Confucian Echoes in Early Donghak Thought: A Text Mining-Based Comparative Study of the Four Books and the Donggyeong Daejeon

This study examines how the Donggyeong Daejeon (東經大全), the principal scripture of early Donghak, receives and theologically reconfigures the conceptual lexicon of Confucian classics through text mining-based analysis. Drawing on the classical Chinese texts of the Four Books and the Donggyeong Daejeon, and employing computational techniques such as keyword frequency, keyword-in-context (KWIC), and co-occurrence mapping, the study identifies structural parallels and semantic shifts across the two corpora. These patterns are then interpreted hermeneutically to assess how early Donghak appropriates, repurposes, and theologically transforms inherited Confucian categories. Findings suggest that while the Donggyeong Daejeon retains key Confucian terms, it situates them within a distinct theological framework. The Confucian triad of human being, the Way, and Heaven (人–道–天), for example, is recast in Donghak as “Heaven’s heart is the human-heart” (天心卽人心), a theological affirmation of the human as the locus of Heaven’s immanence. Similarly, the Confucian virtue of sincerity (誠) is reinterpreted through the lens of faith (信), transforming it from a metaphysical ideal into a performative mode of spiritual judgment. Most notably, the Confucian dualism of li (理) and qi (氣) is overcome through the theology of “ultimate energy” (至氣), a divine substance that animates and unifies all beings. By combining quantitative text analysis with interpretive discussion, this study presents Donghak not as a rhetorical appropriation of Confucian discourse, but as a conceptual innovation rooted in the resemanticization of its inherited language. This methodology offers a new model for tracking doctrinal transformation in East Asian religious texts and contributes to broader discussions on intertextual borrowing, and the semantic evolution of classical traditions.