용성진종의 불교 근대화와 한계

Abstract

Considering Yongseong is a traditional Zen Master, it is notable that he presented various directions for Buddhist reform and made an effort to materialize those ideas. In particular, Yongseong’s achievement is representative of the practices in pursuit of the modernization of Buddhism, such as opening up of Zen to women and the translation of various Buddhist scripture, which have remained relatively unnoticed. Yongseong opened the Zen Center for Women in Daegakgyo[大覺敎] which he founded. In the Zen Center, women not only practiced Zen but also held leadership positions. Given the exclusion of women from Zen centers as customary practice, Yongseong’s decision to get women engaged with practicing Zen in the center can be viewed as a sign of modernization of Buddhism. However, there are limitations in that Zen did not function as a guiding principle for women to be awakened, as well as to act as an individual subject. Yongseong is a representative figure who translated the Buddhist sacred text during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The way in which he translated Buddhist text changed from a mixed style of writing Korean with Chinese characters, in it in the early 1920s, to that of only Han-geul in the late 1920s. This stylistic change reflected the establishment of the Korean language, especially the formation of unity of speech and writing in the 1910s, which has been pursued since the late Chosûn Dynasty. However, Yongseong's translation of Buddhist scriptures showed some limitations. For example, most of the Buddhist texts translated by Yongseong were valued in the Buddhism of the Chosûn Dynasty, and they did not go beyond the structure of pre-modern Buddhist thought. Furthermore, his translation has some shortcomings in that it was neither informed by the methodology of the modern disciplinary approach nor by a renewal of given interpretations of the text. The limitations of Yongseong’s pursuit of the modernization of Buddhism can be exemplified in his opposition to marriage for monks. Yongseong criticized marriage for monks from the perspective of seeing the issue as a matter of discipline. However, the prevalence of monk marriage can not be regarded as a traditional discipline issue nor as a unilateral influence of Japanese Buddhism. The practice of marriage for monks became prevalent in modern Japan as a result of the government's policy of reclassifying being a monk to a vocation, rather than being one of status, which was promoted as part of modernization of Japanese Buddhism. In addition to this, emphasis needs to be put on the fact that the formation of modern Buddhism in East Asia was dominated by the Buddhist circles who led the ascetic life of Buddhism in their own homes.