Messiahship in the Korean Prophetic Work “Chŏng Kam’s Writings” (Chŏng Kam nok) and Its Influence on the Worldview of Koreans in the 20th Century

“Chŏng Kam’s Writings” (Chŏng Kam nok) is one of the most famous Korean prophetic sources. Anonymous, first appeared, most likely, around the 17th–18th centuries, most of the versions are lost. Judging by the existing texts, “Chŏng Kam’s Writings” is a complex of different predictions, but the main text is the con­versation between two fortune-telling officials Chŏng Kam and Yi Sim who discuss the past and the future of the Korean peninsula. Based on the geographical theory of pungsu chiri sŏl, the features of the Korean landscape and metaphysics, Chŏng and Yi argue that the Yi dynasty (ruling dynasty since 1392) in the near future should be replaced by a new dynasty named Chŏng. The leader of this new dynasty was called Chŏng Chinin. So, the article focuses on the semantic analysis of the image of Chŏng Chinin in the “Chŏng Kam’s Writings” through the ideas of messianism in Korean culture and their later reinterpretation in the 20th century. To analyze the idea of messianism in the “Chŏng Kam’s Writings,” I examine the historical pre­requisites for the formation of this idea and take into account the features of religious syncretism on the Korean Peninsula. In my opinion, the ideas of messianism in the “Chŏng Kam’s Writings” were influenced by the belief in the Buddha Maitreya that came from China to the peninsula in the first centuries of our era and the formation of the social institution of the Hwarang in the state of Silla. The “Chŏng Kam’s Writings” played a significant role in the preparation of popular uprisings in the 18th–19th centuries, as well as in the formation of religious sects in the 20th century. Thus, the study shows the persistence of the traditional idea of the messiah in modern Korean religious beliefs.