조선후기 大芚寺 현창 운동과 그 의미

Abstract

Honam area was where the mainstream restorative activity of Buddhist society was performed in the late Joseon Dynasty period. Since 17thcentury, numbers of Buddhist dignitaries were turned out from Buddhist temples in the area. Daeheung Temple (a.k.a. Daedun Temple) was the representative one among those temples. The Pyeonyang faction and the Soyo faction of the Cheongheo line settled down in the temple after the Japanese invasions in 1592, and the temple had produced a large number of zen and doctrinal preceptors. The glorifying movement of Daeheung Temple picked up pace at around the end of 18thcentury. Gyehong’s restoration of the epitaph of Master Seosan in 1777 ignited the movement. But it is possible to assume that the content of the epitaph was fabricated in order to stress the relationship between the temple and Master Seosan. In 1786, Gyehong found a book titled Bojangrok in which Master Seosan’s testament is included. The testament says that the master had his disciples to pass down his ceremonial cape and bowl (as a symbol of the dharma) to future generations in the temple since it was where the orthodoxy of the sect will be conserved. Priests of the temple, therefore, reported this discovery to the government in 1788 and requested a permission for the establishment of Master Seosan’s memorial shrine in the temple precincts. Though the shrine was accredited by the government, there are still some suspicions of possible fabrication of the book. In the early 19thcentury, compilers of Daedunsaji (the history of Daeheung Temple) pointed out some errors of Bojangrok, however, they still emphasized the significance of Master Seosan’s testament. Therefore, they established the lineage of 12 representative zen preceptors and 12 doctrinal preceptors of the sect and claimed that Daeheung Temple was the orthodox monastery of the country. This action must have been stimulated by the fact that their rival Songgwang Temple was recognized as ‘the sangha jewel temple’ at the time. And it could also have been derived from those priests’ pride in their temple. These facts elucidated above show us that Jeola province became the center of Buddhist activities at around 18thcentury.