@article{ART003315135},
author={Yun Sang Hyun},
title={The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2026},
volume={83},
number={1},
pages={263-294}
TY - JOUR
AU - Yun Sang Hyun
TI - The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2026
VL - 83
IS - 1
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 263
EP - 294
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This study aims to elucidate the distinctive position and ontological significance of Choe Je-u’s Donghak concept of Heaven (天觀) within the intellectual-historical context of shifting cosmological worldviews in nineteenth-century Joseon. To this end, the Donggyeong Daejeon (東經大 全) and Yongdam Yusa (龍潭遺詞) are analyzed according to their temporal strata (時層) of composition, demonstrating that Choe Je-u’s understanding of Heaven was not a fixed doctrine but a dynamically evolving process of thought.
The analysis reveals that Choe Je-u’s concept of Heaven underwent three stages of ontological transformation. The first stage, preceding his mystical experience, is characterized by Heaven (天) as an external and determinative reality that governs human fate and fortune. The second stage, spanning the period immediately following his mystical experience through the years of active proselytization, marks a transitional phase in which Heaven expands into a multidimensional reality: simultaneously a personal deity (하늘님) accessible through intimate dialogue, and a principle of pneumatic transformation (氣化) expressed through the concepts of jigi (至氣, supreme vital force) and gwisin (鬼神, spiritual force). The third stage, representing the completion of his spiritual cultivation, constitutes a moment of radical breakthrough in which the previously external divine becomes fully integrated with the subject’s interiority, culminating in the declaration of the “boundless self” (무궁한 나) as the sovereign operator of cosmic power.
Choe Je-u’s mystical experience is understood as a process of integration (tongham, 통합) that preserves a sense of transcendence even within union, through which the individual secures autonomous subjectivity without being absorbed into the divine. Furthermore, his critique of Western Christianity as a tradition lacking pneumatic transformation (身無 氣化之神), together with his formulation of the Sicheonju (侍天主) proposition, demonstrates the essence of an East Asian model of divine-human unity in which spiritual presence and pneumatic transformation are organically conjoined.
In conclusion, Choe Je-u’s transformation of the concept of Heaven constitutes an ontological revolution that elevated the human subject from passive recipient of predetermined fate to sovereign bearer of cosmic life—the “boundless self.” This transformation brings into sharp relief the dimension of subjective self-awakening that existing panentheistic interpretations have overlooked, and intimates the possibility of a new mode of subjectivity capable of transcending the atomistic individualism of contemporary society.
KW - Choe Je-u;Mystical Experience;Donggyeong Daejeon;Yongdam Yusa;Sicheonju
DO -
UR -
ER -
Yun Sang Hyun. (2026). The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. 2026, "The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.83, no.1 pp.263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun "The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83.1 pp.263-294 (2026) : 263.
Yun Sang Hyun. The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures. 2026; 83(1), 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. "The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2026; 83(1) 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures. 2026; 83(1), 263-294.
Yun Sang Hyun. "The Ontological Revolution of Choe Je-u’s Concept of Heaven: A Textual Stratigraphy of Early Donghak Scriptures" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 263-294.
