<三國遺事> 義解 「良志使錫」條의 “天王寺塔下八部神將”記錄 검토

Abstract

An excavation of the Sacheonwangsa Temple site in Gyeongju conducted by the Gyeongju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage from 2006 from 2012 led to the discovery of green∼glazed tiles which had once decorated the foundation of a wooden pagoda set up in Sacheonwangsa Temple. The tiles unearthed at the site so far are divided into three types according to the images carved on them. The images have been regarded as those of either the Four Heavenly Kings or the Eight Divine Generals carved by a Buddhist monk named Yangji largely because of a passage, “the Eight Divine Generals under the pagoda of Cheonwangsa Temple,” contained in Samgukyusa. To answer the question, this study examines the related passage in the “Chapter of Yangjisaseok,” Samgukyusa, to discover the true identity of the green∼glazed tiles unearthed at the foundation of the wooden pagoda of Sacheonwangsa Temple. This study is focused more on the characteristic features of the decorative wall tiles made in the 13thcentury by which time Samgukyusa was compiled by Buddhist Monk Iryeon. The green∼glazed tiles made to decorate the foundation of a wooden pagoda in the late 7thcentury should have been considerably damaged by the 13thcentury. Therefore it must not have been easy for the monk historian to have a clear understanding of the images carved on the tiles. It is highly probable, therefore, that the record, “the Eight Divine Generals,” was made not after the historian actually saw the images but only considering the area, the foundation of a pagoda, where the tiles were originally located. The green∼glazed tiles excavated at the Sacheonwangsa Temple site in Gyeongju are materials used to decorate the panels on the four sides of the foundation on which a wooden pagoda was erected in the late 7thcentury. The passage, “the Eight Divine Generals under the pagoda of Cheonwangsa Temple,” contained in Samgukyusa probably refers not to the tiles decorating the foundation of a wooden pagoda built in the late 7thcentury but to those discovered under the Sacheonwangsa wooden pagoda in the 13thcentury when Monk Iryeon compiled the history book.