Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies 불교학연구 ISSN:1598-0642(Print)

Beomnang and Shinhaeng are regarded as the two earliest disseminators of the Sŏn (Ch. Chan meditation) tradition of Bodhidharma to Korea, and thus occupy the highest positions amongst Korean Sŏn patriarchs. According to the traditional account, Beomnang studied in China under the fourth patriarch Daoxin (580~651), and upon his return to Silla, he transmitted the teachings to Shinhaeng (704~779). Shinhaeng visited China and is believed to have introduced the Northern Chan tradition to Silla. A few scholars have cast doubts on the veracity of Beomnang’s transmission because of the excessive time lag between Beomnang’s master Daoxin and Shinhaeng, but most have accepted the story at face value. However, an examination of the earliest extant record on Beomnang, the “Stone Inscription of Meditation Master Shinhaeng,” reveals that there is little doubt that Beomnang was the master of Shinhaeng; therefore, we cannot deny the fact that he traveled to Tang China, or that he transmitted Daoxin’s tradition. I have decided to investigate this unresolved problem once more not only out of a mere desire to ascertain historical facts, but also to reveal the lack of rigor in the approach and drawbacks of the analytical framework of current scholarship on the history of Korean Buddhism. It is my hope that this essay will motivate scholars to engage in self-introspection and reflect critically on the limitations of current scholarship. Most studies focus only on individual monks or single facts, and furthermore, fail to demonstrate an inclusive understanding of the general historical and cross-cultural context within which Buddhism developed. They concentrate on only a few sentences of the text without an integrated understanding of the issues raised by the topic, arriving at highly simplistic conclusions. These types of studies dominate contemporary scholarship, and we cannot help but indicate the incorrectness of such an approach and methodology. Available studies on of the relation between Beomnang and Shinhaeng demonstrate these problems of methodology. Misleading notions about Beomnang and Shinhaeng in extant works of scholarship derive from the inability to grasp the problem in the sources. The only records available today are the “Stone Inscription of Meditation Master Shinhaeng” (813) and the “Stone Inscription of Great Master Jijung” (ca. 893); each of them presents different facts. The former states that Shinhaeng first studied under Beomnang before traveling to Tang China, and upon returning to Silla, he transmitted the teachings of the Northern branch of Sŏn. However, according to the latter text, composed 80 years later, Beomnang sailed to Tang China where he received the transmission of the faith from Daoxin. The difference in content between the two inscriptions has resulted in confusion. Extant Korean scholarship has not delved deeply into this issue, and a rigorously analytical approach would have led scholars to clearly understand the textual differences between the two inscriptions. Instead, existing research has merely extrapolated a line of transmission of the Dharma. Today, according to extant records, we are left with no other option than to consider not Beomnang, but Shinhaeng as the person who introduced Sŏn to Korea around 742. From the time he returned to Silla to the year he died at Dansok Temple in 779, for 37 years he propagated the cultivation methods of “sitting in meditation and looking inward at the mind” and the “expedient means for attaining non-arising in Mahayana.” However, on the “Stone Inscription of Meditation Master Shinhaeng,” all facts relating to his activities have been omitted, and his transmission of the Northern line of Sŏn was not regarded as particularly important in the Silla Buddhist circles of that time. However, a disciple of his line of descent, Meditation Master Samryun, erected a hall 34 years later with his image, a stupa, and a stone inscription, which reveals that the Northern line of Sŏn was not interrupted but continued through his later-generation disciples. However, when this stone inscription of Shinhaeng was erected in 813, it appears that the Northern line of Sŏn had adherents not of Shinhaeng’s lineage. According to the “Stone Inscription of Monk Nanghye,” written by Choe Chiwon, Nanghye Muyom became a monk at thirteen years of age in 812　and studied for several years under Meditation Master Beopseong, who had visited China earlier to study the Chan of the Northern line which he would later introduce to Silla. However, Muyom was not content with Beopseong’s teachings, and instead went to study Hwaeom (Ch. Huayan) doctrine under Master Seokjing at Buseok Temple. Subsequently he visited Tang China and continued to study Huayan doctrine at Zhixiang Temple which was the main center of the Huayan sect. From this we can infer that Beopseong’s Northern line of Seon was unable to secure an independent transmission and identity, because it was unable to overcome its intermediate character in the process of transformation from the scholastic doctrine of Huayan to the Southern line of Sŏn. Moreover, around the year 800, the mainstream of Silla Buddhism was dominated by Hwaeom. Nevertheless, later on Muyom recognized the limits of a doctrinal system like Hwaeom, and converted to the Southern brand of Sŏn, just at the same time when Doui introduced the Hongzhou School in 821 from the Tang Dynasty, which belonged to the Southern line of Sŏn. When Doui returned to Silla, his teaching was to create a great stir in world of Silla Buddhism.