대만 일관도의 종교조직과 발전

Abstract

I-Kuan Tao (一貫道, yiguandao) of Taiwan originated from Xiantiandao (先天道), a folk religion that enjoyed popularity in common society during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. Today I-Kuan Tao has developed into a representative new religious organization in Taiwan. Over the course of the organization’s history, I-Kuan Tao moved from Mainland China to neighboring countries and continued their religious activities. They did this because they faced religious persecution from the mainland’s government at that time, and after moving elsewhere, they emerged as especially strong in Taiwan. They now call themselves ‘I-Kuan Tao of Taiwan,’ and have spread to 80 countries; cementing themselves as a transnational new religious group. In this paper, I will study the organizational operations of I-Kuan Tao and the religion’s development status. The characteristics of the religious organization of I-Kuan Tao will be examined by observing the composition of their domestic and overseas organizations and their social and public activities. I-Kuan Tao of Taiwan is organized around branch temples (佛堂fotang), and there are various positions related to the performance of specialized religious works that exist within their system as part of their overall organization. After Zhang Tianran, the 18th patriarch of I-Kuan Tao, passed, I-Kuan Tao divided into 18 lineage orders (組線zuxian), each of which engaged in separate religious activities but formed a General Assembly to carry out joint activities both at home and abroad. Major public service activities include ongoing campaigns such as the popularization of reading Chinese Classics, education in traditional Chinese culture, social welfare and volunteering, disaster relief work, and the propagation of vegetarian culture. Thus, in our quest to better understand I-Kuan Tao’s religious organization system and development as a new religious movement in Taiwan, we, the authors of this paper, instinctively compare it with Korean new religious movements. Furthermore, through research on the organizational systems and development of new religious movements in various countries, we can come to understand the diverse varieties of organizational systems employed by new religions and the characteristics of their organizational activities.