Chijong the Goryeo Monk
This evening I went to a Royal Asiatic Society open lecture in Seoul. Sem Vermeersch spoke about the lives of upper level Buddhist monks in the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) using the information written in literary Chinese on funeral stele. I didn’t hear exactly how many stelae survive in Korea today. I think Vermeersch said 50. He certainly said that there are also 76 surviving small epitaphs. One remarkable thing is that the only stelae that survive from the Goryeo period are those of monks. There are none known for kings or government officials.
Vermeersch said that Buddhists led a strictly regulated and very bureaucratic life, but that the idea they were all caught up with Goryeo politics was a misapprehension. In the Joseon dynasty period Confucian critics liked to stress the Buddhist monks’ involvement in politics because it made them look like better than their predecessors. Rather like it was in Shakespeare’s interest to make Richard III look bad.
However, Buddhist monks were extremely powerful in the rituals that they held to regulate the cosmos.
If you’ve visited Korea you might have walked past a stele without realising it. They consist of a turtle on the bottom, representing the Earth, an inscription in Chinese about the monk’s life and then a dragon on top to signify heaven. In Goryeo the monks’ stele were erected with permission from the state and the inscriptions were written by scholar officials.
Vermeersch said that the language on the stelae is very formulaic and close to hagiography. He added however that the inscriptions are good sources for Buddhist practice, Buddhist organisation and the ideals of the Goryeo people.
The rest of the talk focused on the stele of Chijong (posthumous name Wongong Kuksa), which stands near Wonju on the site of Kodon-sa temple. I didn’t catch Chijong’s exact dates but he was 10th century. He died in his 90s and was not particularly renowned. The one fact about him that stood out was that when he lived in Kaesong, the capital of Goryeo, his Son (Zen) master was a well known Indian. In the questions and answers session I think Vermeersch said that this was the only known instance of an Indian master in Korea in this period.
There are 2500 characters on Chijong’s stele and it is well preserved so nothing is missing. It begins with his family background (he was a member of the clan that founded the Joseon dynasty). Before he was born his mother had a dream about a Buddhist monk. This is a common feature in stories about the mothers of Buddhist monks. Vermeersch showed us a translation of Chijong’s mother’s dream.
“His mother dreamt of a temple with a very high flagpost, at the end of which floated a cloud; from there, a monk with bushy eyebrows pointed at her, asking ‘will you be able to protect this great and virtuous being?’ After this, she became pregnant.”
At the age of eight Chijong “threw away his toy horse” and decided to become a monk. In Goryeo only the third or fourth son could become a monk. If you were from a two son household you couldn’t join.
Chijong was ordained in 946 at Yongt’ong temple just north of Kaesong. His stupa is now in the grounds of South Korea’s national museum.
Before and after the lecture I visited the Young Poong bookstore and Bandi&Luni’s bookstore just off Jonggak subway station. There are a lot of bookshops in this area of Seoul. Somebody told me that it was a traditional bookselling district in the Joseon period. I bought a Korean food cook book although I’m not keen. Rather a lot of the recipes involve shellfish.
