Eunsu Cho

Modern Buddhism Late Chosŏn Buddhism Pure Land Progress-ive Party Royal memorial temple

Typical narratives of Korean history at the turn of the twentieth century list a chain of events with well-established causal relationships. These narratives begin with the opening to the West followed by attempts at a Chosŏn Confucian response and its consequent failure. This failure is then followed by a subsequent power vacuum leading to Japanese colonization and the advance of Christian missionaries, which, in turn, inspired a feverish domestic quest for progress and modernity. The late 19th century is characterized in terms of a “Confucian response to the West,” the early 20th century is described as being occupied with anti-Japanese activism, and post-war period is considered to center on social restructuring, guided by the forces of Protestantism and capitalism. In this linear and monolithic historiography, the place of Buddhism is vague and obscure. According to this reading of history, Buddhism was never able to recover from the long and harsh anti-Buddhist state policy of Chosŏn and was thus relegated to the shadows, virtually disappearing from the stage of Korean history for years to follow. In this paper, however, it is argued that the last few decades of the 19th century, when Korean Buddhism was modifying and restructuring itself against social change, can be thought of as the missing link between traditional Buddhism and its later development from the colonial period onward. It was at this time that Buddhist society began to change its religious and social outlook and to develop a new agenda, attempting to separate itself from the past and re-establish the identity of a national religion. An elucidation of the change of the modes in Buddhist practice, rituals, and social engagements will allow for the emergence of an alternative picture to the traditionally accepted view of Buddhism at the end of the Chosŏn dynasty as “dormant” and “invisible.”