[KS] More on Hananim

[Baker Don]

I've been knocked out by a cold for the last couple of weeks, so I haven't 
had the energy to join in the interesting discussion on Pyongyang as Asia's 
Jerusalem, why aren't Catholics considered Christians, and where did the 
word Hananim or Haneunim come from.

However, let me add a brief comment to that last item under discussion. I 
have found a few uses of the term Haneul-nim in pre 19th century sources, 
but in every case it appears that Haneul-nim is being used as a Hangeul 
synonym for Ch'eon as that term is used in Confucian writing. I have never 
seen any pre-19th century use of Haneul-nim for an indigenous Korean deity. 
Moreover, it appears to me to be signficiant that the French priests who 
compiled a Korean-French dictionary in the 19th century didn't take any 
note of Haneul-nim as a name for a specific deity, nor did any of the early 
Korean Catholic hangeul writings use the term Haneul-him (though they used 
a variety of names for God, from Ch'eonju to Sangje and Sangju, until they 
learned they were not allowed to use the term Sangje). Moreover, one would 
think that if that term were as widespread in pre-modern times as some 
believe, Ch'oe Che-u and his followers would have used the term Hanuel-nim 
(or Hanullim) more than they used the terms Ch'eonju and Sangje.   However, 
if you look at early Tonghak writings, it looks like the only time Hanullim 
was used back then was when a three-syllable term was needed to maintain 
the rhythm of a line in a piece of poetry. Otherwise, Ch'eonju and Sangje 
were the preferred terms. 

As for Hananim, with the connotation of one god, that clearly was an 
invention of the first Protestant Christians  writing in Korean at the end 
of the 19th century.

Don Baker
Associate Professor, 
Department of Asian Studies
Director, Centre for Korean Research
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2
dbaker at interchange.ubc.ca

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