韓國 禪畵에 관한 小考

Abstract

Human beings are living in the concrete world. We experience the beauty by contemplating the concrete objects in that world. Religion gave birth to art and has developed it from the perspective of history while religion has been more intensive along with the power of art. Art resides in a kind of religious meaning, i.e. in the deep and unchangeable solemnity. Hence, art has been closely associated with religion and the history of art has been together in line with religion. Zen painting is a unique pattern of art which was created with the combination of free painting spirits by Zen Buddhism as a sect of Buddhism. It is an expression of painting not only for Zen experience that has been performed under thoughts of Zen Buddhism, but also for the depth of awakening as reflection of one's own introspection of an artist which can be hardly combined with any language. The ideology of Zen painting has been used as instruments to propagate Zen Buddhism while dealing with materials related to the abstract beauty of cosmic infinity which is organized with the spiritual cultivation of mind. Much of such spirits are contained not only in Dharma but in the founder image of the sect, disciples of Buddha, painting of Simwu (searching for the ox), etc. Dharma and Simwu among them aim at the state of pure conscience that might be called expressions of Zen spirits in screens while sustaining unique effects with the aesthetic atmosphere of Zen painting. Zen Buddhism in China was bisected into both the south and north division of Zen Buddhism when it came to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng after the Fifth Patriarch Hongren as it had been continuously advanced since Bodhidharma. This again affected the divisional concept to bisect into the theory of both the south and north divisional Zen painting suggested by Dong Qi-Chang and Mo Shi-Long in Ming Dynasty, which can be said to have great direct and indirect influences on the scope of Zen in the history of painting. We can find many works with Dharma and Budai as their artistic materials from a few painters including Kim Myung-Kook and Han Si-Gak in the end of first half in Chosun Dynasty, which might be considered representative in Zen painting in our country, in relation with Zen Buddhism that began its inflow from the end of Kingdom Shilla.