조선후기 환성 지안의 통도사 주석과 문도의 유풍 계승

Abstract

Precept Master Jajang brought the sarira of Buddha from China and enshrined them in the Geumgang Ordination Platform in Tongdosa Temple, Yangsan. Consequently, the temple became one of the most renowned Buddhist temples in Korea and it has been a venue for the Buddhist initiation ceremony. Since the era of Silla Kingdom, Tongdosa had held the status of the representative Buddhist monastery in the Gyeongsang Provincial region and it came to be one of the Three Jewels Temples and to represent Gautama Buddha in the late Joseon period. The leadership of the temple who kept the tradition of monastic training during that time were the disciples of Hwangseong Jian. Hwangseong Jian (1664~1729) was the most renowned teaching master of Huayan Buddhism (Ch. 華嚴) in the late Joseon period. When he held a large Buddhist lecture meeting of Huayan study in 1724, more than 1,400 people gathered to participate the event. But he was accused of plotting conspiracy when some person brought a false charge against him at the time and he had gotten banished to Jeju Island. After he passed away in exile, his disciple Seolchong Yeoncho (1676~1750) inherited his scholastic tradition and initiated the school of Hwangseong which lasted until the modern period. His relics preserved in the Tongdosa Museum enables one to find his trace in the temple. Among the artifacts, his head garment and his autographic poems carved on a wooden panel are kept in the museum while a memorial stone with Hwanseong’s article of the reduction of forced labor is stood among steles. The evidence of his scholastic mantle could also be found by the 76 portraits kept in the Portrait Hall of the temple and steles with his disciples’ names. There also is a stone lantern with inscriptions of ‘本 寺喚惺宗契中’ at the entrance of the temple and it suggests that there was a mutual financing association organized by the Hwanseong School members during the Japanese ruling time. The cadaster of the city office of Yangsan includes an entry of land under the name of Hwanseong and it seems to be land purchased by the financing association in order to help the temple management. Such artifacts and records suggest the fact that the Hwanseong School Members led the administration of the temple during the 18th and 19th centuries and kept the scholastic mantle of their teacher. The relics of master Hwanseong could have been preserved in Tongdosa thanks to his students’ devotions to keep Hwanseong’s tradition. When one considers the fact that Hwanseong was the representative master of Cheongheo Faction, the largest Buddhist faction during the late Joseon period. Tongdosa can be regarded as the head temple of Cheongheo Faction since the scholastic mantle of Hwanseong is kept there.