The transmission of Buddhism into Korea in the fourth and fifth centuries led to an initial period of conflict between traditional Korean religious practices and Buddhism as a missionary world religion. There were various ways in which this conflict with traditional practices was resolved—through the repetition of tales of martyrdom and faithfulness to Buddhism, through the emphasis on the filiality of Buddhist adherents to their parents, and through the telling of tales affirming that Buddhism, in a previous age, had been a pre-existent religion in Korea, although now forgotten by the time of the telling of the tale. In this article, the latter phenomenon is examined. Several ancient and modern Korean tales describe the unearthing of Buddhist monuments and statues to affirm a Buddhist presence in the land prior to contemporary times (the time of the tale). This tradition of affirming the antiquity of Buddhism through the digging up of relics was a well-established tradition in pre-T’ang China which arose to demonstrate that the advent of Buddhism did not represent the intrusion of a foreign religion. Four Korean tales from the Samguk yusa belonging to this genre are presented along with some of the Chinese precedents for the tale type, which are discussed in the general context of the transmission of religion from one culture to another.
목차
INTRODUCTION FOUR STRANGE TALES FROM THE SAMGUK YUSA. 1. The Tale of the P’odo-wang Pagoda (蒲圖王塔) 2. The Tale of Kulbul-sa Temple (掘佛寺) 3. The Tale of Sabul-san Mountain (四佛山) 4. The Tale of the Mysterious Pedestal THE SEARCH FOR THE RELICS OF AŚOKA: PROOF OF THE ANTIQUITY OF EAST ASIAN BUDDHISM CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES
키워드
Cultural transmissionproof of antiquityauspicious omenscultural equality
저자
JAMES H. GRAYSON [ Professor of Korean Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK ]
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.