Jeonggamnok

Ideologies expressed in this work inspired many insurrectionist movements or claims of political legitimacy from the Joseon period to the present.

[1] Nowadays, Jeonggamnok is the name of a large corpus, composed of numerous works, most from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[6] It is generally agreed that some elements of the text were written just after the Imjin War (1592–1598) and the Qing invasion (1636), because it contains after-the-fact "predictions" of these events.

[7] Moreover, the fact that, circa 1750, "Jeonggamnok" was addressing precisely that text rather than a larger corpus can be inferred by various quotations from the Seungjeongwon Ilgy (i.e. the Crew Diary of the Joseon Dynasty).

[9] The Jeonggam Record was addressing the grievances of the Korean people due to the failure of the government to prevent foreign invasions and to the widespread corruption among the ruling class.

[12] Another one is the 1782-12-10 art.3 entry of the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty (Jeongjo sillok), which made it clear that the Jeonggamnok was banned.

[1] The Korean scholar Kim Tak documented many instances in which the work was an important component of new religious and insurrectionist ideology.

[1] Religious sects with various ideologies inspired by the Jeonggamnok include: Bocheongyo (Poch'ŏn'gyo), Jeungsangyo (Chŭngsan'gyo), Baekbaekkyo (Paekpaekkyo), and Cheongnimgyo (Ch'ŏngnimgyo).

Its ideology took inspiration from Jeonggamnok, in its claim that the True Man Jeong would lead an army to establish a new dynasty.

In preparation for the rebellion the instigators spread the "song foretelling the future" which had lines nearly identical to "the gentleman will wear a hat" text in the Jeonggamnok quoted above.

[22] Hong Gyeong-nae, one of the chief leaders of the rebellion, was a professional geomancer from Pyongan province who claimed that the gravesite of his father that he had chosen was a very auspicious site that would protect him.

In a section of his book titled Ch'oe Cheu, the Tonghak religion, and the Chong Kam nok, Jorgensen noted that Choe Je-u was familiar with Jeonggamnok and that passages in his writings were quite similar to those found there.

Due to the textural similarities with Jeonggamnok and his use of the Catholic translation for the word God, the authorities became suspicious of Donghak.

However, the Korean people continued to be inspired by its revolutionary ideology which led to acts of resistance (many incited by religious sects) and these movements began to alarm Japanese officials.

During the March First Movement of 1919, many followers of the Jeonggamnok inspired religious groups moved to Mount Kyeryong - the predicted site of the new capital of the Jeong dynasty - and built villages there to prepare themselves for a "great calamity".

During the Pacific War the work helped fuel hope that the Japanese would be defeated, and that Korean liberation was at hand.

The Japanese claimed that this practice illustrated the weakness of the Korean people and initiated a campaign to force the wearing of colored clothes.

Kim Sa-Ryang wrote a novel (Deep in the Grass 풀숲 깊숙이, 1940)[27] about the Colored Clothes campaign sympathetic to the Korean perspective.

[29] The Jeonggamnok is the basis of the novel For the Emperor, by the Korean writer Yi Mun-yol who won the Republic of Korea Literature Prize for this work.

[32] Sol Sun-bung, author of the preface to his English translation, noted that although the Emperor's dream of becoming a ruler of the people failed in a practical sense, nonetheless at his death, he achieves "greater eminence by transcending all worldly preoccupations".

[30] ---to be developed--- According to several texts of the Jeonggamnok, the sipseungji 十勝地 are ten places where you can live in peace and take refuge from hunger and war.

[33] The blue line is 백두대간, Baekdu-daegan, the largest and longest mountain range on the Korean Peninsula from Mt.