James H. Grayson

Cultural transmission proof of antiquity auspicious omens cultural equality

The transmission of Buddhism into Korea in the fourth and fifth centuries led to an initial period of conflict between traditional Korean religious practices and Buddhism as a missionary world religion. There were various ways in which this conflict with traditional practices was resolved—through the repetition of tales of martyrdom and faithfulness to Buddhism, through the emphasis on the filiality of Buddhist adherents to their parents, and through the telling of tales affirming that Buddhism, in a previous age, had been a pre-existent religion in Korea, although now forgotten by the time of the telling of the tale. In this article, the latter phenomenon is examined. Several ancient and modern Korean tales describe the unearthing of Buddhist monuments and statues to affirm a Buddhist presence in the land prior to contemporary times (the time of the tale). This tradition of affirming the antiquity of Buddhism through the digging up of relics was a well-established tradition in pre-T’ang China which arose to demonstrate that the advent of Buddhism did not represent the intrusion of a foreign religion. Four Korean tales from the Samguk yusa belonging to this genre are presented along with some of the Chinese precedents for the tale type, which are discussed in the general context of the transmission of religion from one culture to another.