백용성 찬불가의 시대적 고찰

Abstract

This article is about a historical study of Baek Yong-sung’s Buddhist Hymns. In order to understand the meaning of his Buddhist Hymns, it is necessary to study the historical and social positions of Baek Yong-sung during the Japanese colonial period in which he lived. The main purpose of this article is to study his motivations for Buddhist hymns and the meaning for Korean Buddhism. Baek Yong-sung’s insights and solutions for the Korean Buddhism at a particular time during the Japanese colonial period are; translation of Buddhist scriptures into Hangul, known as Korea’s own letters; Youth missionary on Buddhism; Establishing meditation centers in downtown; Sunday Buddhist Gatherings for a sermon; and etc. In order to run the above methods, it is critical to think about the cultural power which can highly affect people to have a keen interest in Buddhism, rather than other religions. For these reasons, Baek Yong-sung composed several Buddhist hymns although he is neither a professional musician nor a music composer. The reason why he had to compose Buddhist hymns himself was that he was well aware of the power of music that can move people and was able to actually carry out those ideas into concrete materials.