Introduction
The Koguryŏ émigré and Buddhist monk Hyeryang was named Buddhist overseer by Silla king Chinhŭng (r. 540–576). Hyeryang instituted Buddhist ritual observances at the Silla court that would be, in continually evolving forms, performed at court in Silla and Koryŏ for eight hundred years. Sparse but tantalizing evidence remains of Koguryŏ’s Buddhist culture: tomb murals with Buddhist themes, brief notices recorded in the History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk sagi 三國史記), a few inscriptions on Buddhist images believed by scholars to be of Koguryŏ provenance, and anecdotes in Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa 三國遺事) and other early Chinese and Japanese literary sources.1 Based on these limited proofs, some Korean scholars have imagined an advanced philosophical tradition that must have profoundly influenced the Sinitic Buddhist tradition as well as the emerging Buddhist culture of Silla.2 Western scholars, on the other hand, have lamented the dearth of literary, epigraphical, and archeological evidence of Buddhism in Koguryŏ.3 Is it possible to reconstruct illustrations of the nature and characteristics of Buddhist ritual and devotional practice in the late Koguryŏ period?
In this paper I will flesh out the characteristics of Buddhist ritual and devotional practice in Koguryŏ by reconstructing its Northeast Asian context.4 I will first address the question of rituals by analyzing what is known about Hyeryang and discuss in detail the Convocation for the Recitation of the Sūtra for Humane Kings by a Hundred Eminent Monks (paekkojwa kanghoe 百高座講會) and recreate the Northeast Asian context of the Assembly of Eight Prohibitions (p’algwanhoe 八關會). Second, I will describe devotional practices, such as the cult of the thousand buddhas, veneration of Maitreya and Amitābha. Third, I will describe the practice of meditation visualization and its relationship with pensive images.
Buddhist Rituals
According to the History of the Three Kingdoms, in the second month of 375 Koguryŏ built Ch’omun Monastery 肖門寺 for Sundo 順道 (Ch. Shundao), a Chinese monk who was sent by Fu Jian 符堅, hegemon of the Former Qin 後秦 dynasty (351–394) centered on Chang’an 長安 in Northern China, to introduce Buddhism to Koguryŏ in 372, and Ibullan Monastery 伊弗蘭寺 for a monk named Ado 阿道 (Ch. Adao) who arrived from Jin 晉 in 375.5 In 392, King Kwanggaet’o 廣開土 (r. 391–413) reportedly built nine monasteries in the capital P’yŏngyang 平壤.6 No other monasteries are mentioned until the founding of Kŭmgang Monastery 金剛寺 is recorded in the eighth month of 502.7 What kinds of ceremonies were performed in Koguryŏ monasteries using sūtras and images?
According to the short biographical narrative on Kŏch’ilbu 居柒夫 in the History of the Three Kingdoms, the monk Hyeryang 惠亮 was a renowned lecturer on the Buddhist sūtras at his monastery, which was probably in Hanyang 漢陽, in the region of present-day Seoul north of the Han River 漢江. Hyeryang’s monastery was probably in the Seoul area because Kŏch’ilbu most likely travelled to this region to gain intelligence for Silla disguised as a monk prior to Silla’s conquest of the region in 551.8 Unfortunately, later gazetteers and other historiographical writings do not preserve any hints regarding the location of Hyeryang’s monastery, but it seems reasonable to intimate that it was large enough to support a reasonably-sized monastic community and, at least, possessed tenuous connections to monastic communities in the region, whether they were farther north in the Koguryŏ heartland or overseas on the Shandong peninsula 山東半島. Although Koguryŏ emissaries usually took the overland route from P’yŏngyang to the capitals of the Northern Dynasties, the most convenient route from the Han River Basin was by sea to the port cities on the northern coast of the Shandong peninsula, such as Dengzhou 登州. Shandong had a flourishing Buddhist community and several monasteries during the Northern and Southern Dynasties 南北國 (ca. 220–581) and Sui 隋-Tang 唐 periods (581–907).9
Although little is known about Hyeryang, we know that he submitted to the conquerors from Silla and requested to be sent to the capital. Something about Hyeryang’s credentials, personality, or knowledge of Buddhism and its rituals must have impressed Silla king Chinhŭng 眞興 (r. 540–576) and other members of the court and nobility because he was the first monk in Silla to be given the position of saṃgha overseer (sŭngt’ong 僧統), and he instituted the Convocation for the Recitation of the Sūtra for Humane Kings by One Hundred Eminent Monks and the Dharma Assembly of the Eight Prohibitions.10
The Convocation for the Recitation of the Sūtra for Humane Kings by One Hundred Eminent Monks (Inwang-gyŏng paekkojwa kanghoe 仁王經 百高座講會) is the ritualized chanting or recitation of the “Protecting the State” chapter of the Sūtra for Humane Kings (Renwang jing, “Huguo pin” 仁王經, 護國品) by one hundred eminent monks. According to scholarly consensus, the Sūtra for Humane Kings is an apocryphal sūtra composed in Central Asia or Chinese Turkestan sometime in the third or fourth centuries c.e.11 The Chinese monk-historian Daoxuan 道宣 (596– 667) reports that eminent monks lectured on this sūtra at the request of rulers in both Northern and Southern China during the second half of the sixth century at roughly the same time that Hyeryang must have been active in Koguryŏ, before he instituted the practice in Silla.12 The monk-historian Zhipan 志磐 (fl. 1258–1269), who lived during the Song 宋-Yuan 元 transition period, supports this assertion, although neither writer provides any great detail on the extent of royal or imperial support.13 This does not preclude the possibility that monks performed this ritual in monasteries prior to this time. In other words, Hyeryang may merely have been transferring to Silla a ritual practice that was quite familiar and one that he performed regularly in Koguryŏ.
In the sūtra, the Buddha teaches the Indian King Prasenajit a method for protecting the state (hoguk, Ch. huguo 護國). The ritual prescription is as follows: The monks performing the ritual procedures are to (1) hold, read, and recite this Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra; (2) adorn a ritual area by setting up one hundred Buddha images, one hundred bodhisattva images, and one hundred seats for Buddhist masters. Those who have commissioned the ritual are to (3) invite one hundred dharma masters to expound this scripture, (4) make offerings of flowers and lamps, clothes, and utensils, and burn incense. (5) Twice a day, during the course of the ritual, dharma masters are expected to expound the sūtra. The scripture promises that if a king, his great officers, and members of the saṃgha (monks and nuns) hear, read, and recite the sūtra, and practice the method, then disasters and difficulties will be eradicated in the country.14
Few Buddhist images that are indisputably products of Koguryŏ remain, but clay images like the standing clay bodhisattva image excavated at Wŏnori (Wŏnori ch’ult’o sojo posal ipsang 元吾里出土 塑造菩薩立像), gilt-bronze images like the seated gilt-bronze Buddha depicting the dhyāna-mudrā (kŭmdong sŏnjŏngin yŏrae chwasang 金銅禪定印如來坐像), the gilt-bronze standing Buddha excavated at Yangp’yŏng (Yangp’yŏng ch’ult’o kŭmdong yŏrae ipsang 楊平出土 金銅如來立像), and the standing gilt-bronze Avalokiteśvara excavated from Samyangdong in Seoul (Samyangdong ch’ult’o kŭmdong Kwanŭm posal ipsang 三陽洞出土 金銅 觀音菩薩立像) were small, easy to transport, and would have been convenient for use in such an assembly.15
Different than the ritual utilizing the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra or Sūtra of Golden Light (Jinguangming jing 金光明經), which invokes the power of the four heavenly kings (sach’ŏnwang 四天王) to protect the state, this convocation draws upon the merit produced by worshiping images of buddhas and bodhisattvas and the merit produced by eminent monks’ reading, reciting, and lecturing on the sūtra. I suspect that one of the visual aspects of this convocation was similar to the practice of “coursing in a sūtra” (chŏn’gyŏng, Ch. zhuanjing 轉經). “Coursing” in a sūtra combines a few aspects of the Buddhist cult of the book: the rolls of the sūtra would be unrolled and rolled up again; the “coursers” would perhaps chant some lines or sections of the sūtra or even lecture on a few particular points; the whole thing would be done to generate merit for the one who commissioned the coursing. In a broad sense, however, “coursing in a sūtra” is merely one way of rendering the idea of sūtra-recitation or sūtra-chanting into Buddhist Chinese. Other compounds include “reading sūtras” (tokkyŏng, Ch. dujing 讀經), “chanting sūtras” (p’unggyŏng, Ch. fengjing 諷 經), “chanting and reciting [sūtras]” (p’ungsong, Ch. fengsong 諷誦), “reciting sūtras” (songgyŏng, Ch. songjing 誦經), “looking at sūtras” (kan’gyŏng, Ch. kanjing 看經), and “contemplating sūtras” (yŏmgyŏng, Ch. nianjing 念經). Many Buddhist scriptures speak of the merit generated from reciting or chanting a Mahāyāna sūtra, such as the famous passage in the “Dhāraṇī” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha teaches that people who chant, recite, or copy that sūtra will earn immeasurable amounts of merit. Furthermore, in the Larger Pure Land Sūtra (Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra; Wuliangshou jing 無量壽經) is a passage teaching that people will achieve the highest level of enlightenment if they accept the sūtra wholeheartedly in faith, chant the sūtra, and practice in accordance with its teachings.16
When Sundo introduced Buddhism to the Koguryŏ court, besides the sūtras and images he brought from Chang’an, he also probably introduced basic monastic ceremonies like the fortnightly poṣadha (p’osal, Ch. busa 布薩), as well as the cult of Maitreya. Furthermore, such practices would also have been spread by Tamsi 曇始 (Ch. Tanshi), a Chinese monk famed for his white feet who was active in Koguryŏ between 396 and 405, whom the Silla literatus Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn 崔致遠 (857–d. after 908) thought was the first monk to promote Buddhism in Koguryŏ.17 These monks would also have introduced merit-making ceremonies for lay people, which would have been common by the time that Hyeryang introduced the Assembly of Eight Prohibitions in Silla in the late sixth century. The Assembly of Eight Prohibitions links the most fundamental of Buddhist ritual observances, the poṣadha, to Maitreya worship because the Maitreya sūtras encourage aspirants to hold “fasts of the eight precepts” (p’algye chae, Ch. bajie zhai 八戒齋).18 A fast of the eight precepts appears to be another name for a fast of the eight prohibitions (p’algwan chae, Ch. baguan zhai 八關齋, Skt. aṣṭāṅga-poṣadhe, Pali: aṭṭha ṅguposatha). The Lives of Eminent Korean Monks (Haedong kosung chŏn 海東高僧傳), which was compiled by Kakhun 覺訓 in 1215, reports that a fasting assembly of the eight prohibitions (p’algwanjae hoe 八關齋會) was held for the war dead in a monastery outside of the capital.19 Medieval Chinese Buddhist records preserve accounts of fasts of the eight prohibitions being held in primarily in the Southern Dynasties.20 A fast of the eight prohibitions refers to a fast kept by lay men (upāsaka) and lay women (upāsikā) in which they observe eight precepts for a full day and night: (1) not to kill living beings; (2) not to steal; (3) not to misuse sex; (4) not to lie; (5) not to drink intoxicants; (6) not to ornament the body with flowers or perfumes, sing, dance, or attend shows; (7) not to sleep on high or comfortable beds; and (8) not to eat at inappropriate times (viz. after noon). Āgama literature explains that the eight prohibitions refer to a special dharma assembly for lay men, particularly kings, in which they empower themselves by fasting and following eight precepts that a monk would follow for a specified period of time. Full-fledged monks usually reviewed and rededicated (i.e. empowered) themselves to the monastic precepts (kyeyul, Ch. jielü 戒律; Skt. vinaya, śīla) twice a month on the seventh and fifteenth days in a special dharma assembly (Skt. poṣadha) in which the monastic code was recited.21
The poṣadha combines fortnightly recitation of the basic Buddhist precepts with merit-making practices intended to benefit the fourfold saṃgha, which includes the laity. Ever since the 450s, however, most Buddhists in Northern China probably conceptualized or understood the purpose and function of such ritual observances through the extremely popular apocryphal sūtra, the Book of Trapuṣa (Tiwei jing 提謂經). The Book of Trapuṣa, which scholars suggest was composed by the monk Tanjing曇靖 between 452 and 455, combines the poṣadha with repentance practices and encourages people to take refuge in the Buddha.22 Because Koguryŏ had a close relationship with the Northern Wei, the ideas contained in this text, if not the apocryphal sūtra itself, probably circulated among Koguryŏ Buddhists as well. The Book of Trapuṣa encourages monks and laity to organize themselves into “communities of the righteous” (ŭiŭp, Ch. yiyi 義邑), in which people are adopted into the family of the Buddha. It further encourages the members of these communities to hold confessional poṣadhas every fourteen days.23
The Book of Trapuṣa also explains the five precepts that all Buddhists vow to observe in terms that would have more familiar to people with at least rudimentary education or exposure to moralistic “Confucian” principles. Hence, the precept to abstain from killing is explained as humaneness (in, Ch. ren 仁), the precept eschewing adultery is described as righteousness (ŭi, Ch. yi 義), the precept on avoiding drinking intoxicants is explained as propriety (ye, Ch. li 禮), the precept abjuring stealing is explicated as wisdom (hye, Ch. hui 慧), and the precept on “speaking proper words” (i.e., not lying) is clarified as trust or confidence (sin, Ch. xin 信).24 The apocryphal sūtra also encourages people to chant “I take refuge in the Buddha” (nammubul, Ch. nanwufo 南無佛) and explains that people will receive five benefits if they circumambulate Buddhist images: good complexion in this life, a fine voice, rebirth in heaven, rebirth into the families of lords and nobles, and nirvāṇa.25 The Book of Trapuṣa also stresses the importance of Buddhist precepts and warns readers that if they do not observe the precepts they will be reborn in hell. It also describes karmic retribution and rebirth among the five paths26 according to the quality of one’s thoughts (yŏm, Ch. nian 念).27
Devotional Practices
One of the earliest forms of devotional practice in Koguryŏ for which there is material evidence is the cult of the thousand buddhas (ch’ŏnbul, Ch. qianfo 千佛). Artistic representations of the thousand buddhas are also found in the Buddhist grottos Dunhuang 敦煌 (fourth to tenth centuries), Yungang 雲岡 (mid- to late fifth century), and Longmen 龍門 (late fifth to the tenth centuries) in Northern China, which date to the late fifth and early sixth century. In these cave temples, countless rows of tiny buddhas are depicted in meditative trance seated on lotus blossoms. Lines upon lines and rows upon rows of multiple buddhas illustrate the theme or motif of the thousand buddhas. In his introduction to reproductions of the paintings at Dunhuang, Arthur Waley paraphrases the story found in the Sūtra on the Origin of the Thousand Buddhas (Qianfo yinyuan jing 千佛 因緣經): “Eternities ago, King Guangde asked his subjects to study the Vedas. One of the thousand sages heard a monk speak from the tritratna, or ‘three jewels.’ Inspired by the radiance of the triratna, the king, together with his 999 fellow students, converted to Buddhism. In their next incarnation they were reborn as the ‘Thousand Buddhas.’”28 The story of the Buddha Prabhūtaratna (Many Treasures; Tabobul, Ch. Dabaofo 多寶 佛) in the Lotus Sūtra, in which he appears in his jeweled stūpa to hear the Lotus Sūtra being taught, also illustrates the image of thousands of buddhas, although Kumārajīva’s translation does not refer specifically to a thousand buddhas.29 The worship of the thousand buddhas seems to be representative of the acceptance of a doctrinally Buddhist outlook on time and cosmology, because I have not been able to isolate specific devotional practices, like those associated with the cults of Maitreya and Amitābha that will be treated below. The essential doctrines associated with the cult of the thousand buddhas are as follows: a thousand buddhas appear in the world during each the three kalpas of the past, present, and future, and Śākyamuni is the fourth buddha of the thousand buddhas of the present kalpa.30 Tiantai Zhiyi 天台智顗 (538–597) held the position that “Māyā [Śākyamuni’s mother] was the mother of the thousand buddhas, Śuddhodana [Śākyamuni’s father] was the father of the thousand buddhas, and Rāhula [Śākyamuni’s son] was the son of the thousand buddhas.”31
The oldest Buddhist image in Korea that can be dated with certainty is a gilt-bronze standing image of the Buddha inscribed with the seventh year of the Yŏn’ga reign period (Yŏn’ga ch’illyŏn myŏng kŭmdong yŏrae ip-sang 延嘉七年銘 金銅如來立像). It was made in 539, about a hundred years after Koguryŏ moved its capital to P’yŏngyang. The inscription on the backside of the mandorla (kwangbae 光背), a full-body halo or nimbus, reports that more than forty monks of the Eastern Monastery of Lelang (Nangnang Tongsa 樂良32東寺) made a vow together and commissioned a thousand buddha images.33 The inscription also explains that a certain bhikṣu made an offering of the twenty-ninth of the thousand buddhas, the Buddha Causes Manifest Meaning (inhyŏnŭi pul 因現義佛). This serves as evidence that the cult of the buddhas of the present kalpa existed in Koguryŏ.34
Also, three-hundred and twelve pieces of clay Buddhist images (sobulsang 塑佛像) were discovered at the site of a monastery in Wŏno Village 元五里, Tŏksan Township 德山面, P’yŏngwŏn County 平原郡, in South P’yŏngan Province 平安南道. Of these a seated Buddha image comprised two-hundred and four pieces and a standing bodhisattva image comprised the remaining one-hundred and eight pieces. All of the pieces were discovered in the ruins of an ancient building. Mun Myŏngdae has argued persuasively that these Buddhist images belonged to a set of a thousand buddhas.35
The Buddhist encyclopedist Daoshi 道世 (ca. 596–683) provides a brief account of the devotional practices that might be associated with the cult of the thousand buddhas. He reports that Emperor Ming 明帝 of the Southern Qi dynasty 南齊 (r. 494–498) “copied all the sūtras, made images of the thousand buddhas, verbally intoned ‘Prajñā’ (panya, Ch. bore 般 若), constantly observed the Lotus Sūtra, constructed and took refuge in monasteries, gathered together meditation monks, and constantly observed the six fasts.”36 Daoshi’s contemporary, the Buddhist historian Daoxuan reports that images of the thousand buddhas and Avalokiteśvara were associated with campaigns for the promotion of relics during the Sui 隋 period (581–618).37 He also preserved a story of the early Tang monk Hanzhao 含照 who made a vow to draw the thousand buddhas.38 The making of gilt-bronze and clay images of the thousand buddhas in Koguryŏ fits well with these mainstream devotional practices of Sinitic Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Along with the veneration of buddha images, Koguryŏ Buddhists performed devotional practices at pagodas (t’ap 塔; Skt. stūpa). Buddhist literature preserves an anecdote about the discovery and reconstruction of an Aśoka stūpa (Ayuk-wang t’ap, Ch. Ayuwang ta 阿育王塔) near Liaodong Fortress 遼東城, which was part of the Koguryŏ domain. According to Indian Buddhist tradition, the Mauryan king Aśoka (Ayuwang 阿育王, r. 268–232 b.c.e.) dispatched monks bearing relics of the Buddha and had them set up 84,000 Buddhastūpas throughout the world as a way to propagate the Buddhadharma.39 Daoxuan’s Combined Records of Spiritual Resonances of the Three Jewels in China (Ji Shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄), which was first compiled in 664, first reports the following tale, which was repeated almost verbatim in Daoshi’s A Grove of Pearls in the Garden of the Dharma (Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林) and Iryŏn’s Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms:
With respect to the stūpa near the Liaodong Fortress in Koryŏ 高麗 [viz. Koguryŏ], an old gaffer perpetuates the tale that in days long past in Koryŏ a sage king appeared; and while he made a procession in his realm he came upon this fortress and saw a multicolored cloud covering over the land. Immediately a monk holding a metal staff emerged from within the cloud and stood on the ground. When [the king] drew close [the monk] conveniently disappeared and when he looked from far off [the monk] reappeared. Nearby there was a three-story earthen stūpa the top of which was like an overturned cauldron. [The king] did not know what it was. He again went searching for the monk, but there was only barren grassland. He dug deeply, about ten feet, and found a wooden staff and shoes. Then, he dug more and found an engraving upon which there was Brahma script (pŏmsŏ, Ch. fanshu 梵書). The officials in attendance recognized it and said that it was a “Buddhastūpa” (pult’ap, Ch. fota 佛塔). The king asked an involved question. [The officials] answered saying, “They had them in the country of the Han 漢 [China, ca. 206 b.c.e.–220 c.e.]. This is called ‘Buddha’ (p’odo, Ch. putu 蒲圖).” The king then, giving rise to faith [in the Buddha], erected a seven-story wooden stūpa. Afterwards, the Buddhadharma commenced [in Koguryŏ] and [the king] knew the whole of it from beginning to end. Now again it is spoiled in height. The original stūpa is rotten and ruined. This, verily, is one of the many places where King Aśoka set up stūpas in many places when he unified the continent of Jambudvīpa. It is incapable of working wonders.40
This narrative reports that a Koguryŏ king built a seven-story wooden pagoda at the site of a three-story earthen stūpa shaped like an overturned cauldron near Liaodong Fortress. The miraculous appearance of the monk figure and the staff, shoes, and engraving in Indic script served as evidence that it was a stupa containing relics of the Buddha erected by King Aśoka. Large multi-storied wooden pagodas were built in the Northern Wei capital of Luoyang 落陽 during the early sixth century, so this tale may refer to something built in Koguryŏ about this time.41 Although there is no other anecdotal evidence that Koguryŏ Buddhists worshipped at this site, the idea that Buddhist monks and devout lay people searched for and worshipped at sites believed to be places where stūpas had been erected by King Aśoka was also a common motif in hagiographies about Buddhist monks in China. For instance, the Lives of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳) reports that monk Huida 慧達 was told by a religious man that he should seek out Aśoka stūpas, worship at them and repent of his transgressions to make penance for his sins.42 Essentially, the same types of devotional and repentance practices associated with the confessional poṣadha, discussed above, were probably performed at stūpas.
The cult of Maitreya in China was originally associated with the vows of monastic practitioners to be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven (Tosolch’ŏn, Ch. Doushuaitian 兜率天), the heaven connected to our realm of existence where Maitreya waits to be reborn into our world, or to be reborn in Ketumati (Kyedumal, Ch. Jitoumo, 雞頭摩 or Sidumal, Ch. Chitoumo 翅頭 末), the pure land created by Maitreya when he is born on earth in the distant future. The goal in either case was so that aspirants might hear the Buddhadharma directly from the mouth of the future Buddha Maitreya and thus attain Buddhahood. The elite monks, nobility, and royalty who patronized them, commissioned images of Maitreya, both standing and seated in meditation, as objects of worship and as aids for visualization. Standing images of Maitreya were often indicative of his preaching in Ketumati after his attainment of Buddhahood underneath the nāgapuṣpa, or “dragon-flower tree” (yonghwasu, Ch. longhuashu 龍華樹), and seated images, such as those in the “half-seated pensive pose” (pan’ga sayu-sang, Jpn. hanka shiyui-zō 半跏思惟象), are believed by some art historians to portray Maitreya’s waiting in meditation in Tuṣita Heaven. Both styles of Maitreya are found closely connected in the art of the Northern Dynasties and demonstrate that these two aspects of the cult of Maitreya were inte related in early China.43
In popular Chinese imagination, the Indian and Central Asian sūtras describing Maitreya’s descent from Tuṣita in the distant future and his inauguration of a new period the Buddhadharma assimilated with Daoist millenarian stories and aspirations. As a result, Maitreya in the Sinitic cultural sphere was conceptualized as a savior being who would inaugurate a peaceful Buddhist millennium after years of warfare and the decline of the Buddhadharma (malbŏp, Ch. mofa 末法).44 The worship of this powerfully compelling Maitreya began to spread throughout Chinese society in the Northern Dynasties due to the frequent warfare between the Northern Chinese states that had been founded by pastoral Turko-Mongol peoples. The sūtras associated with the cult of Maitreya mention both devotional and meditative practices to be reborn in the presence of Maitreya. The sūtras encourage people (1) to visualize themselves in the presence of Maitreya in Tuṣita now, (2) to make vows to be reborn in Tu ṣita later (at their death), (3) to make vows to be reborn on earth when Maitreya comes later, and/or (4) to perform devotional practices in order to see incarnations of Maitreya here on the earth.45 All of these practices were popular among the elites during the Northern Dynasties and, at the height of the cult in the sixth century, were transmitted to Silla probably through Koguryŏ.
The rise of the cult of Maitreya in Northern China traces back to the devotional practices promoted by the monk Daoan 道安 (312–385). Prophesies of Maitreya’s presence in Tuṣita Heaven and of his future descent to the world had begun to emerge in the Buddhist literature of the period.46 A key aspect of the cult for Daoan was his desire to be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven in the presence of Maitreya so that his doubts concerning the Buddhist scriptures and, perhaps, access to suitable texts of the Buddhist precepts, could be resolved. Daoan’s faith in Maitreya was well-known during his lifetime. Fu Jian, sent a portrait of Maitreya pieced together out of pearl, gilt images, and other gifts to Daoan. Daoan and his disciples pronounced vows in front of images of Maitreya expressing their desire to be reborn in Tuṣita. Daoan’s veneration of Maitreya by wishing for rebirth in Tuṣita, the veneration of images of Maitreya, and their use as visual aids in his lecturing became the basic practices of the cult of Maitreya in East Asia.47
The cult of Maitreya continued to flourish under the conquest dynasties in Northern China, and probably flourished in Koguryŏ as well. In the Buddhist grottos of the Northern Wei 北魏 (386–534) and its successors, the Dunhuang, Yungang and Longmen caves, the oldest surviving examples of medieval Chinese Buddhist art, images of Maitreya, along with images of Śākyamuni, were the most numerous.48 The Longmen caves signal the golden age of the Maitreya cult in Northern China. Tsukamoto Zenryū suggests that succession and inheritance of social position and dynastic authority might be important themes in the worship of Maitreya, since he is seen as the legitimate heir to the Buddha Śākyamuni.49 After the first half of the Northern Wei, the Śākyamuni cult, most graphically depicted at Yungang, gave way to the Maitreya cult, most prominent at Longmen. However, the Longmen caves also signal the beginning of the rise of the Amitābha cult that would surpass the Maitreya cult during the early Tang.
Although Daoan and his small circle of worshippers of Maitreya may have provided the original influence for the cult of Maitreya, the cult may have been effected more by the concurrent translations of scriptures dealing with the Pure Land of Amitābha and the rise of Amitābha’s cult. The original appeal of this cult, nevertheless, may have focused around the belief that one could become a Buddhist sylph, like a Daoist immortal or transcendent (sŏn, Ch. xian 仙), and dwell in the company of Maitreya like a Daoist immortal might reside in the Daoist heavens. Thus, the cult seemed to appeal to many people during the Northern Dynasties and played an important role in the initial conversion of the people to Buddhism.50
Little literary material has been preserved of the Buddhist history of both Koguryŏ, and even less has been preserved associated with the cult of Maitreya. Nevertheless, because the worship of Maitreya was so widespread in Northern China and because Koguryŏ had close relations with both Fu Jian’s Former Qin and the succeeding Northern Wei dynasty, Buddhist monks and other aspirants in Koguryŏ must have been familiar to some extent with several of the sūtras on Maitreya and the ways of venerating him that were becoming increasingly widespread in the Sinitic cultural sphere.51
A small (8.5 cm), gilt-bronze image of a bodhisattva seated in the pensive pose that some art historians suggest is either from early sixth-century Koguryŏ or is an import from Northern Wei—and might be Maitreya—is in the possession of the National Museum of Korea. This attractive image follows the Northern Wei style and its size indicate that it was probably a votive image used in personal devotions in which individuals vowed to be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven in Maitreya’s presence.52 Many of the early pensive images found in Central Asia and Northern China dating to the Northern Wei period are intended as representations of Prince Siddhārtha’s first meditative experience because they depict a youthful figure underneath the jambu tree and/or with his horse Kaṇṭhaka.53 However, in the Northern Qi period 北齊 (550–577), in the late sixth century, pensive images come in a variety of creative forms, including altarpieces, marble statues, and even paired pensive figures.54 Basing her study on a cache of images and image fragments discovered in the ruins of Xiude Monastery 修德寺 on the Shandong peninsula, Eileen Hsu crafted a persuasive argument that the pensive images of the Northern Qi were used in meditative visualization practices and depicted the aspirants themselves in the glory of Tuṣita Heaven because several images contain inscriptions that clearly label these images as “pensive icons” (sayusang, Ch. siweixiang 思惟像) and one icon even places Maitreya between two bodhisattva figures seated in pensive form.55 However, not all art historians are persuaded by this interpretation, although they recognize that the art associated with the cult of Maitreya evolved during the Northern Qi period.56 Furthermore, certain features found on pensive images carved and cast in Silla Korea in the first half of the seventh century suggest that prototypes may be found among the hoard of images dating from the Northern Qi period discovered in the ruins of Longxing Monastery 龍興寺 in the Shandong peninsula.57 Koguryŏ had relatively close relations with the Northern Qi, having dispatched tribute-bearing missions at least seven times.58 So, there were ample opportunities for images and other Buddhist works of art to enter Koguryŏ. Kang Woo-Bang identified two pensive images that are very similar to the types of images being cast in Northern China as being pieces of Koguryŏ Buddhist art: a gilt-bronze pensive image excavated from P’yŏngch’ŏlli in P’yŏngyang (P’yŏngyang P’yŏngch’ŏlli ch’ult’o kŭmdong sayusang 平壤平川里出土金銅思惟像) and another gilt-bronze pensive image. There is also a set of several images, including pensive images, carved into a rock face on Mt. Haetkol on Ponghwangni in Chungwŏn in North Ch’ungch’ŏng Province (Chungwŏn Ponghwangni Haetkolsan maae pulsanggun 中原鳳凰里 햇골산 磨崖佛像 群). The pensive images carved on the rock face, thought to date from the mid-sixth century, share stylistic similarities with Northern Wei pensive images, serve as evidence of connections between Koguryŏ and Northern China.59 I will describe the personal devotions that may have been associated with the use of pensive icons in the following section.
Buddhist themes and motifs appear in a few Koguryŏ tomb murals.60 Changch’ŏn Tomb no. 1 長川1號賁 depicts a man and a woman performing the five-pointed prostration (och’e t’uji 五體投地), a way of showing utmost respect in Buddhism.61 The rear wall of the Tomb of the Dancers (Muyongch’ong 舞踊塚) portrays the tomb occupant listening to a sermon preached by the Buddha, and an inscription in the Tŏkhŭngni Old Tomb in 德興里古墳 reports that the occupant was a “disciple of Śākyamuni” (Sŏkkamun cheja 釋迦文弟子). A wall mural in the Kamsin Tomb 龕神塚, in Namp’o City 南浦 in South P’yŏngan Province 平安南道 in North Korea, depicts a deity that looks like a seated Buddha image wearing a reddish brown robe and a crown. The figure is flanked by standing attendants on the left and right. The Changch’ŏn Tomb no. 1 also shows buddhas, bodhisattvas, apsaras (pich’ŏn 飛天), lotus patterns and other symbols depicted on the upper portions of the wall and ceiling. There are even depictions of beings born in lotus blossoms (yŏnhwa hwasaeng 蓮花化生), intimating something of a rudimentary understanding or belief in Amitābha’s Pure Land Sukhāvatī. However, some elements also seem to conform to the Sūtra on the Visualization of the Bodhisattva Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tuṣita Heaven (Guan Mile pusa shangsheng Doushuaitian jing 佛說觀彌勒菩薩上生兜率天經), which describes rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven as meeting or encountering Maitreya. It describes a variety of devotional and visualization practices as leading toward this goal and also illustrates something of the majesty of Tuṣita Heaven.62 Art historians date the Changch’ŏn Tombs to the fourth century, just when Buddhism was being introduced to Koguryŏ. However, there is little archeological evidence for monasteries and other Buddhist buildings until the sixth century. So, do these tomb paintings show a widespread belief in Buddhism or are they merely funerary motifs that do not truly reflect the beliefs of Koguryŏ nobles? Until more evidence of Buddhism in fourth century Koguryŏ can be found, in my opinion this material is tantalizing but not yet completely compelling evidence of Buddhist devotional practices.
The earliest extant image of the Buddha Amitābha on the Korean peninsula, a small gilt bronze Amitābha triad, is believed to be from the northern Korean state of Koguryŏ. It was excavated in Koksan County 谷 山郡 in Hwanghae Province 黃海道 in 1930. The inscription on the back of the mandorla illustrates the interactive relationship between the cults of Maitreya and Amitābha:
In the sinmyo 辛卯-year, the fourth year of the kyŏng 景 [reign period?], five bhikṣus and spiritual mentors (sŏnjisik 善知識; Skt. kalyāṇamitra) together commissioned one image of the Buddha Amitāyus (Muryangsu 無量壽) with the vow that their deceased masters and parents might always meet all the buddhas in their rebirths. The spiritual mentors, and so forth, vow to encounter Maitreya. In this manner we vow that we might be reborn together in one place, see the Buddha, and hear the Dharma.63
Although the name of the reign period is confusing, scholars are confident that it was cast in 571—rather than 631—because the buddha is referred to as “Amitāyus” in the inscription.64 During the Northern Wei period and succeeding Northern Dynasties this buddha was commonly referred to as “Amitāyus” (Muryangsu, Ch. Wuliangshou,). In the succeeding Sui-Tang period, the name “Amitābha” (Amit’a, Ch. Amituo 阿彌陀) appears more frequently.65 The inscription attests to the symbiotic relationship between the cults of Amitābha and Maitreya. The monks and believers who commissioned the icon apparently preferred to be reborn in the presence of Maitreya in Tuṣita Heaven, or at least to be among the three assemblies in attendance when Maitreya preaches the Buddhadharma in the distant future. However, that they made the Amitāyus image for the benefit of their deceased mentors and parents indicates that they sought to utilize Amitābha’s saving power to draw these people into wholesome rebirths. Rebirth in Amitābha’s Pure Land, Sukhāvatī (Kŭngnak, Ch. Jile 極樂), is not mentioned explicitly. Instead, those who crafted the inscription seem to allude to a deeper doctrinal understanding: After individuals are reborn in the Pure Land, they will eventually return to the cycle of rebirth and death as bodhisattvas and encounter all the buddhas as they work to liberate all sentient beings. However, what is implicit is the funerary context. In other words, the image was made to invoke the power of Amitāyus and Maitreya for the benefit of the deceased.
On the backside of the mandorla of an image inscribed with the seventh year of the Yŏnggang reign period (Yŏnggang ch’illyŏnmyŏng kŭmdong yŏrae ipsang 永康七年銘 金銅如來立像), which was excavated the P’yŏngch’ŏn Village 平川里 in P’yŏngyang in either 1945 or 1946, is an inscription that describes another aspect of the worship of Maitreya:
On behalf of our deceased mother we commissioned this image of the Honored Maitreya (Mirŭkchon 彌勒尊) for merit and vow to cause the spirit of the deceased to ascend to enlightenment, participate in the first of the three assembles of Maitreya (Chassi samhoe 慈氏三會), and awaken to that which is not produced, recollect the truth of the ultimate end, and attain the mental fruit of bodhi. If [the deceased] has sins, by means of the previous vow we will eradicate them all simultaneously. Those overwhelmed with joy together made this vow.66
Although the date is not completely certain, current scholarly opinion is that the seventh year of the Yŏnggang reign period probably refers to 551, the seventh year of Koguryŏ king Yangwŏn 陽原 (r. 545–559).67 More important than the date is the allusion to the aspects of the cult of Maitreya that seem to be relevant: merit-making, ascent to (understood as “rebirth in”) Tuṣita, attending the first of the three assembles in which Maitreya will reestablish the Buddhadharma, and the eradication of unwholesome karma.
Meditation Visualization and Pensive Images
How did Koguryŏ Buddhists utilize their pensive images? Did they use them in the same way as their Northern Wei, Eastern Wei 東魏 (534–550), or Northern Qi cohorts? Or did they conceptualize them as representations of Maitreya as some art historians have suggested? Most art historians have emphasized connections between pensive images (sayu, Ch. siwei 思惟) and the worship of Maitreya. Some have emphasized the importance of the Daśabhūmika or Sūtra on the Ten Stages (Shidi jing 十地 經) and its links to the Dilun school 地論宗.68 Others have emphasized passages from the Sūtra on the Visualization of the Bodhisattva Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tuṣita Heaven that indicate that aspirants should visualize the glories of Tuṣita Heaven and imagine themselves being reborn there.69
The Sūtra on the Visualization of the Bodhisattva Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tuṣita Heaven, which was translated by the Buddhist lay householder Juqu Jingsheng70 of the Northern Liang 北凉 regional regime in Western China in the fifth century, provides the best scriptural context for the use of pensive images in devotional or meditative practices. The sūtra describes several devotional practices for aspirants seeking rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven or for making other karmic connections to the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Toward the middle of this sūtra, after a detailed discussion of the characteristics, gods, goddesses, and other wondrous beings that populate Tuṣita Heaven, who can be acquired as one’s attendants if one is reborn in that heaven, the Buddha exhorts aspirants to pensively contemplate Tuṣita Heaven:
The Buddha spoke to Upāli, “If there are bhikṣus and others in this whole great assembly who do not despise saṃsāra [the cycle of rebirth and death] and would take pleasure in rebirth in heaven, who lovingly revere the bodhi mind that is without superior, and who desire to be disciples of Maitreya, they should make this visualization. Those who make this visualization should observe the five precepts,71 the eight prohibitions,72 and the full precepts; and they should make seminal progress in their body and mind.
“They should not seek to sever their attachments; but they should cultivate the ten wholesome dharmas. Each and every one should pensively contemplate (sayu, Ch. siwei 思惟) Tuṣita Heaven and the sublime joy found above. Making this visualization is called the ‘right visualization.’ Any other visualization is called a ‘wrong visualization.’”73
Then, toward the end of the sūtra, the Buddha once again describes how aspirants should pensively contemplate rebirth in the Tuṣita Heaven and transfer the merit from wholesome activities and observing the Buddhist precepts toward their desire for rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven.
The Buddha spoke to Upāli, “After the Buddha’s decease and deliverance, if those of the four classes of disciples,74 gods, dragons, ghosts, and spirits desire to be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven, they should perform this visualization, make a binding recollection,75 and pensively contemplate (sayu, Ch. siwei 思惟), recollecting Tuṣita Heaven. They should observe the Buddhist prohibitions and precepts and meditate on the ten wholesome practices76 and the ten wholesome paths to rebirth77 for from one day to seven days and take the meritorious virtue deriving from this and transfer the merit toward their desire for rebirth [in Tuṣita Heaven] in the presence of Maitreya and should make this visualization.
“If those who make this visualization see one god or one lotus flower, or if they chant the name ‘Maitreya’ for one thought-moment, these people will remove the sins of a thousand two hundred kalpas of saṃsāra. If they merely hear Maitreya’s name and join their palms in offering reverence, these people will remove the sins of fifty kalpas of saṃsāra. If there are those who revere and worship Maitreya, they will remove the sins of a hundred hundred-thousand kalpas of saṃsāra. In the case that they are not reborn in heaven, they will be reborn beneath the dragon flower [nāgapuṣpa] bodhi tree where they will also straightway meet [Maitreya] and produce the unsurpassed aspiration [to enlightenment].”78
The eminent seventh-century Buddhist scholar Wŏnhyo 元曉 (617–686), a native of Silla, further explains the significance and purpose of these visualizations in his Doctrinal Essentials of the Sūtra on Maitreya’s Rebirth Above (Mirŭk sangsaeng-gyŏng chongyo 彌勒上生經宗要), which may have been composed between 654 and 676. Wŏnhyo’s extant writings demonstrate a thoroughgoing understanding of Sinitic trends of Buddhist practice as well as intellectual endeavor dating back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, particularly with respect to his work on the Sūtra on the Visualization of Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tuṣita Heaven. In effect, Wŏnhyo is a product of the practical and intellectual exchange in Northeast Asia spanning the fifth to seventh centuries. Wŏnhyo mentions that visualization practices (i.e. meditative techniques; kwan 觀) and other cultic or devotional practices (haeng 行) both lead to the same level of rebirth in the Tuṣita Heaven, without relapse from the bodhisattva path.
Although he describes two types of visualizations, which appear to be meditations that only people with superior spiritual capacity, those who have aroused the aspiration for enlightenment and have made the bodhisattva vow, can achieve:
The first is to visualize the majestic adornments (Skt. alaṃkāra) of [Tuṣita] Heaven as the setting for rebirth, and the second is to visualize the superiority of receiving rebirth there as a bodhisattva. One concentrates one’s thoughts in a detailed visual examination (chŏnnyŏm kwanch’al 專念觀察) and so this [technique] is called samādhi. Nevertheless, it is not a [samādhi that produces] the wisdom of meditative cultivation, as it consists only of learning [about Maitreya’s heaven] and reflecting upon it (yujae munsa 唯在問思). [Even so,] it is still called the “Lightning-bolt Samādhi” (chŏn’gwang sammae 電光三昧).79
These practices are supported by three types of non-meditative practices that can be performed by people with inferior spiritual capacity, such as ordinary lay believers.
(1) Hearing the name Great Mercy (taeja 大慈; i.e. Maitreya) and repenting with reverent mind the transgressions previously committed; (2) hearing the name Merciful One (Chassi 慈氏) and respectfully trusting (angsin 仰信) in the virtues manifested by his name; (3) undertaking the practice of the ritual acts of cleaning stūpas and re-plastering them (sot’ap toji 掃塔塗地), offering incense and flowers, and so forth, as taught in a subsequent passage [of this sūtra].80
Practitioners who perform either of these practices, Wŏnhyo continues, will achieve spiritual rewards according to their spiritual attainments. He suggests that there are four kinds of results, which he likens to the growth process of a fruit tree: (1) the extinguishing of all one’s past transgressions, which is likened to sprouting fruit; (2) the knowledge that one will never again fall into the evil destinies of rebirth or develop false views, which is equated to leaves and flowers in the shade; (3) rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven in the presence of Maitreya is analogous to the blossoming of fine flowers; and (4) reaching the stage of non-relapse on the path to buddhahood corresponds to the maturing of fragrant fruit. Wŏnhyo says that people who perform the first practice only will receive the first reward, those who do the second only will receive the second, and so forth. To achieve the fourth reward, however, a practitioner must perform both the cultic practices and the visualization practices.81
Certainly, most Koguryŏ Buddhists (or Chinese ones for that matter) did not conceptualize their devotional practice in this manner, but some fervent monastic practitioners may have. Probably at least some Buddhists in Koguryŏ sought rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven by visualizing themselves being reborn there.
Conclusion
The ritual and devotional practices of Koguryŏ Buddhism probably had much in common with that of its neighbors in Northern China. Buddhism flourished in Northern China from the late Northern Wei period through the Northern Qi period. The Koguryŏ monk Hyeryang, who eventually took refuge in Silla and became its first saṃgha overseer, probably had connections with the flourishing Buddhist communities on the Shandong peninsula across the Yellow Sea. His institution of the Convocation for the Recitation of the Sūtra for Humane Kings demonstrates his familiarity with key Buddhist rituals of the time, the position of eminent monks in society, and the crucial role of merit-making practices among the Buddhist laity. His introduction of the Assembly of the Eight Prohibitions makes evident the importance of the poṣadha in Buddhist communities and alludes to a host of devotional practices associated with observing the practices.
Extant images and image fragments suggest that the cult of the thousand buddhas was relevant in Koguryŏ, just as it was in the cave art in Dunhuang, Yungang, and Longmen. Furthermore, the inscriptions on the few Buddhist images of Koguryŏ provenance are congruent with what is known about Buddhist devotional practice in Northern China in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. The images bear witness of the importance of the cult of Maitreya and its complex relationship with the cult of Amitābha or Amitāyus by individuals and religious communities. The inscriptions on the images indicate that rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven was an important goal for Buddhist monks and laity. Although rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven was an important goal for aspirants, an equally significant ambition was rebirth again on the earth when Maitreya comes in the future. Devotees sought to be on the earth when Maitreya preached the dharma in three assemblies. Evidence of these two aspects of the Maitreya cult are preserved in the sparse material remains of Koguryŏ Buddhism. Although the motif of beings born in lotus blossoms appears in Koguryŏ tomb paintings, it is difficult to know how well Koguryŏ Buddhists understood the doctrines associated with rebirth in Sukhāvatī and the cult of Amitābha. As is the case with Northern China during the time of the Northern Wei, the extant materials indicates the conflation of the cults of Maitreya and Amitābha.
The Sūtra on the Visualization of the Bodhisattva Maitreya’s Rebirth Above in Tuṣita Heaven describes the devotional practice of meditation visualization, a way of using pensive images to aspire for rebirth in Tuṣita Heaven in the presence of Maitreya. Images suggesting this kind of practice were produced in the Northern Qi period in such monasteries as Xiudesi. The Silla monk Wŏnhyo’s analysis of the visualization practices of the sūtra suggests that aspirants were encouraged to imagine themselves as being reborn in Tuṣita Heaven, and the pensive images might represent the aspirants themselves. Although I do not think that all practitioners of the cult of Maitreya in Koguryŏ imagined themselves as bodhisattvas seated in pensive form and as being reborn in Tuṣita Heaven, it is certainly possible that some did. Regardless, the many of the basic elements of Buddhism in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, including such things as the veneration of Aśoka stūpas, appear to have been adopted and adapted in Koguryŏ.
PDF Links
PubReader
ePub Link
Full text via DOI
Download Citation 
Print 
