일제 식민정책과 조선불교의 일본화에 대한 재검토

Abstract

The revival of permits for Buddhist priests’ entry to the capital city in 1895 marked the beginning of modern Buddhism in Korea. Throughout the Joseon dynasty, Buddhism suffered from exploits, abuse and marginalization, which made it hard to achieve any progress in related philosophy and culture. Buddhism barely survived during the period. Buddhism in Korea was in a quite defenseless state when the wave of modernization came with Japanese colonization, and it was a daunting time to face. The enforcement of the rule on Buddhist temple by the Japanese Government-General changed formerly democratic process of temple administration and management to a system dominated by chief priest of Buddhist temple. Under the supervision of the Japanese Government-General, Korea’s Buddhism gradually became pro-Japanese, and its unique identity weakened. In particular, it became common for Buddhist priests to get married, and petitions were sent in to ban such practice. Recent studies on modern Buddhism have been critical of this widespread notion that Buddhist priests’ marriage is a pro-Japanese customs influenced by Japanese Buddhism. Criticizing Buddhist priests’ marriage is a result of simple division between anti-Japanese and pro-Japanese practices, which represses other historical perspectives. This critical view leads to a flow from modern Buddhism, to the practice of marriage by Buddhist priests, and to advanced Buddhism. Also its view is that the efforts of the intellectuals at the time to promote traditional value of Korean Buddhism and reestablish its identity were a mere attempt to compensate for the sense of inferiority due to the gap between antiquated Buddhism of the Joseon Dynasty and modern Buddhism. A transition to modern Buddhism and restoration of identity is not necessarily closely tied, and the simplistic view of regarding modern Buddhism as sophisticated and Korean Buddhism as backward has significant limitations. It is because the historical changes that Korea’s Buddhism underwent during the modern era cannot be assessed solely from the standpoint of Buddhism.