A History of Korea (31 page)

The development of Confucianism in this period was notably represented by the compilation of the 50-volume
Samguk sagi
by Kim Pu-sik in 1145. The oldest extant Korean history,
Samguk sagi
was an orthodox Confucian work, compiled in the form of annals, chronological tables, treatises, and biographies. The Chinese Song envoy Xu Jing, who came to Kory
ŏ
in 1123, marveled
at the high level of Kory
ŏ
education and scholarship. In his 40-volume
Gaoli tujing
(
Kory
ŏ
togy
ŏ
ng
in Korean), or The Illustrated Script on Kory
ŏ
, which appeared in 1124, he recorded his observations of the Korean kingdom and included illustrations.

Whereas Confucianism was established as a political philosophy for statecraft, Buddhism developed as a religious doctrine to achieve spiritual tranquility and otherworldly salvation. Buddhism greatly influenced daily life and, in Korea, achieved the height of its influence in the Kory
ŏ
dynasty. The kingdom built many temples and monasteries, and dutifully observed the various, expensive Buddhist ceremonies. Many of the temples were richly endowed with lands, and in some cases built up their own military power to protect their large holdings. Kory
ŏ
also produced woodblock editions of the Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon. As it gained enormous popularity from all social classes, Buddhism became, in effect, the state religion.

T’aejo, in his
Hunyo sipcho
, stressed that the success of his dynasty depended on the Buddha’s protection. He and his successors ardently patronized Buddhism, emphasizing the Buddha’s protective powers, and he built many temples including P
ŏ
pwang-sa, Wangnyun-sa, and H
ŭ
ngguk-sa. The H
ŭ
ngwang-sa temple was extraordinarily large. Established near Kaes
ŏ
ng in the reign of King Munjong, it had more than 2,800
kan,
or floor space, and was completed after 12 years of construction, in 1067. It was the most well-known temple where the Kory
ŏ
people prayed for the well-being of the state. In this period there were 70 temples in Kaes
ŏ
ng alone.

A variety of state Buddhist festivals were dutifully observed in Kory
ŏ
. The most important were the
y
ŏ
nd
ŭ
ng-hoe,
held on the 15th day of the first lunar month, and the p’algwan-hoe, held on the 15th day of the 11th lunar month. The y
ŏ
nd
ŭ
ng-hoe was performed as a purely Buddhist event, but the p’algwan-hoe combined Buddhist rites with Korea’s indigenous practices. Whereas the former was held throughout the country, the latter was observed only in Kaes
ŏ
ng and Pyongyang. In both festivals the king and officialdom lit up the night with candlelight and presented performances of music, dance, and other entertainments in order to entreat the many Buddhas, the spirits of heaven and earth, and national heroes who sacrificed themselves for the kingdom to bring tranquility to the nation and to the royal house. T’aejo had greatly emphasized these two festivals in his
Hunyo sipcho
. In addition to these two large festivals, there were
many other annual Buddhist ceremonies, and the Kory
ŏ
kingdom incurred enormous expenses for these Buddhist festivals that later were criticized by Neo-Confucian scholars.

To improve the quality of monks and select the best persons as monks, Kory
ŏ
established the
s
ŭ
ng-kwa,
or monk examination, modeled on the civil service examination. Divided into two sections, one was for monks of the
Kyojong,
or Textual School, and the other for S
ŏ
n, or Meditation, monks. Those who passed the examination received graded cleric ranks. The highest rank for a Textual School monk was
s
ŭ
ngt’ong,
or patriarch monk, and for a S
ŏ
n monk, it was
taes
ŏ
nsa,
or great S
ŏ
n mentor. Higher than these were the titles of
wangsa,
or royal preceptor, and
kuksa,
or national preceptor. Holders of these titles were advisers to the king and the royal household.

In return for their service, temples and monks received various favors from the state. Temples received land allocations, called saw
ŏ
n-j
ŏ
n, and monks were exempt from taxes, tributes, and corvee labor duties, which resulted in increased numbers of monks. Temples expanded their landholdings by different means, especially through donations from the royal household and the aristocracy. They conducted money-lending businesses, lending grain at high interest, and produced much wealth for themselves. By actively engaging in commerce and handicraft manufacturing, they exerted significant influence on the national economy. Temples essentially acted as the corporate conglomerates of the day.

To protect their growing wealth, temples organized monks into private armies. When the nation was in crisis, armed monks fought for their country, and when the Py
ŏ
lmuban army was established for a massive attack on Nuzhens in 1104, the Hangman-gun corps was comprised of monk soldiers. These monk forces also engaged in power struggles within the aristocracy.

Kory
ŏ
Buddhism systematized the Tripitaka by publishing the Chinese translations as mammoth wooden-block print editions. Kory
ŏ
undertook major projects to publish Buddhist scriptures so as to elicit Buddha’s help in the national crisis. Begun in 1011, the first set, originally undertaken as a prayer to repel the Qidan invasions, was completed in 1087. The printing of the Tripitaka was also intended to display the superiority of Kory
ŏ
culture by systematizing the doctrines of the Buddhist canon. The 6,000-volume woodblocks were stored at the Puin-sa temple in Taegu, but were destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1232. The second set of 81,137 woodblocks, completed in 1251, is preserved today at the Haein-sa temple, located at Hapch’
ŏ
n. A UNESCO Memory
of the World, it has been praised for its accuracy, containing not one misspelled word or missing letter, and for the perfection of its contents. One of the oldest extant woodblock editions of the Tripitaka originating in East Asia, it describes the contents of the woodblocks produced in Song China or Qidan Liao that no longer exist. Meanwhile, feeling the need to supplement the first Tripitaka, the monk
Ŭ
ich’
ŏ
n, the fourth son of King Munjong, established the Kyojang togam, or Directorate for Buddhist Scriptures, at the H
ŭ
ngwang-sa temple in 1086. The same year he collected treatises and commentaries found in Song, Liao, and Japan, as well as in Kory
ŏ
, and began to publish the
Sok changky
ŏ
ng,
or Supplement to the Tripitaka. The
Sok changgy
ŏ
ng
was completed in 1096 and stored, together with the first woodblock edition, at the Puin-sa temple. It also perished in the 1232 Mongol invasion. The
Sok changgy
ŏ
ng,
a set of 4,760-odd woodblocks, became the parent of the extant 81,137 woodblock edition, preserved at the Haein-sa temple.
Ŭ
ich’
ŏ
n also compiled the voluminous Buddhist works as the three-volume
Sinp’y
ŏ
n chejong kyojang ch’ongnok,
or New Catalogue of Buddhist Sectarian Writings, in 1090. Although he compiled the
Sok changgy
ŏ
ng
as a complete collection of Buddhist scriptures, it did not include S
ŏ
n-related works but systematized the doctrines of the Kyo school.

As members of the local gentry came into power in Kory
ŏ
, their Buddhism, the S
ŏ
n school, exercised power. The monarchs, on the other hand, seeking a powerful, centralized government, preferred the established Kyo school. Thus, in Kory
ŏ
, both the S
ŏ
n and Kyo schools prospered but at the same time stood in conflict with each other. Attempting to unify the two schools,
Ŭ
ich’
ŏ
n studied the
Ch’
ŏ
ntae
(Tiantai in Chinese) doctrine in China, and, upon returning to Kory
ŏ
in 1086, established the Ch’
ŏ
nt’ae sect as an independent denomination that embraced both the S
ŏ
n and Kyo schools. Because his new denomination favored the Kyo sect, however, he ultimately failed to unify the two schools. Instead, his efforts led the S
ŏ
n sect to become more cohesive, and this allowed it to later evolve into the
Chogye
sect. This new Buddhist sect then proceeded to absorb the Kyo school.

Buddhism not only controlled the spiritual life of the Kory
ŏ
people but had absolute power over their mundane lives. With unreserved support from the royal household and the aristocracy, Kory
ŏ
Buddhism inspired the flowering of Buddhist arts and architecture, including the Tripitaka Koreana. But the great power and influence of Buddhism was attended by many evils, including corruption.

When the civil service examination, particularly the chesul-
ŏ
p, appeared in 958, literature written in Chinese flourished. In the reign of King S
ŏ
ngjong, the so-called
Munsin w
ŏ
lgwa p
ŏ
p,
or Monthly Composition Exercise for Civil Officials, required civil officials to compose poems monthly on themes set by the king. Also, under the practice of the
Kakch’okbusi,
or Notched Candle Poetics, Confucian students in schools competed in writing poetry. Thus learning Chinese literature, poetry in particular, became essential to the education of aristocratic youth. As a result, Kory
ŏ
produced a number of distinguished poets including Pak Innyang, Kim Hwang-w
ŏ
n, Ch
ŏ
ng S
ŭ
m-my
ŏ
ng, Ch
ŏ
ng Chi-sang, and Kim Pu-sik. Kory
ŏ
, as a whole, was influenced by Tang poetry and Song prose.

In the early Kory
ŏ
period the Silla hyangga tradition remained vital. But only the works of the tenth-century monk Kyuny
ŏ
, the 11 poems of
Pohy
ŏ
n sipw
ŏ
n ka,
or Ten Vows of Samantabhadra, still exist today. Thereafter, although hyangga poems were steadily composed for a time, the traditional Korean literary genre was gradually replaced by Chinese poems and ultimately disappeared.

Kory
ŏ
’s fine arts were represented by craftworks that mainly ended up in the royal house and Buddhist temples in Silla, but they were widely used as utensils in the homes of the aristocracy in Kory
ŏ
. Celadon ware best exemplifies Kory
ŏ
’s highly superior crafts. Inheriting the tradition of unified Silla and Parhae pottery, Kory
ŏ
artisans produced an imposing array of ceramic pieces known as Kory
ŏ
porcelain. Although Kory
ŏ
porcelain developed under the influence of Song celadon, by the eleventh century it had attained full maturity in the diversity of its shapes, its skillful decorations, and its elegant colors. Even the Song people praised it as the world’s finest ceramic art.

Kory
ŏ
’s porcelain was used not only as daily utensils in aristocratic homes but also in Buddhist temple ceremonies. The porcelain appeared in widely varied shapes including jars, flasks, teapots, plates, cups, wine pitchers, water droppers (to mix India ink), brush holders, incense burners, and flower vases. These were usually fashioned after the shapes of plants or animals including chrysanthemums, lotus flowers, pomegranates, bamboo shoots, melons, parrots, mandarin ducks, the phoenix, rabbits, monkeys, turtles, dragons, lions, and fish. The plants represented fecundity, richness, and fidelity, and the animals symbolized longevity, majesty, and love between husband and wife. Another outstanding feature of Kory
ŏ
celadon ware was the beautiful decorations on their surfaces. Initially the designs were either incised or carved in relief, but beginning in
the twelfth century the technique of
sanggam,
or inlay, appeared. The sanggam method, in which intricate designs were carved into the surface of the celadon ware and other materials added to the forms, was a distinctive technique found only in Kory
ŏ
porcelain. The design motifs employed combinations of animals and plants symbolizing longevity, richness, and nobility including cranes with clouds, waterfowls with willows, peonies, chrysanthemums, melons, pomegranates, gourds, grapes, lotus flowers, and arabesque scrolls. The excellence of Kory
ŏ
porcelain is also seen in its beautiful colors. Many were done in jade green and are known as
ch’
ŏ
ngja,
or jade green ceramic. Other beautiful pieces are in yellow-green, yellow-brown, white, or black. Kory
ŏ
celadon ware was a poetic embodiment of the refined aristocratic culture of the day and the longing of the Kory
ŏ
aristocracy for the ideal world of Taoism and Buddhism. The best-known places of production of Kory
ŏ
porcelain included present-day Kangjin in South Ch
ŏ
lla province and present-day Puan in North Ch
ŏ
lla province.

In addition to porcelain, many items fashioned of bronze, most notably Buddhist bells, incense burners with silver inlay, ritual ewers, candelabra, and mirrors, are also among Kory
ŏ
’s beautiful craftworks. Regrettably, most of these have flowed from Korea to foreign countries, particularly to Japan, and only a few remain in Korea. The stone memorial stupas also demonstrate the elaborate and delicate workmanship of Kory
ŏ
artisans. Representative specimens include the Silsang-t’ap, erected in 1017 for the National Preceptor Hongp
ŏ
p at the Ch
ŏ
ngt’o-sa temple located in present-day Ch’ungju; the Hyejin-t’ap, built in 975 for the National Preceptor W
ŏ
njong at the Kodal-sa temple located in present-day Y
ŏ
ju, Ky
ŏ
nggi province; and the Hy
ŏ
nmyo-t’ap, constructed in 1085 for the National Preceptor Chigwang at the P
ŏ
pch’
ŏ
n-sa temple located in present-day W
ŏ
nju, Kangw
ŏ
n province.