Cheondogyo and Confucianism


I showed up at work very hungover. Our office was dismantled for renovations, so I disappeared off for an hour to attend a conference on the Donghak Peasant Movement. This was heavily tied to the Cheondogyo church I had recently discovered in my neighbourhood. The speaker here is Park Nam-su, head of Cheondogyo. He was an interesting and humble yet sort of rambling speaker.

Interesting things I learned:

  • The Cheondogyo greeting is "Mo-shi-go."
  • They do not like to refer to the Donghak Movement as an uprising or rebellion.
  • If your family name is Park but your personal name starts with N, your name is pronounced Bang. So everyone called him Bang Nam-su (the B isn't affected here but Bang looks better than Pang to me).

    I didn't stick around long.

    My office still wasn't ready so I went to a PC room. I think all keyboards should have a "Rock" button.

    Shinsammun opened for the bimonthly Confucian ceremony.

    This ceremony was attended by participants in the ACRP (Asian Conference of Religions for Peace). This group represents people from all across Asia and the many differing religions. Interestingly, Confucianism is one of the participating religions, and Sungkyunkwan Association of Confucianism Seo Jung-ki attended. Take a wild guess which one he is.

    He's actually got quite an impressive life story, having attended SKKU around 1960 and being expelled for protest activities.

    The Confucianists demonstrated how to pay respect to Confucius. Four bows.

    And it was reinterpreted by Asians of various nationalities and faiths.

    There goes President Seo.

    We headed up to Myeongnyundang.

    More kids.


    This Bangladeshi guy was very nice.

    I didn't catch where she was from but she was also very nice.


    Had to get one of him on his own.

    And now with everyone.




    The president explains the traditional use of this building.

    The kids had a class here so they chased us away.

    Everyone went to sit on the maru of Dongjae.

    Meanwhile, the Confucian ceremony was on.


    Time to go.

    Traditional seonbi kicks.

    Sungkyunkwan Seonbi Spirit Training. The mistiness around the doors is Confucian ghosts.

    I wish I took another shot when she walked closer, but by now she'd seen my camera and was very flattered I was taking her picture.


    • Please remember that these photos are all copyrighted to me. If you want to use them in any way, there's a 90 per cent chance I'll give you my permission, and be able to give you a copy with a higher DPI.
    Copyright Daehanmindecline 2014