Abstract

It is not overstated that the incantation in the belief system of Daesoon Jinrihoe has an implicitly absolute status. However, an attempt to carry out research on Daesoon belief and its thought has not gained attention due to the lack of documents related to incantation. There was no record to figure out when the incantation had been changed in a certain context, which could therefore not guarantee accuracy for the research. Fortunately, the private documents preserved by people were compiled in the process of organizing old documents at the end of the 20th century, including those transcribed in the Japanese colonial period. Among the manuscripts, the incantation assumed to be the Mugeuk-do (Limitless Dao)’s appeared. The three -page document was discovered in the Cheonjeon branch (川前派) of the Kim family-clan of Uiseong. The manuscript of the incantation found in Andong on the bibliographic perspective was analytically compared with the related Mugeuk-do documents, including the government documents during the Japanese colonial period, and those of other Jeungsanism orders, as well as the Taegeuk-do (Great-Ultimate Dao) incantation of the 1950s after the independence of Korea. As a result, the regions, forms, and texts originated from the documents based on the incantation of Mugeuk-do in the 1920s. In this regard, the similarities in the transcribed incantation and the incantation of Jeungsan Beopjonggyo can be described as the same root in Mugeuk-do of the 1920s. This result of historical research will serve as an important momentum to provide a basis for the research of incantation in Daesoon belief, by apprehending the change of Mugeuk-do incantation and its updating process in general. If comparatively analyzing the incantation of Taegeuk-do under the premise that the manuscript is precisely the incantation of Mugeuk-do, when and under what circumstances Jeongsan’s changing incantation can be updated, can be broadly apprehended. The incantation plays a key role in Daesoon belief, which interrelates with other belief systems. Accordingly, the research on incantation, a core system of Daesoon belief, needs more attention to apprehend and understand its characteristics. Hopefully, through the transcribed incantation, this study will expand the range of diverse follow-up research, and the research basis for Mugeuk-do, by discovering the related documents.