동아시아 불교의 僧役 양상 고찰‒ 중국 北朝시대와 조선 成宗代를 중심으로 ‒

Abstract

This paper reviews the oppression of Buddhism as it manifested China’s Northern-Chao Dynasty and Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. Due to the oppression of Buddhism by Taemuje, emperor of China’s Northern-Wei Dynasty, Chinese Buddhism faced a major crisis. At that time, many monks were killed or defrocked and returned to secular society. They were then subject to military service. This was just one aspect of the hardships faced by Buddhist monks in China. It was strongly enforced because Taemuje believed in Taoism, having been strongly influenced by Choeho and a Taoist named Gugyeomji. A similar situation occurred in Korea during the reign of Seongjong, the 9th Joseon king, as he strived to establish a government based on Confucian ideas. His officials remonstrated about the law that gave official recognition to monks and they eventually persuaded King Seongjong. They told him Buddhist monks should be defrocked, returned to secular life and forced to serve in the army, and according to written records, this was sometimes done. But King Seongjong also said that any monks who volunteered to work for 30 repairing Changgyeong Palace would keep their official status as monks. Many monks did exactly that. Afterward, King Seongjong gave these monks a docheop (a kind of official recognition of their monk status) as a reward for their labor. This was all done at the request of the king’s mother. In summation, in the Northern-Chao Dynasty, Taemuje and Muje 536 한국불교학 77 forcibly defrocked monks and made them serve in the army. In Joseon, King Seongjong’s officials argued that monks who had no docheop must be defrocked and serve in the army. This was the difference between the two aspects of the hardships placed on the Buddhist monks.