유종원의 문학과 불교관 연구

Abstract

Liu Zong-Yuan, one of the representing literary figures of the Mid Tang Period, was a thinker and a politician who sought reform. After the failure of the YongZhen Innovation in 805, he cannot open his mind and was demoted and wandered around the provinces, ended his life in a cross between good and bad. However, this allowed him to be reborn as a writer and thinker who was highly appreciated by later generations. Having worked as a member of the Eight Great Men of Letters of the Tang and Song Dynasties and had a solid literary theory, he led the Ancient Literature Movement. Using various literary forms, he left poems and prose like gems. Liu Zong-Yuan, who understood the doctrines correctly and believed in Buddhism, accepted the Tientai Thought and built a great area for the understanding of Tientai Thought to be recorded in the 12th of Tientai Order. He took a somewhat critical stance on the Sǒn Thought. The main cause is that the disorganization and deviation of a few who do not follow the rules, the division and the dispute of the Sǒn Order. As he admitted, “The Sǒn is the most subtle in performing Buddhism,” he did not deny the Sǒn itself, but rather understood the true nature of the Sǒn. Liu Zong-Yuan, who advocated to study Confucianism to govern his country, did not abandon Buddhism to rule himself, led the Ancient Literature Movement, and claimed that Buddhism and Confucianism had equal values, is one of the most representative scholar bureaucrat of the Tang Dynasty.