History
Cheondoism originated from the Donghak ("Eastern Learning"), a Confucian movement that arose in the 19th century as a reaction to Western encroachment. While the Donghak movement began with Confucian scholar Choe Jeu, it did not become a religion movement until the 3rd patriarch, Son Byeong-hui.
Choe Jeu formulated the Donghak ("Eastern Learning") ideology in the 1860s to help ease the lot of the farmers suffering from abject poverty and exploitation, as well as to restore political and social stability. His ideas rapidly gained broad acceptance among the peasantry. Choe set his Donghak themes to music so that illiterate farmers could understand, accept, and remember them more readily. His teachings were systematized and compiled as a message of salvation to farmers in distress.
The Cheondoism as a religion evolved in the early 1900s from the Donghak peasant liberation movements in the southern provinces of Korea. Members of Donghak were severely persecuted by the colonial government, and so, on December 1, 1905, Son Byeong-hui, who was the third patriarch of the original Donghak movement, decided to modernize the religion and usher in an era of openness and transparency in order to legitimize it in the eyes of the Japanese. As a result he officially changed the name of Donghak to Cheondoism ("religion of the Heavenly Way"). During the waning days of the Joseon Dynasty, King Gojong himself embraced Cheondoism and promoted it nationwide. The King added Buddhist and Christian rituals and codices to the new religion, which was organized into a formal organizational hierarchy similar to that of Roman Catholicism with Pope, Papal Nuncio, formal ceremonies.
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