고려시대 사원의 승도(僧徒)와 승군(僧軍) 운용

Abstract

In the period of Goryeo, the Buddhist temples were loyal to monarchy, and, from the beginning of the Kingdom, they had contributed a lot in terms of consolidating the king’s power. The temples played crucial roles as a secondary palace and a logistics base as well as the religious organization. In emergency, they mobilized the monk soldiers who belonged to them for national military campaigns. In this context, Buddhists, who had been on good terms with politically strong aristocratic families, played a pivotal role in organizing ritual events closely related to unification and justification of ruling idea around the king and aristocrats. In doing so, the temples had to establish the supply line of necessary resources and goods which included a kind of temple manufacture system. Through this system they built the buildings and pagodas, engraved the scriptures and so on. In supplying and producing goods, there was the division of labor between the monks： manufacturer monks, servicing monks, military monks and group of monks belonging to a temple, who were categorized as low-class monks. However, it is unreasonable to deduce the characteristics of those monks from the records saying that they merely provided the labor power. According to tasks of each temple, they were mobilized in maintaining and protecting the temples, or were formed into the Buddhist army. The Anti-demon Unit and the Artillery Unit could be organized due to the political mobilization of the Buddhist temples and, as a result of it, the presence of low-class monks who were quasi-soldiers, in fact playing a role of the royal bodyguards, from the beginning of the Kingdom. At the time of the 5th Mongolian invasion, the Buddhist army militarily contributed in the battles of Chu-In, Chung-Ju and Sang-Ju. In the late period of the Goryeo, at the time of the Red Turban Invasions, the mobilized monk army fought against it. Also they took part in the campaign of repelling Japanese raiders and in building warships. After the establishment of Chosun, they were mobilized in constructing a new capital city instead of ordinary people. In this sense, the new monarchy utilized the monk soldiers either a part of regular army or labor forces in emergency as ever.