Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/508

 society, a Buddhist when he philosophises and a spirit-worshipper when he is in trouble. Now, if you want to know what a man's religion is, you must watch him when he is in trouble. Then his genuine religion will come out, if he has any. It is for this reason that I conclude that the underlying religion of the Korean, the foundation upon which all else is mere superstructure, is his original spirit-worship. In this term are included animism, shamanism, fetichism and nature-worship generally.

Buddhism was introduced into Korea in the early centuries of our era, and Confucianism followed soon after. The former was too mystical to appeal to the people in its more philosophic aspects, and, as it came in as a fashionable state religion, its spectacular character was its chief recommendation. Confucianism, on the other hand, was too cold and materialistic to appeal to the emotional side of his nature, and so became simply a political system, the moral elements of which never found any considerable following among the masses. But both these systems eventually blended with the original spirit-worship in such a way as to form a composite religion. Strange to say, the purest religious notion which the Korean to-day possesses is the belief in Hananim, a being entirely unconnected with either of the imported cults and as far removed from the crude natureworship. This word Hananim is compounded of the words "heaven"(sky) and "master," and is the pure Korean counterpart of the Chinese word "Lord of Heaven." The Koreans all consider this being to be the Supreme Ruler of the universe. He is entirely separated from and outside the circle of the various spirits and demons that infest all nature. Considered from this standpoint, the Koreans are strictly monotheists, and the attributes and powers ascribed to this being are in such consonance with those of Jehovah that the foreign missionaries (Protestant) have almost universally accepted the term for use in teaching Christianity. The Roman Catholics have adopted the term Chun-ju, a pure Chinese word of the same significance, but open to the same objection, namely, that it was used long before