小說

No matter how much the college entrance exam market dominates the entire lives of Koreans, life is about facing a moment of reality at some point. After experiencing colonization and war, we have run at an unbelievable speed of rapid economic development, but our inner self is always hungry. Why do I work, and what kind of person do I pursue? What is the difference between humans and beasts? Koreans have run like beasts for the past hundred years, fundamentally castrated from such philosophical questions. For us, who have lived glancing at these instinctive questions without resolving them, the existence of Ven. Tanhe provides a strange fantasy about human fatalism or the creation of a new world.

What kind of life did Ven. Tanhe live, who mastered the Four Books and Three Classics in his teens, read the Book of Changes 500 times, and integrated Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, that he could predict the future of the Korean people? And is that prophecy within the category of events that our generation, conflicted by ideology and mixed with Japanese invaders by race, can witness with our own eyes during our lifetime? Also, the time has come to consider whether his prophetic ability was a secret technique unique to him, or a prophecy possible for all people who cultivate themselves.

The historical plot before and after Tanhe

The reason I decided that an approach to Ven. Tanhe's prophecy is needed now is that I recently discovered AI animations of a genre called 'cozy apocalypse' on YouTube, and it made me wonder if there are forces that know or determine the direction of human civilization in advance, and if so, what they have in mind. These animated videos made by the Japanese animation production company STUDIO GHIBLI INC. and a dozen similar channels technically depict the apocalyptic world poorly - perhaps intentionally, I don't know. The low quality of the videos raises more doubts, and it's unclear whether it's the next generation genre of The Simpsons, which has served as 'predictive programming,' or a 'counter-conspiracy.'

These Ghibli-esque apocalyptic videos consistently convey a message of hope that I and my family can survive safely amidst the fear and anxiety of everyday life collapsing, and are primarily set against the backdrop of Japanese, Indian, Southeast Asian, and Western cultures. The scenes of securing emergency food, medicine, and firewood, and lighting a fire to prepare a meal amidst storms symbolizing apocalyptic disasters and zombie hordes appearing due to climate or environmental changes, are even heartwarming. As one encounters the accelerating pace of video development, a chronic normalization and daily routine of conspiracy theories accumulate in the mind to the point where one is no longer surprised by any sabotage, but there is no clear solution to applying and discerning conspiracies in reality.

However, 'Ghibli' is the Japanese pronunciation of the word 'ghibli,' which refers to the hot desert wind in North Africa. Koreans have no grasp of when the Japanese went to Egypt, witnessed the world, and developed their worldview while experiencing the hot wind blowing from that North African desert. Koreans, who filled the historical void with colonial brainwashing and anti-communist ideology before and after liberation, have a different understanding of conspiracy theories, and due to the deep chasm of brainwashing and ideology, it is not easy to distinguish between friend and foe. Therefore, it is a simplistic interpretation to think that no matter how much the Japanese, who decided to become 'lapdogs' of the West, depict a soft landing of the apocalypse, it will not be easy to review the past of historical destruction where both cartoons and reality have disappeared beyond recognition.

In 1864, a photograph taken by Antonio Beato of Ikeda Nagaoki and his delegation, who were on their way to France to negotiate the closure of Yokohama Port, in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, next to the Sphinx. Koreans do not know why Japan was negotiating with France to close Yokohama, which Perry had opened. If even some of the journalistic 'five Ws and one H' were fake, could it still be called fact? How can public education, which is partly fact and partly fiction, explain and guarantee the politics of each country and the value of human coexistence?

The reason conspiracy theories are frightening hypotheses is that, whether one realizes their impact on reality or not, whether one suffers direct or indirect harm or not, events appear coincidentally between doubt and confirmation, making it difficult to grasp their full scope. When it's hard to distinguish what is coincidental from what is intentional, we find it difficult to dismiss it as a mere conspiracy theory or to definitively conclude it's an actual conspiracy. If this doubt has accumulated over generations, oscillating between superimposed hypotheses, facts, and established theories, then human learning might need to reset all existing public systems to align with the technological singularity that the current AGI era will bring. In that regard, the prophecies of Tanhe Sunim, based on Eastern thought, foresaw an era of spiritual awakening that also resonated with the New Age movement of the 1970s in the West.

Tanhe's Plot of the Times

Public education and government policies cannot explain how to process the privileged information of an impending doomsday prophecy, which suggests that humanity must accept a future where the framework of the existing social order collapses, and individuals and groups should prepare themselves. This is because politicians, whose lives are focused on power corruption blinded by self-interest and the subsequent handling of their actions, cannot possibly care about the future of humanity. However, this situation is not unique to Korean politics; global politics is also in a state of disarray, and as the illusory tower built by humanity reveals its foundations, the convergence of technological singularity and the collapse of political systems cannot be interpreted as a good omen.

한국의 경우, 1960년 3·15 부정선거를 계기로 일어난 4·19혁명은 미국의 개 노릇을 하던 이승만을 퇴진시키긴 했지만, 기존 관료 조직과 군부의 부패, 권위주의적 관행에 식민지 정치를 청산하지 못한 누적된 원죄와 함께 부정선거 가담과 부정부패의 책임을 묻는 정군운동(整軍運動)으로 비화했고 결국에는 1961년 5.16쿠데타로 박정희가 권력을 장악하기에 이르렀다. 이승만 독재에 협력했던 군 지휘부를 쇄신하라는 요구에서 출발했으나, 군 개혁을 넘어 이승만을 뛰어넘은 정권 장악에까지 이른 것은, 미라 구하러 간 사람이 미라가 된다(ミイラ取りがミイラになる, The mummy hunter becomes a mummy.)는 일본 속담처럼, 타락한 권력을 바로잡겠다던 사람이 끝내 그 권력의 논리에 사로잡히는 상황이라 할 수 있다.

As shown in the picture above, the Japanese who went to Egypt in the 1860s must have learned about the relationship between mummies and humans, and the business potential of ancient ruins and artifacts. The interpretation that people who went to the desert to find mummy-related medicinal ingredients, known as rare medicines, became stranded and turned into mummies themselves, is an improbable explanation. It is a deceptive act, like the historical narrative that France was involved in closing Yokohama, which was opened by the United States. Although people lived near mummies and near Yokohama, the history recorded by the media cannot be trusted as being based solely on facts, so all of human history is a record that has undergone the power of fabrication and thus cannot be trusted, but this falls into the category of conspiracy theories.

Park Chung-hee appears to have been a figure who only sought to consolidate power through the Anti-Communist Law, the first revolutionary pledge he enacted, and had no intention or qualification to undertake anti-national politics or liquidate colonial remnants. Park Chung-hee reinforced the governing method of suppressing opponents under the banner of anti-communism, complementing the political loopholes exposed by the collapse of the Syngman Rhee regime. The revolution he championed, under the banner of liquidating past power structures, led to their more robust reorganization. The Anti-Communist Law was enacted and promulgated on July 3, 1961, and came into effect on the same day. It was abolished when Chun Doo-hwan, who seized power through the May 18th incident in 1980, comprehensively revised and absorbed it into the National Security Act.

The mummy is a symbol of grave robbing, invading the peace of the dead for power and profit. Just as the pyramids and sphinxes remaining in Egypt today do not mean that modern Egyptians built them, the mere fact that a nation inherits past laws and institutions does not guarantee their legitimacy. If laws created under the pretext of protecting the people are repeatedly strengthened in the hands of those in power and begin to oppress their own citizens, it is a reversal of roles where the state, which should exist for the people, lords over them.

If read as the analogy, 'You go to find a mummy and become a mummy yourself,' it reveals the self-contradiction where the justification of protecting the nation ultimately destroys the freedom and lives of its people. The anti-communist rule of the Rhee Syngman regime was further organized around the military and intelligence agencies during the Park Chung-hee regime, and the new military, including Chun Doo-hwan, seized power through a military coup and the bloody events of May 18th. Even after the Anti-Communist Law was abolished, its main contents were absorbed into the National Security Act, meaning that the mechanisms of oppression continued even as rulers changed. In that sense, Rhee Syngman, Park Chung-hee, and Chun Doo-hwan form a lineage of dictators in modern Korean history who used anti-communism as a means of legitimizing power and repeatedly engaged in state violence.

At a time when Japan might have been trading mummies in Egypt, in that land, the Japanese imperialists and their sympathizers branded anti-Japanese and anti-foreign figures as 'disobedient Koreans' (不逞鮮人). It was a process of 'near vermilion, turns red' (근묵자흑), where the closer one got to colonial power, the more one became tainted by its logic of oppression. Yoon Suk-yeol, who became Moon Jae-in's successor, seizing power, declaring martial law, and carrying out an insurrection, was an unexpected situation that did not fit the pattern of corruption of previous presidents. From the perspective of the 'mummy-hunting' logic, it is an unexpected variable that deviates from the lineage. Instead of following the path of inheriting and covering up the contradictions of previous powers while maximizing private gain, we must infer the reason why he chose the extreme option of martial law. Yoon Suk-yeol was the last runner at the end of this 'near vermilion, turns red' process.

The situation where a prostitute sat in the highest position of power in the institutional politics of a country and an era, as a human being, was a moral and biological singularity for the species. Yoon Suk-yeol would have had to either agree to a parliamentary system transition by forces trying to overcome the limits of declining power corruption, or put forward Yoo Si-min, who would cover up Moon Jae-in's and his own sins, to fit this theory, but he did not and self-destructed. I believe this is because the dark intentions of the South Korean military, which carries the spirit of the Japanese military, the political ambitions of the First Lady, a former prostitute who manipulates Yoon Suk-yeol, and the lack of smooth communication between Hong Jang-won, the US, and Japan, who were behind these two, were not aligned. That night, Kim Eo-jun, Yoo Si-min, Choo Mi-ae, Han Dong-hoon, Choi Min-hee, and other 'watermelons' (traitors) must have been busy calculating what tangible and intangible benefits they would gain at the last moment. They are people who calculated their private interests instead of the blood and scattered flesh of voters that would result from a rebellion.

Tanheo's ontological plot

The background to Tanheo's establishment as a byword for prophecy is the discourse that connected Korea's future with the unfolding of the post-heavenly world, namely 『The Challenge of East Asia: Korea's Impact and Challenge』 in 1975. At that time, Korea was an era of dictatorship that controlled its people under the Anti-Communist Law and guilt by association, and brutally suppressed intellectuals and opposition forces. Power demanded conformity while suppressing critical thinking. In such a reality, the post-heavenly world and Korea's future preached by Tanheo had the potential to be accepted as an optimistic outlook that transcended the oppressed present, and was a much-needed blueprint for comfort for the exhausted people.

At the core of that vision was the post-heavenly transformation ideology that 'the Korean Peninsula will become the center of the world.' The explanations supporting this were largely twofold. One was that the Earth is tilted '23 degrees and 7 minutes,' and this distorted order, linked to the leap degree, would be corrected. The other connected the 'two heavens and seven earths' of Jeongyeok to the internal fire of the Earth, explaining that this energy would surge into the Arctic Ocean, melting the ice and setting the Earth upright. While this is a dynamic and religious interpretation that should be distinguished from hypotheses verified by modern science, it must have been a fresh shock to Koreans accustomed to the concepts and knowledge of Western civilization. However, while this prophecy was a hope for some, it might have sounded like a very subversive or unsettling claim to others.

Fifty years ago, Tanheo's story of the Arctic was thrown at Korea by Trump today. Looking at resource development and international politics surrounding the Arctic, Trump's intention to draw Korea into his Alaska development plan is unpleasant. While securing energy and critical minerals, checking China and Russia, Arctic military and security strategies, and LNG exports to Asia all require Korea's capital and technology to be mobilized for his plan, not only the business profits but also the costs, risks, and even the initiative in decision-making are uncertain. The current Korean government is the first not to eagerly accept the development plan offered by the United States. U.S. intelligence sources are restless. However, if the Arctic Ocean surges, developers, Korea, and Koreans will die first. There is no need to die by being dragged along by America's bad habit of encouraging mirage hunting.

The decline in semiconductor stock prices due to foreign selling or the difficulties in individual negotiations cannot be immediately bundled together as a single strategy to corner Korea. The suspicion that the U.S. is pre-calculating a disaster in the Arctic and trying to expose Korean engineers to danger also remains a mere conjecture if there is no evidence to support it. What we should be wary of is not the conjecture itself, but failing to examine through what conditions unequal negotiations and the transfer of risk are actually carried out. Lee Jae-myung, who experienced human cruelty early in his life due to poverty and harsh working conditions, is more sensitive to the evil nature of humans behind the promises and opportunities offered by power. Because he is a person with a sense of caution gained from experience rather than complacent optimism or blind faith, he is quietly cleaning up the mess made by Yoon Suk-yeol, who protected Moon Jae-in, the traitor who killed Roh Moo-hyun.

However, he is not Superman. He needs time to distinguish how the motives of domestic and foreign forces opposing him operate, whether as political interests, policy disagreements, prejudice, or hostility, as he silently endures even the prejudice of being a politician who fears assassination. Perhaps he possesses a universal human compassion, hoping that others do not miss the opportunities he lost due to poverty. With what sense of mission and philosophy do people who easily trust the good intentions of others and rely on the promises of power endure hardship? Where have all the people who awaited Tanheo's prophecy gone, and why has the world become filled with beasts who are jealous of those who are skilled at reading world affairs and possess strong will?

Returning to Tanheo's prophecy, there is even an explanation that the Korean Peninsula will act like a lever during the process of the Earth's axis being corrected, making it a relatively stable and advantageous land for survival. Considering how the prophecy of a comic book about the sinking of the Japanese archipelago became a hot topic, there is also a sense of urgency that the time will come to pay the price for hegemonic expansion. The problem becomes even more complex when it comes to predictions that the continental shelf of the West Sea will rise, creating land twice the size of the Korean Peninsula, and that Liaodong, Manchuria, and the Maritime Province will become Korean territory. Such stories are easily interpreted as a promise of national territorial expansion beyond mere survival in disaster.

However, land uplift and the expansion of a nation's territory are separate issues. The emergence of new land does not automatically make it Korean territory, nor is the attribution of surrounding areas determined solely by natural phenomena. It involves the lives and will of the residents, inter-state relations, and political order. The moment we accept another country's catastrophe as our prosperity, the prophecy of salvation risks turning into another imagination of domination.

Yet, why are these prophecies constantly repeated? While the people were only encouraged to believe in the history of Dangun's descendants living on the Korean Peninsula, on the other hand, there was Tanheo, who promised a lost vast territory and future restored power. The greater the sense of powerlessness in reality, the more comfort a grand past and a brilliant future provide. For those deprived of dignity and a voice under dictatorship, the story of a nation that would become the center of the world might have been a compensation that helped them endure reality.

탄허의 전망을 해외에 소개한 것으로 언급되는 한기식(韓己植) 교수의 영문 기사 「What Comes Before & After 1999?—Buddhist Monk Tannho Foresees」는 국내에서 인정받지 못한 민족적 서사를 해외로 발신하려는 욕구로 볼 수 있다. 독재 정권은 민족을 내세우면서도, 그 민족의 이름으로 권력의 책임을 묻는 목소리는 억눌렀다. 이런 상황에서는 현실의 역사와 정치를 비판하는 일보다, 먼 과거나 아득한 미래를 통해 민족의 위대함을 말하는 일이 더 쉬웠을 수 있다. 그러나, 『환단고기』가 이에 앞서 일본에서 일본인에 의해 재유통되었듯이, 한국은 독재 정치로 국민의 자주성, 역사 해석의 자율성을 잃었다. 종말은 한국 사회의 자율성이 마비된 정신문명에 대한 갈급함이 없으면 인식이 어려울 수 있다.

The culmination of Western conspiracy theories is the ongoing completion of Zionism. If the killing for preemption continues to determine who will hold hegemony after the reset of global civilization, there is also an intention to bury the past where certain forces dominated and reshaped history, including how human civilization has evolved and which forces have held sway and developed. Tanhe was a person who knew this. However, given that our spiritual awakening has descended to the level of animals, to the extent that we cannot fathom his academic depth, what can we prepare for?