[KS] BOOK REVIEW> Bongkil Chung: The Scriptures of Won Buddhism (Reviewed by Jin Y. Park)

Charles Muller acmuller at gol.com
Mon Jan 26 22:32:23 EST 2004


[A book review posted on H-Buddhism, forwarded by Charles Muller]


Bongkil Chung. _The Scriptures of Won Buddhism: A Translation of the
WOnbulgyo kyojOn with Introduction_. Honolulu: University of
Hawai'i Press, 2003. xviii + 413 pp. Appendix, Chinese Character
Glossary, Glossary of Terms, Selected Bibliography, Index. $ 40.00
(cloth). ISBN 0-8248-2185-8.

Reviewed for H-Buddhism by Jin Y. Park (jypark at american.edu), Department
of Philosophy and Religion, American University.



           The Pride and the Agony of New Religion

_The Scriptures of Won Buddhism_ is a challenging work both in the
claims it makes and the translation it offers. The book consists of two
parts: (1) an extensive Introduction (pp. 3-109), which discusses the
history of Won Buddhism and its doctrines, and (2) a translation section
which includes a translation of _The Canon_ (pp. 110-160, the text that
outlines the major tenets of Won Buddhist teaching), and _The Scripture
of Sot'aesan_ (pp. 165-351), a collection of teachings of the school's
founder. Having grown to be one of the five largest religious groups in
contemporary Korea, Won Buddhism, which was founded in 1916 by Sot'aesan
Pak Chungbin (1891-1943), also has a sizable number of adherents outside
of Korea.

In Chapter I of Part One of the Introduction, Chung compares the
teachings of Won Buddhism with two other new religions that emerged in
Korea during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Tonghak
(Eastern Learning) established in 1860 by Su'un Ch'oe Che'u (1824-1864)
and ChUngsan'gyo (Teaching of ChUngsan) introduced in 1902 by ChUngsan
Kang Ilsun (1871-1909). The founders of all three religions viewed the
world in their time as spiritually degenerate and asserted that nothing
less than a radical change by a messianic figure would save the
world. Incorporated in the doctrine of these schools was the founders'
strong aspiration to renovate the current society. All three relied
heavily on existing religio-philosophical systems and the end result was
the development of three religions, each characterized by ecumenical
synthesis. In the case of Won Buddhism, within its system are included
Daoism, Confucianism and the newly introduced Christianity, as well as
Buddhist teachings.

While Buddhism played a special role in the creation of Won Buddhism, as
is explained in Chapters II and III of Part One of the Introduction,
Sot'aesan's awakening experience was not influenced by any
religion--including Buddhism. After his awakening, Sot'aesan reviewed
the scriptures of various religious traditions and realized that
"Ancient sages had known what I have come to know" (p. 39), and among
the teachings of ancient sages, Sot'aesan found that the "Buddha-dharma
was the best." He thus declared: "When I open a religious order in the
future, therefore, I will take Buddha-dharma as the central tenet of the
doctrine and incorporate other religious doctrines into it if they are
proper, and establish a perfect religious order" (p. 40).

Chapters IV, V, and VI describe Sot'aesan's activities in the process of
creating a new religious organization. It is notable that the first
project Sot'aesan involved himself with after his awakening experience
was the establishment of a Savings Union in an attempt to improve the
condition of the peasants. For the members of the Union, Sot'aesan
emphasized "such precepts as diligence and frugality, abolition of empty
formalities, doing away with superstitions, abstinence from alcoholic
drink and smoking."(p. 43) Sot'aesan also supervised an embankment
project through which the members of the Union created farmlands
out of tidelands. With the funds raised through the Savings Union and
the Embankment Projects, Sot'aesan began a new religious order which he
named PulbOp yOn'guhoe (Society for the Study of the Buddha
Dharma, pp. 50-51) in 1924, eight years after his awakening experience.

Chapters VII and VIII discuss the development of the new religious order
after the establishment of the Society until the death of
Sot'aesan. During this period, the major scriptures of the school,
including _Pulgyo ChOngjOn_ (_the Correct Canon of Buddhism_, 1943),
were published and basic structures of the institution were completed.

Part Two of the Introduction discusses Sot'aesan's religious thought,
which is also well articulated in the _Canon_ and _The Scripture of
Sot'aesan_. In various ways, So'taesan's religious order demonstrates
the characteristics of new Buddhism and its renovation-oriented spirit
which is also visible in some branches of Buddhism in other Asian
nations as a result of those societies' encounter with western culture
and modernization. Nationalism, secularization, and the blurring of the
demarcation between the priesthood and laity all became a part of
Sot'aesan's vision for a new religious order in which Sot'aesan hoped to
realize the core teachings of the Buddha and overcome the malfunctioning
monastic Buddhism in his time.

At the beginning of the _Canon_, Sot'aesan criticizes monastic life as
not "suitable for people living in the secular world" (p. 117). Under
that system, Sot'aesan argues, "the Buddha-grace, no matter how good
Buddha-dharma may be, cannot reach the numberless sentient beings of the
world." (p. 117) To make Buddhist teachings available to all people,
wherever they are and whatever they do, a renovation of Buddhist
practice was seen to be inevitable.

The idea of creating a down-to-earth approach to Buddhism is concretized
in several aspects of Sot'aesan's Buddhism. The first is the replacement
of the Buddha statue with the image of a circle (_wOn_ in the Korean
language), which Sot'aesan deems as a representation of the
_dharmakaaya_ Buddha; (p. 118, 120-123) the second is the interpretation
of the Buddhist concept of dependent co-arising through the "fourfold
beneficence" (K. "_saUn"_) of heaven and earth, parents, brethren, and
laws; the third, the traditional practice of precepts, meditation and
wisdom, is reinterpreted into the "threefold practice" (K. _samhak_) of
"mindful karmic action (_`siila_), spiritual cultivation (_samaadhi_),
and inquiry into facts and principles (_praj~naa_)." (p. 116) In
summary, Sot'aesan's goal was "to reform some part of the doctrine and
the system without altering the central tenets of Buddha-dharma so that
the Buddhism of the few should be that of the general populace, and so
that partial practice should become complete practice." (p. 174)

_The Scriptures of Won Buddhism_ provides scholars and practitioners a
rare opportunity to read a primary Korean Buddhist text in English.  The
Korean language used in two scriptures of Won Buddhism translated by
Chung contains expressions derived from Classical Chinese whose meaning
is not always clear even to the readers of the Korean language.
Employing his decades-long familiarity with Won Buddhist literature
combined with his scholarship in Buddhist philosophy, Chung has brought
clarity to his English rendering of the Won scriptures.

The value of this book, however, is not limited to the making available
of this translation. In the Introduction and the Appendix (pp. 353-356)
Chung makes a strong argument on the issue that has long been
controversial among the scholars of Won Buddhism. The issue is
deceptively simple: Is Won Buddhism really "Buddhism," or a new folk
religion? Chung directly confronts this issue, claiming that Won
Buddhism should be understood as a new Buddhism and that two changes in
the history of Won Buddhism have caused confusion about the identity of
the school. 

The first is the change of the school's name from PulbOp
yOn'guhoe (The Society for the Study of Buddha-dharma) to Won Buddhism
in 1947 (pp. 3, 4, 70). The second is the redaction of the 1943 edition
of the _Pulgyo chOngjOn_ (_The Correct Canon of Buddhism_) in the 1962
edition of _ChOngjOn_ (_the Canon_) in which the Buddhist color in the
original _Canon_ was diluted and the relation between the school and
Buddhism became obscure. Chung identifies five places where revisions
were made when the 1962 version of the _Canon_ was created and restores
them in his translation, which he claims as "absolutely necessary for
the soundness of its doctrine" (p. 356).

In support of his claim that Won Buddhism is a new Buddhism, Chung
foregrounds the Mahaayaana elements visible in Won Buddhist doctrines
such as the concept of the _dharmakaaya_ Buddha (pp. 71-72), the mind in
the _Awakening of Faith_ as the foundation of the "noumenal nature of
IrwOn," (pp. 75-76), and discusses the truth of _IrwOnsang_ in the
context of the Zen discourse of emptiness. (pp. 77-78)

Following this line of argument I wonder to what extent Chung has taken
into consideration Sot'aesan's vision of Buddhism in the context of Buddhist reform
movements in Korea during the first half of the twentieth century, which
could further support his claim.  Sot'aesan was not the only figure who
gave voice to the necessity for Buddhist reforms in his time. His
reformist ideas are very much in line with those of other Buddhist intellectuals
of the period, including Han Yongun (1879-1944), KwOn Sangno
(1879-1965), and Pak HanyOng (1870-1948), all of whom
voiced the necessity for a radical change in Korean Buddhism. Yi
NUnghwa's lay Buddhist movement, Paek YongsOng's emphasis on the
translation of Buddhist scriptures in Chinese characters into vernacular
Korean, and Pak HanyOng's effort for mass proselytizing share such a
spirit as well.[1] 

What distinguishes Sot'aesan's reform from others was
that he created a new religious order, whereas the attempts at reform
carried out by others were done within the parameters of the traditional
order of Korean Buddhism. This constitutes a major difference. For some
reason, Chung does not touch upon this issue and limits the context of
Buddhism at the time of the establishment of Sot'aesan's new religion to
the encounter between Korean Buddhism and Japanese colonialism
(p. 9-10).

Also, questions may be raised regarding the scope of the restoration
Chung made in this book. This is because revisions made in the 1962
version were not limited to the five sections Chung restored in his
translation.  One major revision entailed the almost complete removal of
the first chapter of the 1943 edition, in which Sot'aesan critically
diagnoses the situation of Buddhism in Korea and offers his vision for
the reform of Korean Buddhism.  By highlighting this aspect of
redaction, Chung could have clarified the nature of Buddhism in
Sot'aesan's new religion.  In the 1962 version, messages from this
redacted chapter are scattered in _The Canon_ and _The Scriptures of
Sot'aesan_.  Since Chung's translation is not a complete restoration of
the 1943 edition, to some readers it could be understood as yet an
another hermeneutic endeavor, which locates his translation in between
the 1943 and 1962 editions.

That said, by identifying the source of confusion on the identity of the
school, Chung has shed much new light on the discussion of Won Buddhism.
Regardless of one's position on this issue, Chung's claim brings our
attention to the complexity that is involved in the identity formation
of a new religion.  If the renovation of the tradition is one major
feature of Won Buddhism, and at the same time--as Chung shows in his
book--the school is a visible descendant of Mahaayaana Buddhism, these
problems concerning the school's identity seem to be part and parcel of
its life as a new religion, rather than being matters that can, or
should be neatly resolved.

The significant degree of success that Won Buddhism has experienced
within less than a hundred years, together with its renovative spirit,
has provided scholars a model case of a new Buddhism. For Buddhist
practitioners, it has provided an alternative to the traditional forms of
Buddhism. Bongkil Chung demonstrates solid scholarship in _The
Scriptures of Won Buddhism_, provoking diverse issues involved in new
religion.  The publication of this book is also timely, considering the
increasing interest in the transformation of Buddhism in modern and
contemporary Asia.[2]  _The Scriptures of Won Buddhism_ will be invaluable
material to Buddhist scholars interested in modern Korean Buddhism, new
Buddhist movements, Buddhism and modernity, and Buddhism and gender,
among others.

----------------------------------

Notes

[1] For a discussion on this issue see Kim KyOngjip, _Han'guk pulgyo
kyehyOkron yOn'gu_ [_Studies on the Reformation of Korean Buddhism_]
(Seoul, Korea: Chin'gakjong jonghak yOn'gusil, 2001).

[2] See for example Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish, eds., _Buddhism
in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient Tradition_ (Oxford, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2003) which contains a chapter on Won
Buddhism contributed by Bongkil Chung with a title, "Won Buddhism: The
Historical Context of Sot'aesan's Reformation of Buddhism for the Modern
World," pp. 143-167.


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