儀禮梵文의 설행유형과 율조 ‒ 아랫녘수륙재를 통하여 ‒

Abstract

Usually, we listen to Chinese lettered songs in Korean Buddhist rituals, whose texts are composed in Chinese and Sanskrit, like the warp and weft of a fabric. This is because Chinese lettered songs are slow and long but the Mantra chants are fast and short. In this study, I discovered that there are many mantra chants with Dhārani, Mantra (眞言), and Joo (呪). over 100 in the grand Buddhist ritual, Suryukjae, As I compared the ritual text with video clips, I saw that most Dhāranis are of a suitable form to be performed with cymbal dancing or hand signs. The melody and rhythm of the Sanskrit chants was fast and syllabically accompanied by percussion instruments. This study clarified, by the analysis of the ritual texts, acting, and the mantra melodies, the difficult points in discerning the difference between Dhārani, Mantra, and Joo. Following a more detailed research, I learned that the Avalokiteśvara Dhārani and Sa Dhārani, grouped according to having only four mantras, have preludes and postludes with Chinese poems. In addition, I discovered several other types of mantra, one type paired with Chinese lettered poems, and another type including a series of mantra ordered one after another, which include ritual acting performed to indicate an object or to display offerings. Besides, Joo songs were generally used for the naming of the Gods, while there were two Joo songs from the Śūraṅgama mantras that were used for making offerings to ghosts. As a result of my investigation, poring through every second of the video clips, I could categorize all of the chants to 4 basic types. The first had no rhythm and a very slow melismatic melody. The second was a fast and syllabic melody, as in reciting a book. The third was a cheerful rhythm with triple metric beats accompanied by percussion instruments, whilst the last was a light and fast rhythmic melody with two metric beats. The second type is most common. It was called a Mantra chanting sound by the monks in Yeongnam province, South Korea. The tempo of most mantra chants is fast, partially due to the fact that the Buddhist monks had to remember the texts by repeatedly reciting in an era before the invention of Korean characters suitable for Korean chanting.