This paper examines the religious life and poetic works of Yeongshindang(迎新堂) Kang Dae-seong(姜大成, 1889-1954), the founder of the new Korean religion, Gangjeong-yudo(更正儒道).
He was a religious leader born in the late Joseon Dynasty and lived through the Japanese colonial period and the division of North and South Korea. He was a religious leader who was born in the remote countryside of Ssangchi-myeon, Sunchang, where Hoemun Mountain(回文山) is located, and achieved great enlightenment through repeated training. It is believed that he was greatly influenced by the place where the eschatological Taoist ideology was prevalent around Hoemun Mountain since the late Joseon Dynasty.
He showed the characteristic of utilizing the poetic form while clarifying the principles of nature and teaching sentient beings. Looking at his religious ideology and doctrines contained in Bu-eung-gyeong(符應經), most of his works were lyric, sijo, and miscellaneous songs, rather than prose. It contained approximately 150 lyrics, 24 sijos, and 4 miscellaneous songs that were apparently written by Yeongshindang.
The following literary characteristics were confirmed in these works written by him.
First, he was implementing his religious ideology literarily, utilizing the poetry form. Although there were cases of utilizing lyrics in the past, there was no case of utilizing both sijo and miscellaneous songs like this. In addition, he did not use the lyrics, sijo, and miscellaneous songs equally, but utilized them differently according to the characteristics of each genre. The lyrics were a means of expressing religious doctrine, the sijos expressed his emotional inner world, and the miscellaneous songs were somewhere between the lyrics and sijos. These poetry works were from the modern period, but the lyrics were religious lyrics and the sijos were in the form of old sijos. In addition, the miscellaneous songs were probably the Taryeongjo miscellaneous songs that were popular during the Japanese colonial period since the 19th century.
Second, he’s poetry works embodied the consciousness of the times along with religious ideology. This appeared differently depending on the period. During the Japanese colonial period, there were many works that offered spiritual comfort or hope to the people, rather than singing about the gloomy reality. On the other hand, songs that came out after liberation had the characteristic of dealing with real-world issues such as the conflict between the left and right or the division of the North and South, and promoting national unity and self-reliance.