부산대학교 도서관

Living under the colonial rule of Imperial Japan, Great Seon Master Yongseong was the one who had a strong influence on the history of modern Korean Buddhism. Among lots of his achievements I investigated his Buddhist thought as described in his writings.Yongseong was born in the dark age of Korea. At that time Korea was under Japan's colonial government. He devoted himself to the movement for national independence. Furthermore, the then Buddhist monks were prohibited from entry even into the capital area as the result of the policies of pro-Confucianism and anti-Buddhism by the Joseon Dynasty. The Seon master made every effort to revive the Buddhism which had already withered away and to rectify the corrupted Buddhist community by purifying the colonial Buddhist tradition distorted by Imperial Japan. He newly started propagational activities through Buddhist scripture translation and wrote books as a movement for the revival of national identity. In the course of his activities for the national independence of Korea, he underwent various hardships like imprisonment, etc. So, it is needed to examine in what way and will he was able to have his achievement.After I intensively investigated the Imjonggyeol among his writings, I concluded that it was about the life and death which is man's most fundamental problem, the creation of the universe and life or death, and the afterlife, which were written on the basis of the Buddhist scriptures. Written in the Korean language, it is an abbreviation of the vast Buddhist scriptures. He composed it for propagational purpose, and that is why he condensed into it the core of Buddhism. His thought is called that of 'great awakening'(daegak), which is similar to the 'one mind' of the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana and the 'only mind'(yusim); and yet he embraced diverse practice methods including Ganhwaseon(Gongan Chan), Buddha-remembrance Seon, mantra of esoteric Buddhism, etc. Such integrated aspects show in a sense the characteristic of Korean traditional Buddhism.He particularly emphasized practitioners' strict adherence to the precepts while engaged in the Buddhist Reform Movement. The movement paved the way for the creation of the Jogye Order, the orthodox order of Korean Buddhism.