Choe Je-u’s 1860 revelation and founding of Donghak

Record summary

Choe Je-u, later known as Su-un, described a revelatory encounter in 1860 that became foundational for Donghak, a Korean religious movement combining elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and indigenous traditions. Accounts describe a divine call, healing or ritual instruction, and the formula “serving God within.” The episode matters for comparing charismatic revelation, anti-missionary religious synthesis and later millenarian mobilization. Details vary across Choe’s writings, early hagiography and modern scholarship, and the supernatural interpretation is a matter of religious belief rather than independently verified fact.