고려시대의 다원적 至高神 관념과 그 의례사상사적 배경

Abstract

In this paper I analyzed the names of supreme beings appearing in the Koryo-sa (The History of Koryo) in order to elucidate the ideas of "heaven" that were prevalent during the Koryo period (918-1392). By analyzing the ideas of supreme beings I intend on discerning the specific notions of "heavenly" that characterize these ideas. During the Three Kingdoms period the idea of Chen-dge (Heavenly God) was dominant though there were many usages of Hwang-chen (Sacred Heavenly God), Sang-dge (Prime God), Chen (The Heaven), and others. However, the usage of Chen-dge rarely appeared during the Koryo period. Rather, the results of my analysis indicate that the usage of Hwang-chen as a title for supreme gods was quite frequent in the text of Koryo-sa. This shows that the conception of supreme gods changed from the ancient times to the Koryo period. During the Tang and Song dynasty in China the title widely used for supreme beings was Ho-chen-sang-dge (God of the Broad Heaven). Yet, this god was not an important deity in the Koryo society. Instead, the people of Koryo strongly believed in Hwang-chen-sang-dge. I believe that this difference resulted from the difference in the orientations of religious worldviews between those of the Koryo and the Tang-Song societies. Generally speaking, there coexisted various titles for supreme gods during the Koryo dynasty including not only the general terms Sang-dge and Sang-chen (Heavenly God of Above), but also the ideas of Hwang-chen in context of Confucian archaism, Ho-chen-sang-dge of Confucian orthodoxism, Tae-il (The Great One), and Chen-hwang (Heavenly Sacred God) which is related to Taoistic cosmology, to name a few. From this analysis we can conclude that one of the most characteristic features of Koryo society was the coexistence of diverse ideas of supreme beings. This reflects the complexity of the diverse worldviews that were prevalent during the Koryo dynasty.