• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.147-180
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• 2020

'The Great Nest of Being (The Great Chain of Being)' is a key ontological concept in Perennial Philosophy. The Great Nest of Being shows the depth of the world's religions that have existed historically, and in this context, they represent holarchies of existence and consciousness. This paper examines the nests of various beings in order to grasp the depths of the world's mainstream religions, and reveals that the great nest of being that appear in the Daesoon Thought has the characteristic of synthesizing other nests that have emerged previously in history. According to Perennial Philosophy, the differences among different religions in regards to ultimate reality are not differences in reality but merely differences in semantics. In other words, these differences are only 'different expressions of the same ultimate reality.' Thus, linguistically, ultimate reality in the great nest of being can be summarized as the 'same in what is signifié (signified, 記意)' and 'different in the signifiant (signifier, 記標).' As stated in a preceding study; however, ultimate reality in Daesoon Thought is both transcendent and personal, as well as intrinsic and impersonal. This fact is specifically stated in the Four Tenets (4大 宗旨) of Daesoon Thought. In other words, the Tenets of Daesoon implicitly acknowledge not only the concepts of reality and the direction that emerges from the base of existence in existing systems of religious thought, but also can encompass the ideologies of those systems of religious thought. Considering the four quadrants as the Kosmos (AQAL), it encompasses a universal ideology. Therefore, the tenets of Daesoon Thought encompass the same significance (meaning) of the major systems of religious thought throughout the world in regards to ultimate reality and provide a clue to the solution to the presence of different signifiers (signs).

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.39
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• pp.669-700
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• 2019

Farmers' band music is a religious ritual in Korea. It is a solemn ritual to exhibit the auspicious holiness of the people to the God. Most of the ritual is accomplished by music. The music of the farmers 'band, in this sense, has its meaning as the expression of holiness by sound. In this paper, I will explore the principle to make various rhythms of farmers' band music, especially focusing on the chaegut (lit. "stroke music"). It is very symbolic because the name of the music shows the strokes of the gong, called jing, in a rhythmic phrase. In this sense, the chaegut is man-made music based on the specific principles in accordance with the strokes of the gong. Among many chaegut rhythms, samchae (lit. "three strokes") to chilchae (lit. "seven strokes") are the main rhythms. They were made after the principle of 'forward with drums, backward with gongs' in Five way procession. It the basic principle of military procession from the early Joseon Dynasty. The procession follows with the sound of the drums and gongs. There was always a principle of "five strokes" to control the procession. The "five strokes" became the basis of the making of chaegut rhythms. The rhythms of the samchae to chilchae are based on the rhythm of samchae. The samchae has three gong strokes in a cycle, which exhibits the chaotic moment with the rhythmic noise. The name of the rhythm exhibits the correspondence of the signifiant, that is the name "three strokes" and the signifié, that is the real three strokes of gongs in music. Other four rhythms has made up from the samchae with half cycles are added in accordance with the strokes of the gongs. In this way, the chaegut shows the principle of "five strokes" in the military procession. The rhythm of ochae jilgut is a mixture of ochae (lit. "five strokes") and jilgut (lit. "road music") which is usually performed on the road to a mountain shrine. The musical structure of ochae jilgut corresponds to the colotomic structure of Southeast Asian music and the 15th-century music of old musical scores. The rhythm of gilgunak chilchae is a mixture of gilgunak (lit. "road military music") and chilchae (lit. "seven strokes"). The rhythmic structure is similar to other regional music, sijo ("short song") of the literati music and norae garak (lit. "some melody") of the shaman music. In sum, the chaegut is very artistic music made from the military procession of the Joseon Dynasty. The name of the rhythm corresponds with the strokes of the gong in a cycle. In this way, the chaegut shows the principle of music-making to exhibit the ritual characteristics of the Korean people.