Founding and development
‘As the material is opened, let’s open the mind’
In 1916, in a rural village in Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do, a 26-year-old young man, So Tae-san, founded a new religion, Won-Buddhism, with the goal of saving mankind.
Sotaesan started a new religious movement to realize a desirable ideal world by defining the reality of mankind as a situation in which humans are buried in materialism and establishing the independence of the human spirit. Sotaesan gathered about 40 people who followed him to form a savings association, raised funds through consumption savings, abstinence from alcohol, and joint labor, and based on this, set up a common fund for the association, such as a charcoal business. Based on this fund, he built an embankment on the tidal flats in front of the village together with the union members over a period of about a year and cleared 30,000 pyeong of farmland (1919.3.).
The process of the land reclamation project was a process of educating the disciples about the aspirations and experience of Mt. Sotaesan through night reading of the main scriptures, and a process of organizing the Won-Buddhist denomination. By the time the land reclamation project was completed, the whole country was infested with demonstrations for national independence from the March 1st Movement, which reached as far as Yeonggwang-eup. In the midst of this, Sotaesan ordered his nine disciples to set directions for each of the mountain peaks around Gilryong-ri and to pray for the enlightenment and salvation of mankind, indicating the miracles of the seals.
However, Sotaesan’s start came to a limit after three years. Around this time, he was summoned to the Yeonggwang Police Station and investigated for a week about the source of funds for the savings association and land reclamation project, and then suddenly moved to a place near Silsangsa Temple in Mt. Naebyeon, Buan, Jeollabuk-do.
Here, while keeping in touch with the disciples of Glory, he began to seek new ways to realize his aspirations and management.
Living in Mt. Naebyeon for about 5 years became an opportunity to understand the reality of Buddhism through exchanges with monks, and he wrote ‘Theory of Innovation in Joseon Buddhism’, and at this time, he prepared a draft of the doctrine and system of Won Buddhism.
He also sought the necessity of a new church organization and its place while inviting people from all over the world to become converts.
In the spring of 1924, Sotaesan prepared a site of 3,000 pyeong in Sinyong-ri, Bukil-myeon, Iksan-gun, Jeollabuk-do (now Shinyong-dong, Iksan-si) and made a new start under the name of ‘Illegal Research Society‘. The Illicit Research Association took advantage of the appeasement phase in which social groups other than political groups were permitted to engage in activities under the slogan of the so-called cultural politics of the Japanese Government-General of Korea.
Activities in Iksan also focused on production through tenant management and wasteland reclamation through communal living, and efforts were made to save money by thrift and frugality by establishing mutual aid associations. His life at that time practiced reading the watch and night under the ideology of the twin battle between the spirit and the body. He also restored the former glory organization to the Illicit Research Society Glory Branch and the emerging branch, etc., and established branches along the ties of each place.
In addition, as the number of members increased, he published <Monthly Communication> and <Circular>. During this period, Mt. Sotaesan published legal theories such as ‘Religion and Politics’, ‘The Strong Makes the Weak’, ‘Mt. It explained the rule by analogy and emphasized that Joseon would grow into the world’s first-class civilized country due to Mt. Geumgang in the future.
However, these activities of Sotaesan were well received by the press in the 1920s, but also served as an opportunity for the Japanese police to strengthen their surveillance. According to the research data of the Japanese Government-General of Korea in 1937, the Illicit Research Association had about 5,800 members in seven churches at the time. However, in 1936, the Iksan Police Station established a police substation in Bukil-myeon on the premises of the Illegal Research Association.
Sotaesan and the Illegal Research Society had no choice but to accept this, and all activities of the Illegal Research Society were monitored by three resident police officers. In addition, officials from the Japanese Government-General of Korea had to visit unexpectedly and audit accounting documents, but there was nothing to give them an excuse. During this period, all the articles published in the <Circular> had to be censored before being printed, and even each sentence expression was taken as a problem, so it was deleted or suspended, and articles supporting Japan’s war of aggression had to be forcibly published. Eventually, in 1940, suffered the ordeal of forced closure. In addition, after Sotaesan’s nirvana in 1943, Buddhist studies were forced to convert to Imperial Buddhism, but Japan’s defeat during the delay was able to overcome the crisis.
At the time of liberation in 1945, the status of the church was about 8,000 in 25 churches. After liberation in 1945, the Illicit Research Society actively carried out relief projects for compatriots in war at Seoul Station, Busan Station, Jeonju and Iri Station for about a year, and actively participated in discussions on the founding of a nation, ideologically and institutionally pursuing centrist ‘theory of national founding’. was suggested, but lost its position in the process of deepening ideological confrontation and the establishment of a divided nation.
After liberation, the church name changed to Won-Buddhism, focusing on strengthening internal capacity under the division system, and concentrating its capacity on the three major goals of the church, edification, education, and welfare, and reached today. The characteristics of Won-Buddhist activities after liberation could be the establishment of university educational institutions to train ministers, the promotion of dialogue and exchange projects between domestic and foreign religions based on Won-Buddhist doctrine, and the operation of various welfare facilities.
