1920-30년대 불교계의 사회주의에 대한 인식

Abstract

Socialism came rapidly into Korean society in the 1920s, after the failure of the March 1st movement and the success of the socialist revolution in Russia. Korean political leaders and intellectuals were looking for a new vision for the liberation of Korea from Imperial Japan, and many of them saw socialism as the most favorable alternative. Socialism influenced Korean society from many aspects, and Korean Buddhists also examined socialism from the socio-political aspect as well as philosophical aspect. Although socialists criticized religions, including Buddhism, as a tool of the exploiting classes, Buddhists saw socialism in favorable manner, believing that there were similarities between the two thought systems. Buddhists believed that the Buddha denied the cast system and never discriminated against people, and that Buddhist monastic community is a pioneering example of Communism. They, however, held a different view of materialism. They believed that materialism correspond with Buddhist views with regard to the denial of God, but Buddhist philosophy, unlike historical materialism, have a highly developed concept regarding non-duality between the material realm and the mental realm. Most of the writers of the time did not have thorough understanding of Socialism and materialism. While some of them excessively emphasized the similarity between Socialism and Buddhism -- on the basis of a very simple and rustic understanding of Socialism -- their basic understanding of the similarities and the differences between the two thought systems seems to concur with the views of modern scholars who are more thorough knowledgeable about both Buddhism and Socialism.