Sem Vermeersch

Abstract In the summer of 1123 Xu Jing travelled on a Chinese embassy ship to Koryŏ. As the secretary in charge of ritual affairs, he was uniquely qualified to observe and record the details of medieval Korean society. He divided the work into 40 thematic chapters, each highlighting different aspects of Koryŏ, including its history, political organization, customs, food, local products, and clothing. It also includes a very detailed description of the travel route from Ningbo in China to the Yes

This article traces the legacy of Buddhist kingship in the early Koryo period. T'aejo (r. 918-943), the founder of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392), was keen to follow in the footsteps of Silla kings and use Buddhist symbols of power. He also set great store on attracting eminent monks, granting them special favors and titles, and overseeing the construction of stelae inscriptions to commemorate them. These inscriptions also feature the king prominently and illuminate his relation to Buddhism. Altho

Following the introduction of Buddhism to China, various strategies of accommodation with Chinese culture were developed, all amounting to some form of syncretism with Chinese religions, mainly Confucianism. Buddhism in pre-modern Korea displayed similar forms of interaction with Confucianism. This article aims to critique the notion that such interactions were merely forms of “harmonization”, finding common ground between the traditions. If one religion borrows from another or adopts the messag

In the course of the last twenty years or so, the field of Buddhist studies has finally shed its fixation with doctrinal issues, turning its attention to economic, social, cultural, and historiographic aspects of the tradition. This is especially true for the study of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, as witnessed by the appearance of a wide range of English-language scholarship that has virtually redrawn the landscape of East Asian Buddhism. The study of Korean Buddhism, however, still has some ca

"The king and ministers, superior and inferior, move with ritual and refinement. When the king goes on an inspection tour, everyone has the correct ceremonial attributes and the divine flag [troops] gallop in front while armored soldiers block the road. The soldiers of the Six Divisions all hold their attributes. Although it is not completely in uniformity with classic rites, compared with other barbarians it is splendid to behold. This is why Confucius thought it would not be a shame to reside

The concept of legitimation is very useful in conceptualising the relationship between religion and worldly authority. Virtually every religion in every society has in some way acted to legitimise (or delegitimise) temporal power. But herein also lies the limitation of the concept. It has been turned into a blanket term that obscures more than it reveals. In what sense exactly does religion assist someone who wants to shore up his or her authority against rivals? If a religious text sanctifies o

Abstract Historians of premodern Korea struggle with the apparent absence of any genuine archives. Although documents that are traditionally seen to belong in an archive have been transmitted, they are nearly all unique samples. In other words, they do not form part of an organic collection; they are random examples that somehow have been preserved. The term archive has become the staple of European history writing since the nineteenth century, when Leopold von Ranke turned to archives as the pr

The general consensus on Buddhism in the late Kory period is that it was corrupt and too enmeshed in political affairs for its own good. However, the main sources to support this view are the historical records drafted by Neo-Confucian officials, who were very critical of Buddhism. While there is no reason to doubt that corruption plagued Buddhism at the end of the Koryŏ dynasty, accepting this discourse at face value is also problematic. The purpose of this article is not to disprove this rheto

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This chapter studies the way Chinese Buddhist monks looked at their Korean counterparts, and how this perception of a Buddhist “other” changed over time from the beginning of the 6th to the late 10th centuries. This was the period when Buddhist exchanges between China and Korea were the most intensive. Throughout this period, a vast number of monks from peninsular kingdoms travelled to China and beyond; some eventually returned to their home country, but many stayed, and some left their marks on

본 논문은 불교 우화 <기로국>이 고대에서 현대까지 일본과 한국에서 전승되는 과정을 비교·분석하여 전근대 한국의 노인차별주의의 양상을 밝히고자 한다. 조선시대에 유교는 지배적 이데올로기였기 때문에 효는 신성불가침의 가치였다. 효의 보편적인 영향 때문에 부모를 해치는 행위는 상상조차 불가능했다. 다만 폭력까지 일으킬 수 있는 세대 간의 갈등은 인간사회의 보편적 현상으로서 고려나 조선시대에도 존재했지만 (《고려사》나 《실록》에서 수많은 부모 살해 사건이 기록되어 있다), 이와 관련된 구체적인 감정이 기록으로 남은 사례는 없었다. 한국의 경우와 반대로, 일본에서는 이런 감정을 조금 더 자유롭게 표현할 수 있었다. 노화된 신체가 부정(不淨)이라고 생각했기 때문에 노인은 사회에서 배제되었다. 이들은 특히 의례공간에 진입할 수 없었고, 심지어 노년출가를 통하여 가족과 분리되었다. 다만 중세 일본에 노년에 대한 태도는 부정적인 것만은 아니었다. 오히려 숭배와 혐오 사이의 “애매한 영역”을 차지하