The impact of Buddhism on society during the Goryeo period

Abstract

Professor Myungje Cho has been studying the impact of Buddhism on society during the Goryeo period. In his current research, he is exploring the significance of the History of Thought by reorganising the flow and character of Goryeo Buddhism as East Asian Buddhism and the History of Thought. Cho has shown that while Goryeo Buddhism demonstrated some influence from Song's Zen philosophy, it also maintained its own independent characteristics. In his analysis, Cho showed that the two phases of Goryeo’s adoption of Koan Zen, the spread of Wenzi Chan during the period of the 12th to 13th centuries, was followed by the popularity of Kanhua Chan amongst the Goryeo intellectuals in the 14th century. In his work, he sought to identify the phases of adoption of Goryeo’s Koan Zen and explain the factors for accelerating its spread and impact of the transmission on society. Cho analysed and clarified, for the first time, the main text and the flow of ideas of Zen Buddhism in Goryeo. His research also offers a way to understand Korean mediaeval Buddhism within a wider context of East Asian history of ideas through the literary analysis of Chinese literature published in Goryeo or Zen literature compiled in Goryeo Buddhism from the perspective of cultural history.