¹One day in 1938 (DG 68), Hong Sun-mun, Hong Sun-ok, Bak In-taek, and Bak In-seok, who practiced their belief in Sangjenim in Bak Gong-u’s dao order, gathered on Byeonsan Mountain and entered into meditation in the pursuit of enlightenment.²Many followers from various other dao sects rallied together to also assemble on Byeonsan Mountain in Buan County.³At this time, Hong Sun-mun was recognized as the spiritual leader, and the gathering was to be based in Jiseo-ri Village in the county. Everyone made their own makeshift huts and commenced their intensive meditation.

⁴Meanwhile, Jeon Jun-yeop, Gahng Jae-suk, Jeon Gi-chan, and other disciples who had served Taemonim at the Oseongsan Dojang were lost, without aim or direction, for they were unable to assuage the emptiness in their hearts,⁵so they discussed among themselves, “Let us also build huts at a placid location on Byeonsan Mountain and dedicate ourselves to prayers in the pursuit of enlightenment.⁶Precept Master Jin-pyo and Venerable Monk Jin-muk meditated on Byeonsan Mountain and Sangjenim even visited Gaeamsa Temple on Byeonsan Mountain, so we must go to the mountain and meditate there if we are to attain enlightenment.” With this, they set out for Byeonsan Mountain.

⁷Go Min-hwan and Jeon Seon-pil, however, did not take part in these endeavors.

⁸During this period, imperialist Japan was frantically preparing for war, so it was extremely wary of the independence movement in Korea and hence issued a nationwide search order and initiated a sweeping roundup of all suspects. As a result, the state of the nation became extremely precarious,⁹so much so that Sangjenim’s portrait could not be enshrined at the dojang and faith in Sangjenim had to be practiced in secret.¹⁰By April 1942 (DG 72), the Jeonju Police Station acquired information that “a sizeable group of people have built huts and settled in the Byeonsan Mountain area,” and scores of plainclothes policemen were dispatched, and they arrested every member of the group.

¹¹Subsequently, dao practitioner after dao practitioner died under brutal torture, and those who survived, afraid of death, gave false confessions, saying that they “prayed for the independence movement, believing in the dao of Jeung-san Sangjenim.” ¹²Without exception, the survivors were subjected to summary conviction. Among those imprisoned, thirteen practitioners—including Taemonim’s disciples Jeon Jun-yeop and Gahng Jae-suk—died in prison.