Han & Samjae: Traditional Philosophy of Korea

You must have heard of Yin & Yang in the field of Oriental philosophy. But I guess, you may not have heard of Samjae or Han. Samjae can be declared to mean "Three kinds of essential materials", which are constituted of Sky, Earth and Man. The Chinese people didn't discussed of Samjae much, because they didn't understand of the significance of this conception without philosophical tradition of talking of them. Of course, Japanese philosophy, which have been mainly under the influence of Korean and Chinese philosophy, has nothing of discussing them either. You may be able to guess China, Korea and Japan have been influencing one another in almost every cultural aspects, which is natural considering their geographical locations. But it is somewhat extraordinary that only Korea has much bibliography of discussion on Samjae.

The central text on Samjae is Cheon-Bu Kyeong(bible given by heaven: The image of right part shows the bible.). This text is constitutied of only 81 Chinese letters. (Chinese letter have been the shared letters in Oriental area, so it is not extraordinary that this Korean text were written in Chinese letters). Originally, Cheon-Bu Kyeong was written in Nok-du letters, which was the unique Korean letters, but a scholar Choi, Chi-Won translated it into Chinese letters, and the original text have been lost so far. Around this bible, some more commentaries have been handed down so far in the Great Religion(Korean Traditional Religion believing Tangun). Those text will be quoted in the text of On Samjae and Kang-Yu. Though almost nobody talked of Samjae focusing its philosophical implication out of Korean philosophy, it is certain that this concept is very important in Oriental philosophy general. You may know I Ching, the book of Change. This book contains 64 hexagrams displaying implicit meanings of general change in man's life. Each hexagram is composed of two Kwae(Trigram)s, each of which is again composed of three yin or yangs. The reason why three yins or yangs constitute each Kwae is that each yin or yang follows the way of Samjae, Sky, Earth and Man. This reveals that the philosophy of yin/yang is based on the concept of Samjae. Then, what is the reason they didn't talk of Samjae? All of Korean inherited texts tell us that it is due to the fact that the main concept of Samjae belongs to Korean philosophical tradition.

The philosophy of Samjae can be said to be the harmony of One and Three. This one is called "Han." The Han has complex implications; not only of oneness but also of manyness or of muchness. To explain the essence of this conception, I'd like to say, everything is based on one thing, which, however, cannot be said of when it is absolute one, so we have to analyze the ontological foundation into three concepts of Sky, Earth and Man: The Samjae. If you are interested in more detailed desciption, refer to "The Metaphysic of TaekwondoBible.com".

Let me introduce of the meaning of Cheon Bu Kyeong translated into English.

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Oneness and nothingness are born with each other. Divided into Three, which produce boundless change without exhausting its origin. The one Heaven is one, the one Earth is two, and the one Man is three. Accumulating those onenesses to be big ten, never-ending change is caused by those Three. The Heaven when two is three, the Earth when two is three, and the Man when two is three too. These big Three make Six, producing Seven, Eight, and Nine. Through Three and Four it makes a ring by Five and Seven. Since this One is profound and mysterious, coming and going innumerably, its use changes while its root never changes. Intrinsically the mind is root of everything, when looking up the bright sun, so the Heaven and the Earth make one in Man. Oneness and nothingness finish with each other.


The detailed and reasonable intepretation of this bible, the relation of Taekwondo principles and implications of this text's implication and so on will be some of the main theses of "The Philosophical Foundation of TKD Principles"(In http://taekwondobible.com).


Refer to: (my homepage)
http://taekwondobible.com/korculture/spirit/samjae.html

About "Cheon Bu Kyeong"(天符經)

"Cheon Bu Kyeong"(天符經) means "The Bible Given by Heaven" in Korean. This text is composed of only 81 Asian letter, which was shared by all the countries of eastern Asia 2000 years ago. Many Korean philosophers have been interested in this small bible, which is known very difficult to understand instead of its profound and abundant implication.

This CBK(let me call it this way) has some characteristics. The first is that it doesn't comment on human morality or who to live, yet only on the change and some kind of cosmos. The second is that this text is very short. It is composed of only 81 asian letters. And, of course, another characteristic is that this text belongs to Korean only. China or Japan don't have even another similar to this.

Many philosophers tried to interprete this text but no one is satisfiable, I think. This is why there are so many kinds of interpretation of this, yet no one of consensus. I think this result is owing to their thinking way; they didn't have full understanding the essence of Korean philosophy, or that of oriental philosophy, particularly compared with western's. Then, am I only man who know it? Well, I have to say I'm not sure though I believe so. The readers may be able to make objective decision about it.

The Text of Cheon Bu Keong(天符經)

一始無始一析三極 無盡本天一一地一二人一三一積十鉅無(櫃-木)化三天二三地二三人二三大三合六生七八九運三四成環五七一妙衍萬往萬來用變不動本本心本太陽昻明人中天地一一終無終一.(See also the foregoing image)

My Interpretation

Oneness and nothingness are born with each other. Divided into Three, which produce boundless change without exhausting its origin. The one Sky is one, the one Earth is two, and the one Man is three. Accumulating those onenesses to be big ten, never-ending change is caused by those Three. The Sky when two is three, the Earth when two is three, and the Man when two is three too. These big Three make Six, producing Seven, Eight, and Nine. Through Three and Four it makes a ring by Five and Seven. Since this One is profound and mysterious, coming and going innumerably, its use changes while its root never changes. Intrinsically the mind is root of everything, when looking up the bright sun, so the Sky and the Earth make one in Man. Oneness and nothingness finish with each other.

Korean Philosophy

Here, I'd like to introduce the essence of Korean Philosophy.
Korean philosophy is not so well known mainstream of world's thinking or ideology, but it includes the most essential thinking scheme of oriental philosophy. Most people knows only something about Chinese or Japanese philosophy. But Korean philosophy became the bridge from Chinese to Japanese philosophy, producing new creation of oriental philosophy out of Chinese one and influencing absolutely on Japanese philosophy.
Concerned with Japanese philosophy, it has been almost all the way under the strong influence of Korean. Concerned with Chinese philosophy Korean philosophy has some important and essential foundation for it. If the philosophy were reflexive and critical thinking activity of a thing, along the consensus of all the philosophers, Korean philosophy can be said to be a, and perhaps only, reflexive foundation of the yin-yang philosophy of oriental. We can confirm it in the concept of Samjae.
In spite of such a abundant philosophical resource Korean philosophy couldn't be known to many people, under the shade of Chinese and Japanes one, as China has been the most influential empire in the center of recent history of oriental area and its culture while Japan was the first country that Westerners got familiar to first. But all of these reasons are historical. So it cannot change the significance of each philosophy itself, though it can change the power of a philosophy. Of course, the power and influence of a philosophy has something to do with its significance in many cases. But we still have good reason left to look into the origianal value of a philosophy to know the inherent value of each.
Let me comment one prominent clue to the significance of Korean philosophy. You may have heard of Yin-yang, the well-known unique concept of oriental philosophy. This concept composes hexagram that symbolizes each step or aspect of the oriental philosophy of Change. (I hope you to have some knowledge of I Ching, too, perhaps.^^) Three of yin or yang compose each hexagram, and its composition is based on the principle of Samjae. Samjae means three essential element of oriental abstract scheme; Sky, Earth and Man. Then, we can conclude Samjae is more fundamental concept, which is more philosophical in the sense that philosophy is a critical and reflexive thinking activity. But you cannot find nothing that comments more on Samjae in Chinese bibliography. Instead the oldest philosophical bibliography is full of explanations and comments on Samjae rather than Yin-yang. If you understand the full meaning of old Korean philosophy in right way, I believe you can understand the whole figure of oriental philosophy on the basis of more reasonable, not mysterious, foundation like Western one.
I wish this site can help you to investigate these topics.

Refer to:(My homepage)
http://pakebi.com/blue/krphilos/phil.html