예천 용문사 <목각아미타여래설법상>의 佛敎信行 내용과 『周易』 卦象 표현

Abstract

Wooden altarpieces with Buddha preaching made from multiple wooden blocks carved with diverse deities in relief and then pieced together have been viewed as an ingenious merger of sculpture and painting in the late Joseon Buddhist art. There are more than ten surviving examples of such wooden altarpieces currently known. Among them, the Wooden Altarpiece with Amitabha Buddha preaching at Yongmunsa Temple in Yecheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province created by the monk-sculptor Daneung (端應) in 1684 carries a large volume of symbolic elements. Thus, it provides an informative example for understanding wooden altarpieces with Buddha preaching produced during the late Joseon Dynasty. This paper examines the religious and ideological meanings of various symbolic elements found in the Yongmunsa altarpiece. Daneung, the creator of the Wooden Altarpiece with Amitabha Buddha preaching at Yongmunsa Temple, was described as a “sudaeseonsa” (首大禪師, a great head Seon master) in the record on the production of the Buddha sculpture in 1692 at Bonghwangsa Temple in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province. He also assumed the role of a jeungmyeong (證明, a monk who ensures that a Buddhist project corresponds to doctrine) for another project undertaken in 1694 at Bonghwangsa Temple. Accordingly, Daneung is believed to have possessed a deep understanding of Buddhist doctrine and broad knowledge in the field. The symbolic Buddhist elements found in the Wooden Altarpiece with Amitabha Buddha preaching at Yongmunsa Temple can be largely divided between elements of Pure Land Buddhism and Seon (Chan) Buddhism. The Pure Land elements are presented literally through the iconography of nine grades of rebirth depicted in the lower section of the altarpiece and the phrases engraved on the left and right edges of the frame. The term “myeongsim” (明 心, luminous mind or illuminating the mind) carved into the center of the bottom edge of the frame is highly emblematic in Seon Buddhism. It implies a key Seon belief that the discovery of the Buddha nature inherent within everyone is in itself enlightenment. The inclusion of elements from both Pure Land and Seon Buddhism into the Yongmunsa altarpiece corresponds to the Seon meditation yeombulseon (念佛禪) practice of reciting the Buddha’s name verbally, which was popular in the Buddhist community during the late Joseon Dynasty. Another distinctive characteristic of the Wooden Altarpiece with Amitabha Buddha preaching at Yongmunsa Temple is the manifestation of temporal and spatial concepts through hexagrams (卦) from Zhouyi (周易, the Book of Changes), a major Confucian scripture epitomizing the philosophy’s thought. The borders of the mandorla for the main Amitabha Buddha in the center of the Yongmunsa altarpiece are engraved with the eight trigrams (soseonggwae) to indicate spatial directions. Twelve among the sixty-four hexagrams (daeseonggwae) are engraved on the four edges of the frame of the Yongmunsa altarpiece to show a perception of time. These hexagrams are the twelve sosikgwae or byeokgwae (waning and waxing hexagrams) that describe the passage and circulation of time through extinction and growth of yin and yang energy. By applying these sosikgwae hexagrams, the Yongmunsa altarpiece formed an autonomous but complete temporal system. The Joseon Dynasty embraced Neo-Confucianism as its ruling ideology and suppressed Buddhism, so monks responded by demonstrating the harmony and accord possible between Buddhism and Confucianism as a measure to cope with this shift in the dominant ideology. They tried to better communicate with Confucianists by familiarizing themselves with Neo-Confucian learning, including the Book of Changes. Moreover, they drew upon the theory of hexagram images from the Book of Changes in order to justify the production of Buddhist images. However, they did not embrace Confucian elements unconditionally. It is noteworthy that monks added their own iterations to reflect Buddhist concepts, as demonstrated in the application of twelve sosikgwae hexagrams in the Wooden Altarpiece with Amitabha Buddha preaching at Yongmunsa Temple. The incorporation of such hexagrams from the Book of Changes in the Yongmunsa altarpiece aptly illustrates how Buddhist circles survived while flexibly replying to the Neo-Confucian social order.