Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 35

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 2: The Birth of True Parents
Chapter 2: True Mother’s Birtha
Section 2: True Mother’s Family, God’s Preparation
Section 2: True Mother’s Family, Paragraph 9

Section 2. True Mother’s Family

God’s preparation

True Mother’s father, Han Seung-oon, was born January 20, 1909, and died on March 18, 1978. His father was Han Byeong-geon, his mother was Choi Gi-byeong, and he was the first son among five siblings. In May 1946, while working as a schoolteacher, he fled to the South. After that he worked as a teacher in elementary schools in Seoul and in Gyeonggi Province until February 1974. He dedicated 41 years of his life to being a teacher, in both North and South Korea.

Hong Soon-ae (Daemonim) was born on the 22nd day of the 2nd lunar month in 1914, into a devout Christian family. Her father was Hong Yu-il. Her mother, Jo Won-mo (who lived from the 7th day of the 11th lunar month of 1889 to the 3rd day of the 9th lunar month of 1962), bore him one son and one daughter. Daemonim was their first child. Jo Won-mo, True Mother’s maternal grandmother, was a diligent and active woman like contemporary women. It is known that one of her ancestors, Jo Han-jun, built a significant stone bridge across the Dallae River at Jeongju in North Pyeongan Province, investing his entire fortune to build it.

1 I was born at dawn on the 6th day of the 1st lunar month in 1943, at Anju, South Pyeongan Province. It was not a remote village, yet there was a hill, and also a stream, right behind my house. The surrounding village had a very warm and cozy feeling, like a hen embracing her chicks. In the backyard was a cornfield that my family harvested for food. I remember how big those corn cobs were. In the area between True Father’s hometown of Jeongju and my hometown of Anju there is a river.

2 My hometown, Anju, is in a strategic military and political location. It is one of the two important cities that Pyeongan Province was named for. The character pyeong is the first character of the city of Pyongyang, and the character an is the first character of Anju. Anju is located in a natural environment of expansive plains that are good for agriculture. Historians say that the town existed in the time before the era called Gojoseon ("Ancient Joseon,” 7th-1st centuries BCE). The Cheongcheon River that flows through this area separates North Pyeongan Province from South Pyeongan Province. Anju is about 60 kilometers from True Father’s hometown of Jeongju and 75 kilometers from the city of Pyongyang. During the time Daemonim was offering conditions of devotion every day and searching for new words of truth, she would travel to the Holy Lord Church in Cheolsan, which was about 120 kilometers away.

3 True Mother’s maternal grandmother Jo Won-mo was a direct descendant of Jo Han-jun. The character jo (趙) of her family name means nation. It signifies that Daemonim’s mother was in the position of a mother of the nation. That is the way the generations of her family tradition connected through history. Here is a true story: After no one had repaired or maintained the Dallae Bridge in Jeongju for many decades, it started to deteriorate. Eventually it reached the point that people could not cross the bridge, and the road was blocked. Remnants of the broken bridge created an obstruction that caused the river to overflow its banks, and it was buried under the sand and mud of the river.

There was also a prophecy: If a rock carved like a totem pole that stood beside the bridge became buried, then the nation of Korea would fall, but if that rock was clearly exposed to the people, then a new heaven and earth would unfold in Korea.

4 In order for Chinese envoys to travel to the seat of Korea’s government, they had to cross the Dallae River at Jeongju. However there was no bridge for them to cross, and at that time the government did not have money to build one. So the government posted a bulletin, seeking someone to build a bridge there. That is when Jo Han-jun, my maternal grandmother’s ancestor, built the bridge with his personal wealth. He made it a large stone bridge under which boats could pass.

When Jo Han-jun finished building the bridge, he had but three coins remaining to his name. He used those three coins to buy straw sandals to wear to the dedication ceremony the following day. Afterward he went to sleep, and that night he had a dream. An old man clothed in white appeared and said, “Han-jun, you offered distinguished service to your nation, and as a reward I wanted to send the son of heaven to your family. However, when you used those three coins for yourself, you did not completely fulfill heaven's condition, so I will send you the princess of heaven instead.” He woke up from that dream and ran to the Dallae River. There on a hill above the river he found that a stone statue of the Maitreya Buddha had appeared.

5 According to legend, when the people saw the stone Maitreya standing on the hill, they thought it had sprung up from underneath the ground. They built an open shrine for the statue so that it would not be exposed to the elements. Then the Maitreya statue began to grow. It grew bigger and bigger until it pierced the roof of the shrine, and the shrine had to be rebuilt. Then, strangely enough, the statue’s belly began to bulge, and when it did, so did the bellies of all the daughters in the Jo clan. This caused a big misunderstanding among the villagers, who thought that the unmarried girls had become pregnant out of wedlock.

Then, the Jo family cut off the stone statue’s stomach to flatten it, but after that it began to bleed from its stomach. The mystical bleeding statue frightened them, so the Jo family quickly covered it with plaster to block the bleeding. Another local legend is that whenever someone passed by that statue on a horse, if the rider did not dismount and pay respect to the statue, the horse’s shoes would stick to the ground and it could not move forward. Through such miracles as these, heaven raised the faithful Jo clan and sent my maternal grandmother, Jo Won-mo. God began preparing the spiritual environment starting with my ancestor Jo Han-jun and then connected that foundation to me.

6 True Mothers maternal grandmother’s family name is Jo. Her family lived in a wealthy village, a community of tile-roofed houses where many government officials lived. True Mother’s maternal grandmother, the third generation of her ancestral line, was a direct descendant of Jo Han-jun. Coming out of such a meritorious family tradition, both her maternal grandmother and Daemonim greatly loved True Mother and devoted special attention to raising her. Since Daemonim was often traveling all over the nation looking for the Lord, it was Grandmother Jo who actually raised True Mother. This family wanted more than anyone else to know all the secrets about the spirit world.

7 Hong Yu-il, my maternal grandfather, was tall and handsome. When I first met True Father, he felt familiar to me because he looked so much like my grandfather. In those days my grandfather was so open to modern trends that he even bought high-heeled shoes for his daughter-in-law. Jo Won-mo, my maternal grandmother, was petite and pretty. She was diligent and active. Although she was not well educated, she was very much a modern lady. She even operated her own business selling and repairing sewing machines.

Cultural preparation

True Mothers ancestral home is located in South Korea, in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. According to Father’s explanation, Chungcheong (忠淸) means “a pure heart and a clear mind” and Cheongju (淸州) means “a village that is clear and pure.” When river or ocean water is clear, we can see fish and other things deep in the water. Likewise, Cheongju signifies a village of people whose hearts are pure and minds are clear, who seek to become the people of the Way. True Mother’s family name Han (韓), comes from the Cheongju Han clan, and it represents Korea, the Han nation, Hanguk. In addition, it represents the universe, since Han also signifies hana, meaning the first, or number one. That is why God prepared Heaven’s Bride with the name Han from the Cheongju Han clan.

8 Korea has 4,300 years of history. This history includes the era of Gojoseon. The Korean people were called the Dongyi people, a people in the East who studied astronomy and interpreted the stars to ascertain heavenly fortune. In every era of its history Korea has upheld a national religion. In the eras of Silla and Goryeo, it was Buddhism, and in the era of Joseon, it was Confucianism. When we trace back to the earliest history of Korea, we find a record that the Han clan preceded even the Gojoseon era. There we can find the origin of the Korean people, from a time even earlier than the Gojoseon era.

9 Korean historians state that before the Gojoseon era there was a nation governed by Emperor Hwan-ung. It was he who begat Dangun, the first ancestor of Korea.

The word hwan (桓) is an old pronunciation of the word that in subsequent Korean history came to be written han (韓). That is why people often refer to Hwan-ung by the name Han-ung. Of course, some people disparage this part of Korean history as mere mythology. However, hidden in the myth of Dan-gun is God’s Will to choose the Han people as the people of heaven’s lineage. Artifacts and related data associated with that era are being discovered, and they are proving that the mythology has a basis in fact.

Not many people know the origin of the word Han in the phrase “the Han people” or in the official name of Korea, Daehan Minguk. But in fact, the origin of this word can be found in the name “Han Clan Joseon.” Thousands of years ago a vast territory that stretched from the northeastern part of China to the Korean Peninsula was ruled by members of the Han lineage; thus that nation was called Han Clan Joseon. The reason that we Korean people are often called the Han people and that our nation’s name is Daehan Minguk originates from the Han Clan Joseon nation of long ago. Ultimately, what this means is that our nation was established by the ancient ancestors of the Han people.