[KS] response and art history question

[Andrew Logie]

Dear all,

Two things.

1) Buddhism and Dan'gun
Thanks for the useful responses (including some off the list).

Maya Stiller, yes, I like that approach and try to incorporate art history in the limited time of the lecture; thanks for those recommendations.

I would love to read Richard D. McBride's book on Silla Buddhism. Our library online has online access, which don't seem to be printable (I like working with paper copies so I can write on them).

Boudewijn Walraven (and John Jorgensen if he's on this list), yes, I saw the Jorgensen (1998) reference in Breuker (2010) and would be interested to read that paper/chapter. Again, I don't have access to the Perspectives on Korea (1998) in which it's contained. I wonder if anyone might have a PDF available. The final composite form of the Hwan'ung-Dan'gun myth is no doubt a Goryeo product but I wonder what Buddhist influence could be identified beyond the superficial naming of Hwan'in and Hwan'ung.

Perhaps I shouldn't give away my entire thesis but I think the interesting thing about the Hwan'ung-Dan'gun myth is its composite nature: whatever you try to label it as ('Buddhist' 'shamanic', 'folk', 'oral epic' etc) it isn't, but rather it's a perfect amalgam of an indigenously formed northern peninsula Goryeo worldview and obviously wasn't created overnight.

2) Art History question 
My current (temporary) office space is in the Classics department (what's left of it) and in the corridor they have some ancient Mediterranean pottery on display (see photos attached). I was surprised to notice that these feature very similar patterning to that found on Korean celadon and buncheong maebyeong vases. When I do my art history lecture, I've explained these as lotus leaves and geometric 'cloud' patterns reflecting Buddhist and Taoist influences, but if they're on ancient Greek pottery from a 1,000 years earlier, that probably isn't true. I'm surely not the first person to make this discovery, so what are art historians' views on this?

sincerely
Andrew L







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