is the sound of calling our parents Heaven and Earth. Like a calf calling its mother, it is the sound of humanity calling out to the Lord of Heaven’ (Jeungsando Dojeon 7:58). According to Jeungsando Jongdosanim (Revered Head Dao Master) An Gyeong-jeon, the chi in humchi signifies ‘to become one (An 2004, 152). The final part of the Tae-eulju Mantra, sa pa ha, is from the Sanskrit svaha, which is often used at the end of mantras and means something like ‘hail’.

During the gaebyeok, Jeungsando workers (ilkkun) will be organized into teams of six members (yukim). Jeungsando team leaders possess special seals called haein (seals of the sea) that will be used to combat goejil. According to Jeungsando, a medicine made with gyeongmyeonjusa (a kind of cinnabar) will also be used to treat the mysterious disease. However, Jeungsando teaches that the essence of uitong (the great medicine) during hucheon gaebyeok is the Tae-eulju Mantra, and that only practitioners of Tae-eulju will survive the mysterious disease. ‘The Tae-eulju mantra is the medicine that saves humanity’ (Teachings of Jeungsando 10:5,6–7).

1871 Birth of Jeungsan Gang Il-sun.

1880 Birth of Taemonim (Revered Great Mother), Go Ban-rye.

1901 Jeungsan Gang Il-sun founds Humchigyo.

1907 According to Jeungsando, Gang Il-sun transfers authority and lineage to Go Ban-rye, also known as Taemonim (Revered Great Mother) and Subunim (Revered First Lady).

1909 Jeungsan Gang Il-sun passes away.

1914 Go Ban-rye founds Tae-eulgyo, the sect of Jeungsan religion from which Jeungsando claims descent.

1922 An Un-san, Jeungsando founder and first Jongdosanim (Revered Head Dao Master) of Jeungsando, is born.

1935 Go Ban-rye passes away

1945 An Un-san (1922–2012), whose parents had been close followers of Jeungsan Gang Il-sun and Go Ban-rye, founds Jeungsangyo (the teachings of Jeungsan).

1954 An Gyeong-jeon, the current Jongdosanim (Revered Head Dao Master) of Jeungsando, is born,

1955 An Un-san suspends his teaching activities.

1974 An Un-san resumes teaching and, with his son An Gyeong-jeon, changes his group’s name to Jeungsando (the Dao of Jeungsan).

1992 The first edition of the Jeungsando Dojeon (Jeungsando’s sacred scripture) is published.

2012 Jongdosanim (Revered Head Dao Master) An Un-san passes away and is succeeded by his son, the current Jongdosanim, An Gyeong-jeon.

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© Robert Pearson Flaherty 2021

Article title updated 31 January 2021.