The development of the 'Three-Religions-are-One' principle from China to Korea: A study in Kang Chungsan's religious teachings as exemplifying the principle.

摘要

Throughout China's history, many religious thinkers have maintained the opinion that the three great religions in China (that is, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) share the same "Tao" and serve to supplement each other, as expressed in the "Three-Religions-are-One (san-chiao ho-i)" principle. The force of this principle also was felt in Korea, resulting in sects formed through liberal intra-religious borrowing. The religious and social value of these sects, although cast in doubt by some scholars, is much in evidence. To prove this point we took, as a typical example, the religious thought of Kang Chungsan, one of the outstanding religious founders of nineteenth century Korea.;Chungsan was chosen as an example because he claimed to have extracted the essence of all the religious traditions which existed before him to form his religious teachings. Moreover, may scholars share the opinion that Chungsan's teachings constitute the conglomeration of all the religious ideas available to him, amounting to nothing more than "an indiscriminate, aimless, purely pragmatic combination of practices and ideas." But, we found that they contain indeed a certain 'order' or 'structure.' His various doctrines were systematically organized, centering around a key concept--his 'home tradition' (Judith Berling) or 'orienting force' (H. B. Earhart). Chungsan chose the Shamanistic principle of haewon (resolution of resentment) as his home tradition and incorporated into it other religious doctrines on the basis of that principle. Therefore, his teachings are far richer than a mere juxtaposition of different incompatible doctrines borrowed from various religions.