나말여초의 佛法東流說에 대한 연구

Abstract

Bulbeopdongryuseol means that ‘the teaching of Chinese Zen Buddhism flows into the east,’ and the idea was mostly popular during the periods of late Silla Dynasty and early Goryeo Dynasty. However, after the early Goryeo Dynasty, the idea was not passed down, and by the Joseon period, it was not accepted as a ‘trustworthy claim.’ Further, the idea is hardly mentioned in Chinese records. However, it is deemed that the idea was first formed in China during the late Tang Dynasty. As Chinese Buddhism weakened during the turmoil of the time, the idea was circulated as a kind of prophesy, and then expanded and reproduced by Buddhist priests from the east who came to China to study. Previous research on the idea is lacking in many regards, and in this paper, I would like to make the following arguments. First, the term ‘Bulbeopdongryuseol’ is hardly fitting and should be replaced with ‘Seonmagdongryuseol(禪脈東流說).’ The reason is because the idea in the late Silla and the early Goryeo periods was limited to Zen Buddhism, and what spread to the east was not teachings or rituals of Zen Buddhism, but beopin (法印; truthfulness and perpetuity of Buddhism) and seonmag (禪脈; pulse of Zen Buddhism). Compared to other Buddhist sects, Zen Buddhism put great importance on legitimacy. For this peculiarity, the term ‘Seonmagdongryuseol ’ would be more fitting. Second, the cutting accident where an attempt was made to steal the head of the mummified priest HuiNeng(慧能) can be seen within the context of ‘Bulbeopdongryuseol.’ It is because stealing a dead body’s head is equivalent to stealing priest’s robe. The culprit was a Silla priest, Kim Daebi, which suggests that he committed the crime in response to emergence of ‘Bulbeopdongryuseol’ in China. ‘Bulbeopdongryuseol’ is part of historical view, which claims that Buddhism spread from the west to the east; that is, Buddhism first emerged in India, and flowed into China and Korea, and to Japan. This historical view gave birth to a self-oriented perspective that ‘our country’s Buddhism is the center of East Asian Buddhism.’ The examples include ‘Samgukbulbeopjeontongyeongi (三國佛法傳通緣起)’ written by Gyonen in Japan(1240~1322) and Choi Namsun(1890~1957) who saw Korean Buddhism as ‘Hoetongbulgyo(會通佛敎).’ The historical view itself arose in China during the 7th and 8th century, but self-centered historical views of the countries began to gain traction in the middle age. In comparison, ‘Seonmagdongryuseol’ emerged earlier, different from this historical view in terms of its nature and time period.