From terms to schemata : Some prefatory remarks on a complementary approach to Wŏnhyo’s practice

Abstract

The philosophical and philological bent of Puryŏn Rhi Ki-young’s 不然 李箕永 research, emphasizing very much on the study of doctrinal differentiations and philosophic terms, clearly shows the influence of his European teachers Étienne Lamotte and Paul Demiéville. Within contemporary Religious Studies, Prof. Rhi’s to some extent also theologically informed approach usually is considered somewhat outdated. And yet, we do not know how long the current wave of cultural studies will last, and Korean Buddhology might be well advised to continue to preserve and build upon its precious philosophical and philological heritage. As this essay argues, to this avail one might draw upon a in the given context hitherto somewhat neglected method complementary to the study of philosophic terms and concepts, the analysis of the impact of textual images on the history of religious thought. In particular, this essay is intended to give a perspective on how the concept of schemata, first invented by Kant and then taken up in Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, might be employed to this avail. After a short introduction to the use of imagery in Hwaŏm Buddhism, we draw upon Michael Kimmel’s application of the notion of “image schemas” to the “golden lion”. Kimmels’s analysis does not only give an accurate model of how this dynamic textual image actually functions, but also provides a methodological yardstick enabling us to distinguish between more “soteriologically” and rather “philosophically” oriented usages of imagery, and thus as some potential also for the philological task of (re)grouping East Asian Hwaŏm texts by authors, resp. workshops. Subsequently, it is demonstrated how an analysis of the interaction of metaphor schemata may help to provide an answer to a long standing question initially raised by Peter N. Gregory, i.e. how it came about that the Ch’i-hsin lun was linked to the Hua-yen-ching and achieved its prominent position in the doctrinal classification scheme of later Hua-yen. Applying Gilles Fauconnier’s and Mark Turner’s notions of “Conceptual blending”, it is argued that rather than philosophical concepts, it were two metaphors employed to circumscribe the Buddha’s mind which, due to unification in a conceptual (or, perhaps better, schematic) blend, lead to the association of the texts.