• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.103-125
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• 2021

This paper deals with figurative meanings of Haewon-sangsaeng. It is an investigation which is both semantic and diachronic. In the first part, important implications of sangsaeng (or xiangsheng in Chinese) in the context of correlative cosmology are extensively explored. Among others, saeng (in Chinese sheng) as a powerful metaphor and its related Chinese compounds are broadly discussed. In the second part, the evolution of ideas of yuan (or won in Korean) in Chinese history is explicated. Above all, in the traditional Chinese cultural milieu, wrongful treatments which make victims feel themselves aggrieved are socio-politically orientated. The Scripture on Great Peace (Taiping Jing) is used as reference point to elucidate the essential points of yuan and its knots. However, the advent of Buddhism in East Asia adds a new dimension to the understanding of yuan (won). Accumulated yuan as karmic bond thus gives a new identity of yuan as predetermined animosity. Widely recognized idioms like "adverse relatives and karmic debtors" and indigenous Chinese Buddhist rituals like Repentance Ritual of the Emperor Liang bear witness to this transformation of the meaning of yuan in East Asia. The fruitful yet correlated meanings of yuan also make the endeavor of untying yuan deeply significant and important to human society. Haewon-sangsaeng, as a religio-ethical ideal, brings out an amicable and harmonious relationship among myriad beings in the cosmos.