동학교 『축식』 연구

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the ritual characteristics of Donghakgyo(東學敎), a denomination of East Learning, founded by Kim Ju Hee around 1915, through the analysis of its Prayer Manual Book(『祝式』). Forty two written prayers are included in the book, and the prayers are classified by five different ritual categories: sacrificial rites(15), wedding ceremonies(4), funeral rites(11), ancestral rites(7), and miscellaneous ceremonies(5). Most prayers are definitely directed towards Heaven-Earth-Human Parents who are anthropomorphized as supreme beings in ritual dimension. The answerers of prayer are personified deities who represent at once and supervise three cosmic elements: heaven, earth, and human. In fact, the main and large part of Donghakgyo's ritual process is reading several written prayers one by one and then burning them. It is not too much to say that the reading and burning of written prayers is the alpha and omega of the rituals. In Donghakgyo, both a ritual without written prayers and a ritual manual without a prayer manual are almost unimaginable.