Dangun as venerated in Daejonggyo (also spelled Taejonggyo), a Korean new religious movement founded in Seoul in 1909 by Na Cheol, which holds Dangun to be the earthly manifestation of one God expressed as a trinity through Hwanin, Hwanung and Dangun, and reveres him as the source of the nation's original teaching. This is a distinct register from the founding-legend figure in the Samguk Yusa: here Dangun is an object of religious devotion for a living movement, not only a national origin story.
Facts
Function
Domain / FunctionKingship and sovereignty 1 Attestation
Era of Attestation Era of AttestationGojoseon founding legend, traditionally dated 2333 BCE by later Goryeo-era chroniclers 3 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Daejonggyo is a small, still-active Korean new religious movement; Baker records it among roughly seventeen modern Dangun-worshipping groups, the best known of which centers its religious life on Dangun as a divine founder rather than only a legendary one. HistoricityLegendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 1 History
Historical NoteDaejonggyo emerged during the final years of Korea's independence from Japanese annexation and was closely tied to the anti-colonial movement; its founder and several early leaders were persecuted by Japanese colonial authorities, and the modern South Korean National Foundation Day holiday commemorating Dangun's founding of Gojoseon has roots in the movement's own commemorative practice. 1 Cult
Worship and PracticeDaejonggyo teaches that its own spiritual techniques are the very practices Dangun taught while he ruled Korea's first kingdom, and it holds three texts said to date to the Dangun era as authentic scripture, treating them as revealed rather than as literary retellings of a founding legend. 1 Belief
TheologyA doctrine of unity in three persons: one God manifested as Hwanin the Heavenly King, Hwanung his son who descended to Taebaeksan, and Dangun, Hwanung's own son and Korea's founding ruler, read by the movement as three expressions of a single divine reality rather than three separate gods. Origins
Origin of the NameDangun's name has no settled reading. Proposals include altar prince, from a root for a ritual platform, and sandalwood, and scholars are further divided on whether Dangun names one founding individual or was a title carried by a line of Gojoseon rulers, a question tied to the parallel debate over Gojoseon's own founding date. 1 Correspondences & Relations
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Korean SpiritualityDon Baker
Same Figure, Narrative Entry
Source Korean SpiritualityDon Baker
Sources
1. Korean Spirituality
Don Baker, University of Hawai'i Press, 2008
2. Tan'gun (Wikipedia)
Lead or body textQuote, Lead or body text
The earliest recorded version of the Tan
3. Dangun (Wikipedia)
Lead: "Dangun...is said to have founded Gojoseon...in 2333 BCE"View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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