During the Chosŏn period (1392-1910), from 1392 to the 1850s, Korean Buddhism was isolated from the Buddhism of China and Japan by a cordon surrounding the country instituted by the Chosŏn court to prevent Buddhism influencing the Korean population any further. This meant no Buddhist texts or materials were imported, with the exception of a few texts imported by the court in the 1450s to be used to write biographies of the Buddha. The only examples of texts successfully introduced from China were the Shishi yuanliu printed in the seventeenth century and texts salvaged from a Chinese ship sending parts of the Jiaxing Tripitaka, probably from Kaiyuan Monastery in Quanzhou to the Chinese expatriate community in Nagasaki, that was wrecked off the southwest Korean coast in 1681. Although even the king was not allowed a detailed reading of the texts that arrived in 1681, and an entire Tripitaka from a ship marooned in 1637 was quarantined from all readers, Paeg'am Sŏngch'ong (1631-1700) soon gathered over 400 fascicles from the 1681 shipwreck, and printed a number of texts that stimulated the study of Hwaŏm thought and contributed to the development of the Korean monastic educational curriculum that is still used to this day.
1. The Political and Ideological Background to the Prohibition on Importation of Buddhist Texts 158 2. Buddhist Texts and Diplomacy in the Yongle Reign 161 3. The Search for Buddhist Texts and Printing Buddhist Texts in the Reign of King Sŏngjong and the Problem of the Shishi yuanliu 165 4. The Ghost Ship Tripitaka of 1637 171 5. The 1681 Shipwreck and Sŏngch’ong 177 6. Sŏngch’ong’s Activities and Their Influence on Korean Buddhism 189 7. Conclusion 201 Bibliography 204
