Cháoxiǎn chánjiào kǎo 朝鮮禪教考
An Examination of the Chán and Doctrinal Schools in Korea
compiled by 朴永善 (Pak Yŏngsŏn / Bú Yǒngshàn, fl. late 19th c., 輯)
About the work
A 1-juan late-Joseon Korean Buddhist historiographical compendium, compiled by Pak Yŏngsŏn 朴永善 of Hanyang 漢陽 (Seoul). The work is a chronological-annal summary of the introduction and development of Chinese-derived Buddhism (both Chán 禪 and doctrinal 教 schools) in the Korean peninsula, from the legendary first arrival in the 4th century down to the Sòng-Korean transmission via Yǒngmíng Yánshòu’s 永明延壽 disciples in the 10th c.
The work is undated in itself; it was incorporated into the Wànzì Xùzàngjīng (X87 No. 1622) when that compendium was prepared in the early 20th century, fixing a terminus ante quem of ca. 1905. The dating bracket is 1850 – 1900 (mid-to-late 19th-century late-Joseon scholarship).
Abstract
The work follows a strictly chronological organisation, with Korean events dated by Chinese reign-eras for cross-referencing:
- Initial transmission (post-Hàn-Mĭng-dì 4th-c. CE): the work opens by noting that Buddhism reached China in Yǒngpíng 8 永平八年乙丑 (= 65 CE) and from there was transmitted to Koguryŏ 高勾麗 in the FúQín 苻秦 era (壬申 = 372 CE), with the arrival of Hye-yang 惠亮 and other early monks.
- Three Kingdoms transmissions — coverage runs through Koguryŏ, Paekche 百濟, and Silla 新羅, anchored to the Sānguó shǐ 三國史 of Kim Pusik 金富軾.
- Statal sponsorship — coverage of major royal patronages, the founding of Hŭngnyun-sa 興輪寺 and other state monasteries, the kuksa 國師 (national-preceptor) institution.
- Tang-Silla transmissions — coverage of major monks who travelled to Táng China for advanced study (e.g., Tao-yi 道義 and the early Sŏn 禪 transmitters; the Sŏn / Kyo 禪敎 distinction begins to crystallise).
- Sòng-Koryŏ transmission — the closing section centres on the late-10th-c. transmission from Yǒng-míng Yán-shòu 永明延壽 (904–975) of Hángzhōu Huì-rì-sì 慧日寺. Per the work, the Koryŏ Kwangjong 光宗 king sent an embassy to Yán-shòu with golden kāṣāya, purple-jade prayer-beads, and a golden water-vessel; Yán-shòu received them and dispatched 36 of his disciples to Koryŏ, who became the founders of the major Koryŏ Chán-school lineages. The compiler closes with the editorial conclusion: “The Korean Chán-schools all derive from the Hángzhōu Huì-rì master.”
The work is the principal late-Joseon synthetic account of the origins of Korean Chán-school Buddhism, written from a Sino-centric perspective that emphasises continuity with the Chinese parent tradition.
Translations and research
- Robert E. Buswell Jr., The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983) — provides the standard background for Korean Sŏn historiography.
- Robert E. Buswell Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
- 김영태 (Kim Yŏng-tae), 韓國佛教史 — the standard modern Korean-language history.
Other points of interest
The work’s editorial argument that Korean Chán “all derives from Yǒngmíng Yánshòu” reflects the late-Joseon Sŏn-Kyo unification project — the historiographical retrieval of Yánshòu as the canonical Sòng precedent for the integration of Chán with the doctrinal schools, which had been a project of major late-Joseon Buddhist intellectuals such as Hyujŏng 休靜 (Sǒsan, 1520–1604) and his successors. The compilation thus does double work: it documents Korean Buddhist history and reaffirms the ideological position that Chán and Kyo are not in competition.
Links
- CBETA: X87n1622