Banggakbon — A commercial woodblock-printed edition produced for sale rather than by a government office. Seoul and Jeonju developed important print lineages.

Cheondoism / Cheondogyo — The Religion of the Heavenly Way, the modern institutional tradition descended from Donghak.

Choe Je-u / Suun — Choe Je-u (1824–1864), pen name Suun, founder of Donghak.

Chumun — The Donghak incantation or sacred formula, especially the twenty-one-character formula explained in Nonhakmun.

Donghak — “Eastern Learning,” the name Choe Je-u gave to his teaching in contrast to Western Learning.

Gasa — A long Korean verse form used for instruction, travel, exile, devotion, household experience, war, and many other subjects.

Gugyeol — Systems of marks or characters used to annotate Classical Chinese for Korean reading.

Hangul / Hangeul — The Korean alphabet promulgated in the fifteenth century; historical forms and spelling differ from modern standard Korean.

Hanmun — Literary or Classical Chinese as written and read in Korea.

Hanullim — Revered Heaven; divine reality in Donghak and Cheondoism language.

Hyangchal — A system using Chinese characters for their sounds and meanings to write Korean, especially associated with surviving hyangga.

Hyangga — Surviving Silla and early-Goryeo Korean songs recorded through hyangchal in later textual witnesses.

Idu — Character-based systems used to record Korean wording or grammatical relations, especially in documentary settings.

Jigi — Supreme energy or ultimate vital force. In the Donghak incantation it appears in the phrase “Jigi is now present.”

Joseonjok / Chaoxianzu — Names used for ethnic Korean communities in China. Individual writers may work in Korean, Chinese, or more than one language.

Koryo-saram — Korean diaspora communities of the former Russian Empire, Soviet Union, Russia, and Central Asia.

Kuunmong / Guunmong — Kim Man-jung's Nine Cloud Dream; the title and names appear under several romanization systems.

Mugeuk Daedo — The Limitless Great Way in Donghak vocabulary.

Muwi ihwa — Transformation without forced action; spontaneous transformation through the Way.

Old Hangul — Historical Korean letters, combinations, spellings, and typographic practices not all used in modern standard Hangul.

Pansori — Epic vocal performance by a singer and drummer, combining song, speech, gesture, and audience relation. Printed “pansori novels” are related textual traditions, not recordings of one stable performance.

Podeok — Spreading virtue or propagating the virtue of the Way.

Sangje — The Supreme Lord or High Sovereign, a divine title used in revelation accounts.

Sechaekbon — A manuscript copied for circulation through a commercial lending library; rental-book transmission generated its own textual forms.

Si Cheonju — Serving, bearing, or enshrining the Lord of Heaven within.

Sijo — A compact Korean lyric form rooted in musical performance and later anthologized as written poetry.

Wanpan / Wansan edition — A commercial woodblock edition associated with Jeonju (historically Wansan/Wan); a print-lineage label, not the title of one universal text.

Yongdam Yusa — “Legacy Songs of Dragon Pool,” the vernacular Korean song collection attributed to Choe Je-u.

Zainichi Korean literature — Literature of Korean communities in Japan, written in Korean, Japanese, and other linguistic forms under varied political identities.