근대한국불교사 기술의 문제 : 민족주의적 역사 기술에 관한 비판

Abstract

The historiography of Korean Buddhism in the early 20th century and the colonial period has been primarily a "nationalist narrative" where ‘anti-Japanese sentiment’ and ‘Korean Buddhist identity through the protection of tradition’ played a key role in writing of the history of modern Korean Buddhism. The outline of the narrative is as follows: in response to the threat of Japanese Buddhism in the Korean peninsula, a national Buddhism of anti- Japanese sentiment emerged and continued under colonial circumstances; after liberation from Japanese colonial rule, under the campaign of purifying the Buddhist Order seen to be contaminated by the colonial legacy, Korean Buddhists expelled ‘married monks’ and in 1962, the Jogye Order, succeeding the long tradition of Korean Buddhism, was reestablished. It is time we need a new narrative of the history of modern Korean Buddhism instead of a ‘nationalist narrative.’ Attempting to go beyond the binary view of ‘anti-/pro- Japanese’ and the ‘fallacy of presentism’ legitimizing the current Buddhist order of Korea, in this paper, I would like to suggest a new perspective of viewing modern Korean Buddhism and the diverse experiences of Korean Buddhists as ‘dilemmas.’ By doing so, various aspects are brought to light which cannot be simply reduced to an ‘anti-/pro- Japanese’ perspective, and reexamine critically the historical meaning of the establishment of the Jogye Order in modern Korea. The early modern Korean Buddhism was, in sum, ‘Buddhism in dilemma.’ The whole picture of the various aspects of Korean Buddhism spawned through dilemma situations is the history of modern Korean Buddhism. The origin of the dilemmas, which Korean Buddhism had to endure since the early 20th century and, subsequently, during the colonial period concerns two facts: one is the fact that the religion of Japan, the colonizer, was Buddhism, and the other is that the Buddhism of Japan was more ‘advanced’ compared to Korean Buddhism which had, through 500 years of suppression, became powerless. By viewing modern Korean Buddhism in the perspective of ‘dilemma,’ we see that the relationship of Korean Buddhism to Japan as neither ‘anti-Japanese’ or ‘pro-Japanese’ Buddhism; rather we see Korean Buddhism to be facing two kinds of dilemma: (1) is that which was generated from the way in which Korean Buddhism related itself with Japanese Buddhism and (2) was from the ambivalence of the self-proclaimed enlightenment nationalist intellectuals on Korean Buddhism. This paper provides discussion of these two aspects of dilemmas respectively.