The Role and Significance of Korean Son in the Study of East Asian Buddhism

Abstract

The study of Korean Son Buddhism has not been as developed as that directed toward the Ch'an tradition in China or the Zen developments of Japan. This neglect is unfortunate since the history of the Son Buddhists in Korea is essential for an adequate picture of East Asian Buddhism. Korean Son offers us a unique glimpse into the methods of training and study for China in the 8~10th Centuries. From 784~911 a steady stream of important Korean Son masters went to China for training. When they returned to Korea, they brought the message that meditation was primary and textual study secondary. These decades were quite different than the previous history of Buddhism in China. For the years of 798~983, no new translations were made from Sanskrit into Chinese. Thus the rejection of textual study being taught to the Korean masters came at a particular time when work on texts had been suspended by the courts. The situation shifted after the establishment of the Northern Sung and by 984 translations started again. The importance of the texts was further emphasized when the new technology of printing was used to preserve and disseminate copies. From the 10th to the 13th Century the new interest in translating and printing was reflected in the teachings which Korean monks brought back from China. During these centuries, rather than rejecting textual study, Korean monks sought to harmonize textual work with meditation. However, the local situation in Korea once again changed the attitude toward study of texts. When the Confucian based Choson Dynasty came to power, Buddhism was suppressed. By the 15th century the government stopped printing Buddhist books, rejected Buddhism and denied it a place in the world of learning. As a result, Son Buddhism survived by returning to the ancient teaching of focus on meditation rather than text study. This turn against texts has in the 20th Century began to shift once again as the religion regains a primary position in Korean life. In contemporary Buddhism, education is open to all monastics and textual study is once again accepted as important. From this review of the changing attitudes toward textual study, we can see that Korean Son gives us both a view of Chinese Ch'an in the Tang as well as reflecting the social and political changes in Korea itself.