신라 경문왕계의 佛事 활동과 骨法의 의미

Abstract

Existing studies on the lineage of King Gyeong-mun have focused on King Gyeong-mun’s policies of strengthening royal authority, and as a result, many studies wrongly point to Queen Jin-seong as the reason behind the fall of Silla. This paper examines the problems related to the strengthening of royal authority that has been discussed in existing studies, by analyzing the political power and ideology underlying of the King Gyeong-mun lineage. King Gyeong-mun, when he first rose to the throne, attempted to integrate his kin through the reconstruction of the Gok-sa(鵠寺) temple. However, he delegated his authority to his direct line of descendants after he was crowned heir to the throne by the Tang. This was met with backlash from Gyunjeong, yet King Gyeong-mun suppressed such an opposition and rather continued to work on emphasizing his lineage. Part of such effort was the reconstruction of the 9-story pagoda of Hwangnyong-sa temple. He put his brother, Wee-hong to supervise the reconstruction and appointed new personnel to participate in this endeavor. The majority of the participants influenced authority until Queen Jin-seong’s rule, throughout King Gyeong-mun’s lineage. Once the reconstruction of the 9-story pagoda was completed, the lineage of King Gyeong-mun hosted various Buddhist ceremonies and rituals at the Hwangnyong-sa temple, once again reviving its prominence. Hence, the lineage of King Gyeong-mun was made holy, just as the lineage of Dongryun pursued the sanctification of the royal family members through the Hwangnyong-sa temple in the mid-ancient period of Silla. Moreover, the lineage of King Gyeong-mun emphasized golbeob(骨法, appearance of the bone) in accordance with physical characteristics. In particular, the golbeob was accentuated when Queen Jin-seong, a woman, and King Hyogong, son of a concubine, ascended to the throne. Eventually, members of the royal family became divided, the formation of King Gyeongmun’s lineage resulted in the sanctification of the royal family members rather than their integration. King Gyeong-mun lineage’s pursuit of reactionism, which followed the policies of Prince Dongryun during the mid-ancient period of Silla, prevented them from actively responding to the changes that occurred in 9thcentury Silla society, led to the demise of the Silla Kingdom.