Eastern Learning and the Heavenly Way: The Tonghak and Chondogyo Movements and the Twilight of Korean Independence

Chapter 6 Doctrine, Ritual, and Social Action in Ch’ŏndogyo, 1906–1908

140 ChaptEr 6 Doctrine, Ritual, and Social Action in Ch’ŏndogyo, 1906–1908 Tonghak’s reorganization into Ch’ŏndogyo was also accompanied by an intellectual and liturgical regeneration that supported Son Pyŏng-hŭi’s vision of a modernizing religious movement with a focus on social action. This led to a systematization of ritual and liturgy and the use of new printing technologies to better disseminate Ch’ŏndogyo’s religious and social message to believers and the general public. Neo-Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea emphasized the moral and ethical basis of society and civilization, but as traditional norms and the validity of neo-Confucian thought in the new modern world were questioned, many searched for a new moral basis to support “civilization and enlightenment” (munmyŏng kaehwa). Ch’ŏndogyo proposed to fill this ethical and spiritual vacuum by presenting itself as a native Korean religion in tune with new contemporary trends. As part of its efforts, it removed folk rituals that could be labeled as superstitious and systematized its doctrine. This notably led to the first full elaboration of Ch’ŏndogyo’s best-known teaching, the doctrine of in nae ch’ŏn (humans are Heaven).1 This encapsulated the idea that Heaven pervades all creation, with its highest manifestation in enlightened humans. In his book Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson describes how nationalist movements used the commercial press and newspapers to spread their ideas to the wider public.2 Similarly, Ch’ŏndogyo also commercially printed its doctrinal works and published a newspaper to better publicize its religious and social thought. Its newspaper, the Mansebo , was a forum by which believers and the general public could come in contact with the new synthesis that was becoming Korean modernity. In spite of the official separation of church and politics, Ch’ŏndogyo Doctrine, Ritual, and Social Action in Ch’ŏndogyo 141 continued its social action by supporting schools and social reforms, although these activities were curtailed as a result of the financial crisis that occurred after Yi Yong-gu and his faction were expelled in September 1906. Through these actions, Ch’ŏndogyo presented itself as a movement that positively engaged with new social trends and ideas while attempting to remain faithful to its self-definition as a religion that drew from the best in Korean philosophy and religion to provide a sound moral and ethical basis for society. These developments probably arose in part as a response to the growth of Protestant Christianity and its associations with modernity. The numbers of Protestant Christians in Korea were small and would remain so until the explosion of Christian conversions that began after the Korean War. Protestantism’s influence, however, was out of proportion to its numbers because of the growing number of Christians among Korean reformist intellectuals. The Protestant missions in Korea founded schools and hospitals that dispensed the new learning and medicine that were favored by those intellectuals advocating “modernization ” in Korean society. Both the missionaries and their converts played up this association between Christianity and modernization, even though it can be strongly argued that many changes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western society were brought about by reducing the influence of Christianity. Christianity was represented by missionaries and converts as the ethical base on which triumphant Western civilization was established and therefore something that should be imitated by those wanting to implement innovations and new ideas in other parts of the world.3 This was a course followed by Christian missionaries, especially Protestants, not only in Korea, but in other countries as well. Although some prominent modernizers were convinced by these arguments, many others, including the bulk of the populations in Asia, remained unconvinced. This led to movements within Asian religions that attempted to reinterpret traditional teachings to make them relevant to a new reality and respond to the intellectual and social challenges brought by Western expansion. In describing Theravada Buddhism’s response to modernity and Christianity in Sri Lanka, Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere coined the term “Protestant Buddhism.” This denotes a trend within Buddhism of appealing to mainly bourgeois 142 Chapter 6 coreligionists who were interested in the new intellectual, scientific, and social trends from the West but who were still attached to Buddhism. This movement stressed an individual commitment to religion and search for salvation. It downplayed ecstatic elements in folk Buddhism, eschewing “superstition” and rationalizing ritual. Dharmapala, the chief advocate of this new current, emphasized the...