The Re-Invention of Korean Sŏn Buddhism in the Late Chosŏn: Paekp'a Kŭngsŏn and His Three-Fold Chan Taxonomy

Abstract

In the late Chosŏn period, Paekp'a Kŭngsŏn 白坡亘璇 (1767–1852) attempted to reestablish the identity of the Korean Sŏn tradition, which had been associated with the Linji school in its lineage and the Heze school in its practice. Paekp'a employed Linji's teaching of "three statements, three mysteries, and three essentials" as a link between the two different traditions. And based on Linji's teaching, Paekp'a laid out a three-fold taxonomy of Chan. In this taxonomy, he promoted the Linji school, with which the Korean Sŏn tradition claimed to be affiliated genealogically, as the supreme Chan school; he also unified the Korean Sŏn and Linji traditions soteriologically by placing the Heze scheme of Buddhist practice, the so-called "sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation," in Linji's teaching. In so doing, Paekp'a not only redefined Chinese Linji Chan, but also completed the process of its assimilation into the Korean Sŏn tradition.