부산대학교 도서관

Defender of the nation(sk. rāṣṭrapāla) as Buddhist concept was a shared interest in countries of East Asia, China, Korea and Japan. Such kind of Buddhist Concept is derived from mainly three parts of protecting scriptures(sk. rāṣṭrapāla-sūtra), namely, 'the Scripture for Humane Kings'(sk. narendra-rāja), ‘Golden Light Sutra’(sk. Suvarṇa-prabhāsottama sūtra) and ‘Lotus Sutra’(sk. Saddharmapuṇḍarῑka -sūtra). That is called especially ‘the protecting scriptures’ in Buddhist tradition of East Asia. Among them, the concept of a straightforward and direct way is explained in ‘the Scripture for Humane Kings’ and ‘Golden Light Sutra’. However, such ‘protecting scriptures’ are not much comprehensively examined for defender of the nation as a major Buddhist concept. Futhermore, ideological basis of defender of the nation is not attempted in critical analysis and in result, research works of this topic is also released. This paper is aware of the issue and examined comprehensively such three parts of major Buddhist scriptures, moreover, traced in context of early Buddhist scriptures. Concept of defender of the nation in Buddhist scriptures are not in dimension of exclusionary and aggressive nationalism as a whole. It is devise for checking moral degeneration of royal power. Because the people's suffering was mostly from corruption and moral degeneration of royal power in ancient times. That is why, this way was moral instruction of the sovereign concerns about the stability of people. In concluding remark, concept of defender of the nation in Buddhist scriptures can be said one of the cleverness in expedient of Buddhist teaching. Essential meaning of defender of the nation in Buddhist scriptures points to the code of practice of higher knowledge.