조선후기 사원의 불사와 寺刹契

Abstract

It is said that Chosun dynasty was a period of veneration of Confucianism but persecution of Buddhism. Therefore, chances are that Chosun Buddhism is not talked of without mentioning its waning and ailing situation throughout the period. However, looking at todays Korean temples, which show us chosunian influences not only in terms of tangible cultural properties, such as paintings and statues, but also intangible ones, such as music, chanting, and ceremonial procedure, I claim that Buddhism in Chosun dynasty steadily developed, at least well enough to exert such influences on todays Korean Buddhism. Through this study, I found out that one of the engines of this development was temple fraternity(寺刹契). Suffering strong persecutions throughout Chosun dynasty, Buddhist temples had to shut down due to the economic difficulties. Therefore, in order to improve the economic situation, temple fraternities were organized. In eighteen and nineteen century, various kinds of temple fraternities came into existence and became prosperous in Korea. In turn, these groups enabled temples to revive their religious and economic influences in the society. Temple fraternities were organized in order to promote pious faith to Buddhism and infuse Buddhist disciplinary mind into the members, and further to help out temples, what with augmenting temple properties and providing temples with buildings and things necessary to religious ceremonies. Temple fraternities amounts to 264 cases. According to the Buddhist service(佛事) patterns that split the cases into seven groups, and research their mutual relations.