Neo-Confucianism; 佛教與儒家=儒佛會通=Buddhism and Confucianism; 韓國佛教=朝鮮佛教=Korean Buddhism=Choson Buddhism; 韓國佛教=朝鮮佛教=Korean Buddhism=Choson Buddhism
摘要
The Choson Kingdom in Korea (1392-1910) was dominated intellectually, politically, and religiously by an ultra-orthodox adherence to Neo-Confucianism. It stood in sharp contrast to the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392) which preceded it, in which there was a non-exclusive adherence to both Buddhist and Confucian values. In trying to understand the nature of the shift in values between these two periods and what it meant in terms of a long history where Confucian and Buddhist values were not viewed as contradictory, this study focuses on the chief means used to establish that orthodoxy, the polemical literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Previous scholarship on the topic is flawed in that it does not critically evaluate the historigraphic materials for the period, assumes a monolithic view of Buddhism and Confucianism as separate traditions in the peninsula that dominate or are dominated by each other, and concludes, with the polemicist reformers, that Buddhism was easily replaced by Neo-Confucianism because it had become morally and intellectually degenerate.
This study corrects those flaws by analyzing how Confucian and Buddhist values were first appropriated, understood, and functioned in Korea before the advent of Neo-Confucianism (Chapter I). It shows how Neo-Confucianism in China was itself a product of anti-Buddhist polemics, even while it professed to be a recovery of pre-Buddhist truth (Chapter II-1). When the Koreans were introduced to and adopted Neo-Confucianism, they focused on the anti-Buddhist attitudes of that tradition and thus changed their own understanding of the meaning of Confucian and Buddhist values in Korea (Chapter II-2). That new understanding, expressed in polemical memorials and treatises, was used by Korean literati to "reform" the national polity and when unsuccessful, was used to justify the overthrow of the Koryo dynasty (Chapter III). With the establishment of the new dynasty, those reformers who had backed the dynastic founder used their privileged status to disestablish Buddhism, economically, politically, intellectually, and religiously and replace Buddhist institutions with national institutions dedicated solely to the dissemination of the Confucian values, exclusively conceived (Chapter IV). The study ends with a summary of the main points presented in the previous chapters and the meaning of the issues raised by the polemical literature for the understanding of Korean religion within the context of the study of religion (Chapter V).
目次
Introduction Chapter I. Confucianism and Buddhism in the Three Kingdoms and Early-Mid Koryo Periods II. Confucian Exclusivism in China and Korea III. The Beginnings of Anti-Buddhism IV. The Elimination of Buddhism in the Early Choson Period and the Establishment of Orthodoxy V. Conclusion
