[KS] More on Hananim

[Lucas Husgen]

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 19:44:20 -0800, Lauren Deutsch 
<lwdeutsch at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I'm sorry not to have read this string earlier. The late Dr. Zo Zayong 
> built
> a shrine to the tripartite spirit in his Samshin Haegwan (pardon my 
> terrible
> transliteration) near Songrisan. I interviewed him about it, and he said
> that Hananim unifies heaven (HanUl), earth (Han Wul) and man (Hanil). 
> "Each
> is incomplete with out the other, " he said. He wrote and self-published
> several books (in Korean) on his theories about indigenous Korean beliefs
> and practices, especially around the "three-ness" which he said over and
> over again was unique to Korean philosophy.

On this very subject there is the study by S.W. Han 'Die Suche nach dem 
Himmel im Denken Koreas' (Frankfurt, 1988), which traces the concept of 
three-ness in Korean thought throughout the ages. As the author states 
about the rise of catholicism in Korea: "Es ist klar, dass die ersten 
Christen zuerst Konfuzianisten waren. Sie haben mit ihrer 
konfuzianistischen Vorstellung den Katholizismus akzeptiert und 
verstanden. Die Grundlage, auf der ihr Glauben Fuss gefasst hatte und auf 
der sie den Leuten ihren Glauben verkünden konnten, war aber nicht das 
'chinesisch-konfuzianistische', sondern das 'koreanische'. (which is the 
above mentioned triple division, LH)
Nun können wir vermuten, wie die Christen Koreas trotz der schweren 
Verfolgungen, der Hinrichtung der Gründer der koreanischen Kirche, der 
Abwesenheit der Priester, usw. ihren Glauben behalten konnten: Sie hatten 
den Glauben an 'den Gott' der fremden Religion mit ihrem eigenen Glauben 
an 'den Hanunim (den Herrn im Himmel oder Himmelsherrn)' synkretisiert und 
deshalb richtete sich ihr Glaube nicht an ein fremdes, sondern an ihr 
'eigenes' Höchstwesen". (p. 357).

For those without any command of German, in short: Korean Christians could 
retain their creed thourhg the fact that they, as original Korean 
confucianists, had syncretized the God from the new religion with their 
own Hanunim from the Korean tradition, the God that unifies heaven, earth 
and man, as indeed the book goes to show.


Best,

Lucas Hüsgen


> Also, Mansin Kim Kumhwa offers
> prayers to Hwanungnim as part of her pantheon, and she is very attentive 
> to
> Tangun Haraboji .
>
> I offer this as tiny pieces of a no doubt complex puzzle which I know 
> will
> reveal a beautiful image when complete.
>
>  How do I access this string from the beginning?
>
> Lauren Deutsch
>
>> From: ??? Gary Rector/Yu <gary at korealore.com>
>> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 12:28:05 +0900
>> To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>> Subject: RE: [KS] More on Hananim
>>
>> An interesting aside on the "haneunim" issue:
>>
>> One Korean friend of mine says that there has been
>> speculation that "Hwanin" and "Hwanung" from the
>> Dan-gun story are just idu representations of "haneunim"
>> or "haneul." In view of their role in the myth, this does
>> seem plausible, but unfortunately there is no documentary
>> proof of this, as far as I have been able to determine.
>>
>> Gary Rector
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>



-- 
There's nothing like the old songs, but what's the good if you can't 
remember them. Mem. Mem. Memory.

William H. Gass

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