Authority and Foreknowledge 1
1. Ryu Seo-Gu, who was an acquaintance of Sangje´s father, began to praise and respect Him, being very surprised at His foresight. Sangje´s father told Seo-Gu that He had known about his upcoming visits all along and had prepared food and wine for these occasions. However, Seo-Gu did not believe it. On the seventh day of the first month, in the Imihn Year (1902), Sangje greeted him in the yard as he visited again, saying, “Before New Year´s Day, when you came here to meet my father regarding business, I was not able to treat you. I am afraid I did not fulfill My filial duties to my father.” And He told His younger brother, Yeong-Hak, to bring a piece of paper from between the pages of an almanac and show it. On the paper was written: ´On the day of humanity (inil 人日), I am supposed to meet a person on a yard, who will visit from the Ihngan (寅艮) direction. The person must be Ryu Seo-Gu.´ After reading it, Seo-Gu was so amazed that from that point onward he began admiring Sangje.
2. The road, hot from the scorching summer heat, that Sangje took was always shaded as clouds blocked the sun over Him like a parasol.
3. Sangje said, “How ridiculous it is that after praying in front of the altar for seven days and nights, Zhuge Liang created the southeastern wind. What if his work had gone wrong while he was praying?” Thereupon, He immediately made the southeastern wind blow.
4. Sangje said, “People who study the art of the Dao say that the positions will change, but how could they discover that it was Me who turned Heaven and Earth around?”
5. In the ninth month, when seeing some farmers busily plowing fields and sowing barley seeds, Sangje lamented, “How pathetic it is that they are suffering so much but will harvest nothing.” Overhearing Him, Hyeong-Ryeol decided not to raise barley that year.
6. The next spring came with beneficial weather, which boded a good harvest of barley. The farmers, including Kim Bo-Gyeong and Jang Heung-Hae, laughed at Hyeong-Ryeol, who had not planted the crop because Sangje had worriedly looked at the fields and predicted a failing barley yield. Hearing this, Sangje scolded them for their hastiness, “That was decided in the court of divine beings. How can you know whether the harvest will be good or not?” There was a heavy rainfall on the fifth day of the fifth month. The barley fell sick and started to wither without having any grain on its ears. As the price of rice went up and there was no harvest of barley, Bo-Gyeong and the farmers understood His words and admired Him.
7. In the seventh month of that year, as the price of rice grew even higher and other crops had been damaged by insects, people were becoming hard-hearted. Sangje said to disciples, “Since the Shinchuk Year (1901), I have been in charge of all court proceedings of Heaven and Earth. This year I will make the harvest turn out well.” That year proper rainfall and plenty of sunlight brought all the fields a bountiful harvest.
8. Seeing this, Sangje said, “Since I practiced the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth, I have driven all the spirits of starvation towards Heaven. In the future, people shall not starve to death due to famine.”
9. Sangje always wrote an issued Command to Clean the Roads to divine beings before taking a trip. Since Summer-Cloud (Hawun) Hamlet, at which Sangje had stayed, was located in the middle of mountains, it had narrow, rugged roads which were thick with interlacing branches of trees and grass. When Sangje issued the order, dew sitting on trees was blown off by the wind and fell to the ground in summer, while muddy roads came to be frozen and piled-up snow came to melt in winter.
10. As Choi Wun-Ik´s son lay near death from disease, he rushed to Sangje and begged Him to save his son. Sangje said, “The patient has had a lifelong grievance because of his ugly face. His soul has gone to Shenyang in Qing (China) and does not want to return. What can I do about that?” However, Wun-Ik, being further torn by grief because Sangje spoke as if He had seen the patient, steadily asked for some medicine. Sangje unwillingly dispensed a dose of medicine called a four-herb decoction and wrote ´Drink in the ninth month´ on the label. Wun-Ik went back home with the medicine, but his son had already breathed his last breath. After Wun-Ik left, disciples asked Sangje about the meaning of “Drink in the ninth month.” Sangje explained, “It is said that the First Emperor of Qin was buried at the foot of the Lishan Mountain in the ninth month. The words on the label imply that his son will not live. Although his son will invariably die, Wun-Ik would bear a grievance if he returned empty handed. I just gave him the medicine in order to soothe his heart.”
11. One day, Sangje stopped in a tavern in Court-Plain (Wonpyeong) Village on the way to Wellspring-Town (Jeongeup) County from Dragon Rock (Yongam) Village, accompanied by Gyeong-Seok. He invited passers-by to the tavern and bought some rice wine for them. Sangje said, “This is a waterway of South Joseon. The ship will depart after a large amount of cargo has been loaded.” And Sangje started to press on His way. When reaching a place 30 ri away, He said, “A large force marches 30 ri a day.” Sangje then decided to stay at Park Gong-Wu´s home in the Choi family´s memorial house in Pine-Moon (Songwol) Village of Primordial Hill (Gobu) County. He said to Gong-Wu and Gyeong-Seok, “Now that I have met the people I was destined to, gods of communion shall come forth. Even my parents and siblings do not know My work. Descending to the Tower of Heavenly Revelation in the Kingdom of the Great Law in the West, I went on My Great Itineration (Daesoon 大巡) throughout the whole world to build a paradisiacal land of immortals and save humanity from the verge of annihilation by re-creating the Three Realms through My great authority. However, while passing through this Eastern land, I decided to stay to first help the nameless weak people who had been swept away by tremendous adversity, and resolve their grievances that had accumulated from time immemorial. Those who follow Me shall attain eternal blissfulness and enjoy the everlasting pleasure of the paradisiacal land of immortals. This is the true Eastern Learning. In the Song of Gung-eul, it is written that ´The entire rivers and mountains in Joseon (Korea) are luminous and splendid. Sages enlightened to the Dao shall appear again.´ This refers to My work. The Eastern Learning believers have been passing to one another ´The great (dae 大) master shall be resurrected,´ which means a replacing (dae 代) master shall be incarnated. The replacing master is none other than I, Myself.”
12. One day in the 12th month, Sangje was going to Copper Valley (Donggok) Village with His disciples. When He gave the divine beings the order to clean up the road because it was too muddy to walk on, the muddy road turned hard soon after. They were able to go to Copper Valley Village, with their straw shoes dry. The order which Sangje burned at that time consisted of six Chinese characters which read ´Your Highness is at the foot of the All Spread (Hamra) Mountain [御在咸羅山下].´
13. When Sangje, who finished a Reordering Work while staying at Chest-Rock (Nongam) Hamlet, was about to leave, Cha Gyeong-Seok came to see Him and said, “The roads are too muddy to take even one step forward.” Sangje wrote on paper, “Your Highness has given an order to the divine general governing the roads. As Your Highness is leaving Chest-Rock Hamlet of Pure Prosperity (Sunchang) County for Great Prosperity (Daeheung) Village of Wellspring-Town (Jeongeup) County, open the road [喇令道路神將 御在淳昌籠岩 移于井邑大興里].” And after putting the paper in water, He took it out again, squeezed it with His hands, and burned it in the furnace. At that moment, heavy rain suddenly fell but stopped soon after it began. Then the wind blew from the south, which caused the ground to harden by the next day. Sangje put on a pair of new shoes and went to Wellspring-Town, preceded by Gyeong-Seok.
14. Afterwards, when Sangje was staying in Kim Jun-Hui´s house at Half-moon (Banwol) Village of Golden Embankment (Gimje) County, Lee Jik-Bu´s father, who was living in Field-Dragon (Jeonryong) Village in East-of-Here (Yidong) Township of Jeonju (Perfected Territory) County, sent an invitation to Sangje. As Sangje moved to his house He perceived in advance that a teacher who had taught students in the house had come to test His talents. Sangje revealed the entire number of the households and the number of men and women, using some counting rods. He added, “The number shall fall by one within three days.” Doubting this, the teacher and Jik-Bu checked the number of households in the village. They found that there was no gap in the number of families and people, but sure enough, one person died within three days.
15. Sangje drew a crane on a fan and gave it to His brother, Yeong-Hak, and He said, “Go back home and use the fan as you recite the Sutra of the Seven Stars (Chilseong-gyeong 七星經) up to the part where the stars Mugok and Pagun are written and then recite The Great Learning as well. Then you will be well-versed in the Dao.” On his way back home, Yeong-Hak stopped by the house of Jeong Nam-Gi, whose son greedily took the fan from him and tried not to return it. Moreover, when he was told the story about the fan, the son was so intrigued that he did not hand it back. Yeong-Hak had no choice but to go back without the fan. Nam-Gi´s son, waved the fan as he read only a few pages of The Great Learning, but by gaining occult power, he had the ability to order divine beings to perform works such as bringing rain down by spraying water into the air. As Nam-Gi became pleased at that, he headed for Summer-Cloud (Hawun) Hamlet to force his son to rob Sangje of His Dao-power. In the nick of time, Sangje was on the way to Summer-Cloud Hamlet from Calm (Wumuk) Valley. Hearing that Sangje was coming, Nam-Gi´s son became frightened and began to run away. But Nam-Gi caught his son and took him to have an audience with Sangje. Sangje, who saw through to his secret intention, rebuked him for his unrighteousness and revoked the son´s supernatural powers.
16. Sangje carried out a Reordering Work to bring rain by summoning the rain god (wusa 雨師) at Dragon Head Hill-Path (Yongdu-chi) in Jeonju (Perfected Territory) County. Lee Chi-Bok visited Kim Bo-Gyeong and came to have an audience with Sangje. Sangje said, “Despite normal propriety, older people should bow low to younger people at a time like this.” As Chi-Bok made a set of four bows to Sangje, He said, “It shall rain very little this year. If it does not rain today, in Heaven and Earth, the hubs of earth energy known as ´a winter melon´ will dry out and die. Therefore, I will invoke the rain god from the West to bring down rain.” Then He prepared dishes for libations, offered two glasses of wine to Chi-Bok, and poured one glass into a chamber pot.
17. When Baek Yong-Ahn, one of Baek Nam-Shin´s relatives, acquired an exclusive license for the wholesale of wine from the local government, hundreds of small taverns in Jeonju (Perfected Territory) County were forced to shut down. Sangje, who was staying at Kim Ju-Bo´s tavern in Dragon Head Hill-Path (Yongdu-chi) at that time, heard his wife let out a wail, pound her chest, and yell, “We have subsisted by selling wine without another source of income. Now that this is prohibited, how can my family make a living?” He took pity on her and said to His disciples, “How can there be only male generals? There are female generals as well.” And then Sangje wrote ´Female General´ on paper and burned it. All of the sudden, Ju-Bo´s wife gained vigor, rushed outside, and shouted out loud. As the female tavern-keepers quickly gathered together and attacked Baek Yong-Ahn´s house, the situation turned threatening. After Yong-Ahn, who was so frustrated, apologized to the tavern-keepers and promised to give up his wholesale tavern, they finally returned. Yong-Ahn closed down his tavern soon after.
18. Sangje performed a Reordering Work at Dragon Head Hill-Path (Yongdu-chi), accompanied by Kim Deok-Chan, Kim Jun-Chan, and some other disciples. Some gamblers who came in and out of the hamlet were playing yut against themselves with 80 nyang of money. Sangje saw their malicious intention and said to His disciples, “Those people know someone in our party has some money and they will try to steal it. Through this, I will cause their grievances to be resolved.” And Sangje played the game, betting 50 nyang, and won 80 nyang in an instant as the result came out just as He wanted. After Sangje put aside five pun of the winnings as His wage for the labor, He gave the rest back to them and said, “This is exactly what dissolute people do. Go back home quickly and devote yourselves to your occupations.” Being surprised and impressed, they went back hurriedly. Sangje noticed that the disciples were curious about the technique He had used, and He said to them, “If you toss the yut sticks steadily in the same way, they will turn out as you want. This is also due to having a singularly-focused mind.”
19. After becoming a follower of Sangje´s, Park Gong-Wu, who was a former executive of the Iljinhoe (Progress Fellowship), once took care of some work secretly at the organization´s office and came back. Sangje abruptly said to Gong-Wu, “A man of two minds in one body shall be torn to pieces. Be cautious.” As he was surprised, Gong-Wu completely broke off his relationship with the Iljinhoe and no longer did anything in secret.
20. One day, on the way to White-Rock (Baekam) Village from New Fence (Saewul) Village of Great Benevolence (Taein) County, accompanied by Gong-Wu, Sangje suddenly transformed His face into Guan Yu´s. Turning around, He asked, “Does My face look like Guan Yu´s?” As Gong-Wu was too startled to answer Him, he just hesitated to reply. After Sangje repeatedly asked him three times, he was restored to reason and answered, “You look very similar to Guan Yu.” Shortly after, Sangje restored His original face and reached Kim Gyeong-Hak´s house, where He conducted a Reordering Work.
21. Whenever He had an opportunity, Sangje said to His disciples, “I will create a paradisiacal land of immortals by rectifying the entire Degree Number of the Former World and opening up a new future for the Later World via My great power over the Three Realms.” The disciples waited for Sangje to re-create the world as soon as possible, lamenting that more time was still needed.
22. One day, while staying at Copper Valley (Donggok) Village, which He had returned to from Lucid Dao Court (Cheongdowon), He said, “It is easy to create wind, clouds, rain, dew, frost, snow, thunder, or lightning. But it is hard to make rain fall after snow and to make frost form after rain, even through the creative powers of Heaven and Earth.” And He added, “I will make these things happen tonight.” Sangje wrote down some verses on paper and burned the paper. Indeed, it rained after having snowed, and when the rain stopped it frosted over.
23. Sangje, staying at Kim Hyeong-Ryeol´s house, said to him one summer night, “Kang Gam-Chan is having a rough time fixing the lightning sword. I will test it.” Slapping His left and right knees with His left and right hands in turns, He said, “All right, all right.” Then lightning formed at Mount Empress (Jebi) and soon struck Mount Beneficial Water-Flowing (Surigae). Again, lightning formed at Mount Beneficial Water-Flowing and soon struck Mount Empress. After this happened several times, Sangje stopped moving His hands, saying, “That is good enough.” Then the lightning stopped as well. The next day, when some disciples climbed up the two mounts and looked around, they found that all the plants and the trees within a radius of a few hundred feet in the areas where the lightning struck had been burned to death and the bark of the trees had fallen off.
24. After Shin Won-Il opened a medicinal herb store, he left for Public Territory (Gongju) Government Capital to buy medicinal herbs. On his way, he stopped by Kim Bo-Gyeong´s house and had an audience with Sangje. While Shin was discussing various topics, he said to Sangje, “I had much trouble walking on the road because it was too muddy.” Sangje just smiled without saying anything. The next morning, when Won-Il set out, he was surprised and pleased to see the road had frozen.
25. While Sangje was staying at Chest-Rock (Nongam) Hamlet, Hwang Eung-Jong and Shin Gyeong-Su came to have an audience with Him and said, “The very deep snow on the roads greatly inconveniences pedestrians.” Sangje had Jang-Geun make sweet rice drink and shared it with several people. Then the chilly weather suddenly turned mild and melted the snow on the ground making it easy to walk.
26. Sangje stayed at Kim Seong-Guk´s house at Buddha´s Sojourn (Bulgaji) Hamlet in the middle of the winter. Because many pheasants were resting in the field, Kim Deok-Chan and Kim Seong-Guk tried to hunt them by laying a net. Seeing this, Sangje said, “Work to capture while I work to save.” Strangely, not even a single pheasant was caught among the many that were there.
27. On an early morning in winter, Sangje, staying at the clinic, saw the sun rising halfway over the summit and said to disciples, “The world is stuck in an impasse. How can I have an aim to stabilize the state of the world without the power to stop the sun? I will test it.” As He dampened tobacco and smoked it three times in a row, the rising sun did not ascend over the mountaintop. And then Sangje threw His tobacco pipe onto the ground with a smile, just at the moment the halted sun started rising again.
28. In the second month of the Gapjin Year (1904), Sangje stayed at Winding Hill-Path (Gul-chi) Hamlet. Even though Sangje ordered Yeong-Hak to read The Great Learning, he did not listen to Him but read ´the Record on the Newly-built Bamboo Pavilion in Huangzhou´ and ´the Monumental Inscription of the Yan Ziling´s Tomb Temple.´ Sangje said, “Bamboo is a material for the mat on which a dying person is laid, and monumental inscription is a funerary oration. Therefore, Yeong-Hak will die before long.” And He called Lee Do-Sam to hand Yeong-Hak two verses from a poem: The sand which my bones are scattered on remains entangled in the weeds. My soul has returned home, but there is no one to pay homage [骨暴沙場纏有草 魂返故國弔無人].
29. Sangje ordered Yeong-Hak, who wanted to learn the arts of the Dao from the beginning, to abandon the desire and read The Great Learning, but he did not follow His order. Since he just studied books on the arts of the Dao, Sangje sent the poem in order to impress upon him the wrongness of his ways. Yeong-Hak was faced with imminent death because he did not listen to Him. When Sangje came to pay a visit, He said, placing His thumb on Yeong-Hak´s lips, “You will die immediately after I remove My thumb. Leave your will as you wish.” After Yeong-Hak finished proclaiming his will to his parents, Sangje removed His thumb from Yeong-Hak´s lips. He died that instant.
30. In the Gapjin Year (1904), on his way back from Jeonju (Perfected Territory) Government Capital to prepare for his mother´s funeral, Kim Deok-Chan had an audience with Sangje at the tavern in Dragon Head Hill-Path (Yongdu-chi). Sangje said, “Today you will not be able to bury your mother, so delay.” Deok-Chan, however, went back to proceed with the funeral and disregarded Sangje´s order. When he dug into the ground which had already been designated as the grave site, he found that there was a large ant tunnel there. He dug at another site, only to find yet another ant tunnel. Only then did Deok-Chan repent for having gone against Sangje´s teaching. He had no choice but to make a temporary grave by piling up soil.
31. One day in the 12th month, Sangje led His disciples to Dragon Eye Crag (Yongan-dae) on Mount Mother (Moak-san) and stayed there for several days. It started snowing, which led to the traffic ways being blocked. Soon they were just left with only enough rations to have two more meals. When Sangje heard the disciples worrying, He had them make sweet rice drink from the remaining rice. Although the disciples were concerned that they would soon starve if they made the drink, they prepared it and served it to Sangje. While He shared it with the disciples, it stopped snowing and the sun began to shine. As the snow quickly melted away and the roads cleared, Sangje came back with the disciples.
32. In Court-Plain (Wonpyeong) Village one day, after eating food, Sangje shouted towards a group of people, “It is going to hail soon, so securely cover your earthen pot lids with straw.” Most of the people ignored this and only Choi Myeong-Ok did as he had been told. Indeed, heavy hail started to fall on the ground after a couple of hours and broke nearly all the pots in many houses.
33. Sohn Byeong-Hui, the leader of Cheondoism, came down to Jeonju (Perfected Territory) Government Capital to travel throughout the South-of-Lake (Honam) area. Sangje ordered Gong-Wu, “Go to Jeonju and send Sohn Byeong-Hui back. He is luring the believers with wicked words, harmful effects stemming from him are growing increasingly serious. Therefore, his provincial tour is not right.” Gong-Wu said to carry out His order. But the next day, because Sangje did not mention it at all, Gong-Wu did not depart, thinking it strange. A few days later, Sohn Byeong-Hui stopped his scheduled tour and went back to Seoul.
