인쇄술을 넘어서: 중세한국 다라니경의 활용과 그 동아사아적 맥락에 대한 재조명

This paper is based on a presentation given at the International Association for Buddhist Studies conference in Taiwan, 2011.Two dhāraṇī texts are very famous in Korea: The Undefiled Pure Light (무구정광대다라니경) and the Precious Casket Seal (보협인다라니경) dhāraṇī sūtras. However, they are chiefly famous not as texts or for their religious significance, but merely as prints: printed copies of these texts dated 751 (conjectured date) for the former and 1007 for the latter are famous as the earliest examples of printing on the Korean peninsula, and the former even as the earliest example of woodblock printing in the world. But this focus on printing history has somehow obscured the fact that these texts also played very important roles in the cult of the stūpa, and devotional practice in general. The Undefiled Pure Light sūtra in particular was popular both in China, Korea, and Japan, yet the way it was treated (ie. its reproduction methods and number, its emplacement etc.) show interesting differences. Since its core practices (the text advocates its own reproduction and worship) reflect practices that were current across Asia since at least the seventh century, we have to question first of all its place in the Asian Buddhist tradition before evaluating how peculiar [or not] its Korean acculturation was. The Precious Casket Seal has often been seen as the Koryŏ continuation of the Silla Undefiled Pure Light sūtra, but again we have to question what is really new here, and also whether the focus on only these two dhāraṇī texts is justified or not.『무구정광대다라니경』과 『보협인다라니경』은 한국에서 아주 잘 알려진 다라니경 이다. 그 주된 이유는 종교적으로 중요한 문헌들이어서가 아니라 이들이 인쇄물이라는 사실 때문이다. 『무구정광다라니경』은 (대략) 751년, 그리고 『보협인다라니경』은 1007년에 인쇄된 것으로 이들은 한반도 최초의 인쇄물들로 꼽힌다. 또한 무구정광대다라니경은 세계에서 가장 오래된 목판 인쇄물이기도 하다. 그러나 이러한 `인쇄` 역사에만 주목하면 이들 문헌들이 탑 신앙과 관련해서도 아주 중요한 역할을 했다는 사실을 간과하게 된다. 특히 『무구정광대다라니경』은 중국, 한국 및 일본에서 두루 인기가 있었는데 각 나라마다 이를 다루는 방식(예컨대, 경이 어떻게 작성되고 분포되었는지, 또 탑 안에 어떻게 봉안 되었는지 등 문제) 에서는 흥미로운 차이를 보인다. 『무구정광대다라니경』은 경 자체를 만들고 이를 숭배할 것을 권장하고 있는데 이는 적어도 7세기 이후 아시아 전역에서 발견되는 불사를 반영하고 있다. 따라서 한국에서 이러한 실천이 어떤 특이한 문화적 변용을 보였나 살피기 전, 먼저 경의 간행과 숭배가 아시아 불교 전통 안에서 어떤 위치를 점하는지 질문해 보아야 할 것이다. 흔히 『보협인다라니경』은 신라의 『무구정광다라니경』이 고려 시대로 이어진 것이라고 간주되나, 이 경에서 진정 새로운 것은 무엇일까 질문해 볼 필요가 있다. 또한 이들 두 다라니경에만 주목하는 것이 과연 옳은지 역시 검토해 봐야 한다

Buddhist Temples or political battle grounds? Kaesŏng temples in relation to court and aristocracy

Sem Vermeersch “Buddhist Temples or Political Battlegrounds? Kaesŏng Temples in Relation to Court and Aristocracy” In the Koryŏ dynasty, Buddhism fulfilled an important role as an officially endorsed religion. Although monks could not play a part in politics, as symbolic representations of dynastic power, temples were seen as extensions of political power. A systematic study of the relations between the abbots of important temples in the capital Kaesŏng and the royal descent group and political elites in the eleventh and twelfth centuries shows that most of these abbots were scions of the families that dominated secular government. However, despite attempts to keep the abbacy of a particular temple within the same family by passing it on from paternal uncle to nephew, descent groups seldom gained exclusive control of a temple. In most cases one can thus observe an alternation between abbots from prominent families and those from less prominent local elites. However, temples still served as a nexus of aristocratic capital life, and contained special compounds that served as a place where monastic and secular elites could interact and eminent monks could retire to.Sem Vermeersch « Temples bouddhiques ou champs de bataille politiques ? Les temples de Kaesŏng et leur relation avec la cour et l'aristocratie » Le bouddhisme jouait sous la dynastie Koryŏ un rôle important en tant que religion officielle. Bien que les moines ne pussent participer à la vie politique, les temples, en tant qu'ils étaient des représentations symboliques du pouvoir dynastique, étaient considérés comme des prolongements du pouvoir politique. Une étude systématique des relations entre les abbés d'importants temples de la capitale Kaesŏng et la lignée royale et les élites politiques au cours des XIe et XIIe siècles montre que la plupart de ces abbés étaient des rejetons des familles qui dominaient le gouvernement temporel. Toutefois, en dépit d'efforts pour maintenir la dignité abbatiale d'un temple donné dans une même famille en la transférant de l'oncle paternel au neveu, les lignées conservaient rarement le contrôle exclusif d'un temple. On observe ainsi, dans la plupart des cas, une alternance entre les abbés issus de familles éminentes et ceux issus d'élites locales moins éminentes. Il n'en reste pas moins que les temples servaient de lieux de rencontre de la vie aristocratique de la capitale, et ils comportaient des bâtiments spéciaux où les élites monastiques et séculières pouvaient nouer des relations, et où d'éminents moines pouvaient se retirer.Vermeersch Sem. Buddhist Temples or Political Battlegrounds? Kaesŏng Temples in Relation to Court and Aristocracy. In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 94, 2007. pp. 195-227

Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Era Embassy to Koryŏ

In Northeast Asian states of the pre‑modern era, the so‑called tribute‑investiture relations played an important role in cultural and political exchanges. Many of the people who took part in the embassies that were dispatched either to present tribute (by the vassal state) or to grant investiture (by the suzerain state) wrote records of their visits, which are now invaluable sources of information about the countries visited. Among Chinese records of Korea, the Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Era Embassy to Koryŏ, is without doubt the most famous embassy record. It was finished in 1124 by Xu Jing (1091‑1153), who had visited Koryŏ the previous year. It builds on previous Chinese embassy records, but stands out for his meticulous attention to detail: he faithfully records the names of everyone he meets, as well as the names and locations of islands, cities, palaces, and other important buildings. For Koryŏ’s history and social customs, however, he relied mostly on other sources, and as a result the information is often very terse and partial.Dans les États d’Asie Orientale de la période pré‑moderne, les « relations tributaires et d’investiture » jouaient un rôle important dans les échanges politiques et culturels. Nombre de membres de ces ambassades qui étaient dépêchées pour offrir un tribut (de la part de l’État ayant fait allégeance) ou pour donner une investiture (par le souverain du Grand Pays), rédigeaient des récits de leurs visites, sources d’informations aujourd’hui inestimables sur les pays visités. Parmi les récits chinois sur la Corée, le Mémoire Illustré sur Gaoli de la légation de l’ère Xuanhe, est sans nul doute le plus célèbre du genre. Il fut achevé en 1124 par Xu Jing (1091‑1153) qui avait visité le Koryŏ (pinyin : Gaoli) l’année précédente. Construit sur les données des précédents mémoires d’ambassades chinoises, il s’en démarque par le souci du détail : il rapporte fidèlement les noms des personnes rencontrées ainsi que les toponymes et positions des îles, localités, palais et importants bâtiments. Toutefois, en ce qui concerne l’histoire du Koryŏ et les pratiques sociales, il s’appuie principalement sur des emprunts à d’autres sources et, de ce fait, restitue une information souvent succincte et partielle

통일신라기와 고려 초기 불사리 신앙의 전개

The veneration of the physical remains of the Buddha has long been regarded as an aberration of the Buddha's original teachings, contradicting the law that there is no self, and hence no physicality to attach to. Yet after his cremation, the Buddha's remains, known as sarira(relics), were distributed to many kings, and ever since they have constituted an important focus for lay and monastic devotionalism. Although this has traditionally been interpreted as a concession to the needs of the masses for a figure to worship, an increasing number of studies over the past decades has revealed first that relics have always been an important part of the Buddhist religion, and second that there is a great diversity in practices regarding relics, reflected in complex doctrinal explanations that justify the continues relevance of the Buddha's physical body(rupakaya). In other words, of strategies that serve to incorporate the relic cult into mainstream Buddhist practice.(Faure, 137-43). 통일 신라와 고려 시대의 불사리 장엄구에 대한 연구가 널리 이루어져온 것에 비해, 이러한 사리들과 관련한 종교적 신행들에 대한 조명은 상대적으로 적은 편이었다. 다시 말해 한국의 '사리 신앙'을 설명하려는 시도가 없었던 것이다. 이 논문에서는 기독교 의식들이나 인도 및 동아시아 불교 신행에 대한 연구를 통해 주로 형성되어왔던 '사리 신앙'의 개념이 한국에서도 중요하게 자리하고 있음을 보이고자 한다. 사리의 이용이나 그에 대한 신앙을 보여주는 문헌 증거는 빈약하지만, 중국과 일본의 사리신앙과 비교해 보면 비슷한 양상들과 독특한 양상들을 각각 찾아볼 수 있다. 이 논문에서 다루고 있는 중심 문제는 사리를 담고 있는 사리함이나 탑을 후원하는 일이 왕권을 강화하는 데 어떻게 보탬이 되었느냐는 것이다. 모든 증거들을 통해 볼 때 통일 신라의 왕들은 개인적인 목적을 위해, 특히 죽은 왕들의 명복이나 깨달음을 기원하기 위해 사리의 힘을 빌었다.

The power of Buddha The ideological and institutional role of Buddhism in the Koryo dynasty (918-1392)

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Encyclopédie des historiographies : Afriques, Amériques, Asies

Quels rapports les sociétés humaines entretiennent-elles avec leur passé et quels récits font-elles du temps révolu ? Pour ce premier volume de l’Encyclopédie des historiographies. Afriques, Amériques, Asies, 157 spécialistes représentant 88 institutions académiques en France et dans le monde explorent l’univers des productions humaines qui constituent des sources pour l’historien et déchiffrent les nombreuses modalités (« scientifiques », littéraires, artistiques, monumentales…) de l’écriture du passé. Évoquant tour à tour l’Afrique, l’Amérique latine, l’Asie, l’Océanie, les 216 notices de l’ouvrage présentent des matériaux historiques de toute nature, issus de toutes les époques, souvent méconnus, ainsi que l’histoire de leurs usages. L’entreprise collective qu’est l’Encyclopédie se veut novatrice : il s’agit de susciter une réflexion historiographique résolument non-occidentalo-centrée qui complète utilement les démarches épistémologiques traditionnelles. Nouvel outil de connaissance historique forgé à l’heure de la mondialisation, l’Encyclopédie des historiographies est aussi une véritable invitation au voyage.What are the different types of relations that non-Western societies upkeep with their past and how are narratives about the past produced by them? In this first volume of the Encyclopaedia of Historiography: Africa, America, Asia, 157 specialists from 88 international academic institutions explore the wealth of evidence that constitutes source material for historians. They also examine the immensely diverse modes or genres of narrated history: “scientific”, literary, artistic, architectural, etc. 216 entries dealing with Africa, Latin America, Oceania, and Asia, cover a large variety of sources, including many which are unfamiliar to the Western or non-Western reader, along with the history of how they have been exploited. By bringing together for the first time such an abundance of material the reader is offered the possibility of exploring continents and building meaningful connections across space and time. In addition to being a new tool for historical enquiry in an era of globalization, this encyclopaedia is also an invitation to travel the world