Hǎedōng gāosēng zhuàn 海東高僧傳
Lives of Eminent Monks of the Eastern Sea [= Korea]
compiled by 覺訓 (Juéxùn / Gakhun, fl. early 13th c., 撰) by imperial commission of Goryeo Gojong 高宗
About the work
A 2-juan collection of biographies of eminent Korean Buddhist monks, the only surviving Korean gāosēng zhuàn of the medieval period, surviving in fragmentary form (originally a longer multi-juan compendium, but only the opening 2 juan are preserved in the Taishō). Composed by imperial commission of Goryeo Gojong 高宗 in 1215 at Yeongtong-sa 靈通寺 on Ogwan-san. The 2 surviving juan contain 18 principal biographies plus a small number of supplementary notices, all in the liútōng 流通 (“propagation”) category — i.e., the early translators and dharma-introducers of Korea.
Abstract
The text opens with a substantial doctrinal preamble (論) that addresses the introduction of Buddhism into the Korean peninsula through the Three Kingdoms — Koguryŏ 高句麗, Paekche 百濟, and Silla 新羅 — and presents a unified Buddhist-historiographical narrative of the formation of Korean Buddhism. The biographies in juan 1–2 cover the foundational figures: Sundo 順道 (the Koguryŏ dharma-introducer, 372 CE), Mālānanta 摩羅難陀 (Paekche dharma-introducer, 384 CE), Adohwasang 阿道和尚 (Silla dharma-introducer), Pŏbgong 法空 / King Pŏphŭng 法興王 (the Silla king who institutionalised Buddhism), the martyrdom of Yi Ch’a-don 異次頓 (527 CE), and the lives of the major Silla translator-pilgrims Wŏnch’ŭk 圓測 (613–696, disciple of 玄奘), Hyech’o 慧超 (704–787, the Silla pilgrim-author of Wǎng wǔ Tiānzhúguó zhuàn), Hyŏnyu 玄遊, and others.
The lost juan presumably continued through the yìjiě (doctrinal-exegete) and xíchán (meditator) categories down to the early Goryeo. References in later Korean works such as the Sānguó yíshì 三國遺事 (1281) of 一然 Iryŏn 一然 indicate that Iryŏn knew and used Juéxùn’s full text; the truncation to 2 juan is post-Mongol (post-1280s). The text is the principal Korean witness to early Korean Buddhism and a complement to the Chinese-canonical Sānguó shǐjì / Sānguó yíshì tradition; together with the Sānguó yíshì it forms the foundational corpus of pre-Mongol Korean Buddhist historiography.
The Taishō text is based on the Korean Haein-sa 海印寺 supplementary canon and was first incorporated into the printed Buddhist tradition only in the 20th century. There is no Sòng / Yuán / Míng witness — the work was largely unknown to the Chinese tradition before Taishō.
Translations and research
- Peter H. Lee, Lives of Eminent Korean Monks: The Haedong Kosŭng Chŏn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies 25, 1969) — complete English translation with substantial historical introduction; remains the standard Western-language treatment.
- 김상현 (Kim Sang-hyun), 《해동고승전 연구》 (Seoul: Hyean, 1986) — Korean-language critical study.
- 안계현 (An Kye-hyŏn), various articles in Han’guk Pulgyohak and Bulgyo hakpo.
- Shem Vermeulen, Reception of the Haedong Kosŭng Chŏn in Korea, China, and Japan (recent dissertation work, ongoing).
Other points of interest
The composition of the Hǎedōng gāosēng zhuàn falls within the Korean Mongol-resistance period: Gojong’s reign (1213–1259) saw the Mongol invasions of 1231 onwards and the court’s retreat to Ganghwa-do. The court-commissioned gāosēng zhuàn, like the more famous Goryeo Tripiṭaka re-carving project (1236–1251), is part of a broader politico-religious programme to assert Korean Buddhist civilisation in the face of Mongol pressure. Modern Korean scholarship reads the work as a deliberate construction of Korean Buddhist identity vis-à-vis the Chinese tradition that had supplied KR6r0052 – KR6r0054.
Links
- CBETA: T50n2065
- Wikipedia: Haedong Kosŭng Chŏn