Confucian Appropriation of Self-sacrificing Jakata and the Change in Perception

Lee Yoo Ra

doi:10.18212/cccs.2020..48.002

Jakata story based on the folk tales of ancient India features Buddha’s distributing charity and perseverance in his previous life. Among them, the self-sacrificing stories show us the extreme sacrifice of one’s body. The Jakata stories about giving someone one’s flesh are a big part of the whole Jakata stories. When it entered in China, in contact with Confucian culture, it created a new and interesting aspect. This paper examined the narrative features of the self-sacrificing jakata tales, and grasped the underlying desire and the nature of human beings, futhermore looked at the process in which Shāma jakata and Sujāti jakata were appropriated in the Confucian context. As a result, the flesh-sacrificing story, through describing a cruelly damaged body and cannibalism, stimulates the original fears as a human being and the desires for violating a taboo on cannibalism. However, because of this feature, the stories attracted attention for its charm as a story, but those elements do not fit with Confucian sentiment, so they change into different forms. The cruel contents are purified, and the ideal relations between father and son are emphasized. In this process 割股 filial piety stories, which is about cutting thigh flesh for curing parents, are produced. As 割股 stories get popular, in reality there are many filial piety to practice 割股, and 割股 soon becomes essential behavior as a filial son. Finally, 割股 pandemic has expanded to the medical field, so human flesh was officially recognized as the best medicine in the Tang dynasty. This series of streams means that the ancient Chinese perception of cannibalism has changed. The cannibal, which was basically savage, naturally transformed into a civilization.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (3)
열림/닫힘 버튼
REFERENCES (25)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[book] / 1975 / 『舊唐書』卷192 / 中華書局

[book] / 1955 / 『唐會要』卷58 / 中華書局

[book] / 1983 / 本草綱目 / 臺灣商務印書館

[book] / 1975 / 『新唐書』卷195 / 中華書局

[book] / 2001 / 六度集經 / 巴蜀書局

[other] / 禮記⋅曲禮

[book] 慧皎 / 1992 / 高僧傳 / 中华书局

[book] 葛兆光 / 1997 / 中國思想史 / 復旦大學出版社

[book] 김용수 / 2008 / 자크 라캉 / 살림

[book] 홍준기 / 2019 / 에크리(Ecrits) / 새물결

[book] 르네 지라르 / 2006 / 폭력과 성스러움 / 민음사

[book] 임홍배 / 2012 / 진리와 방법 2 / 문학동네 [서울]

[journal] 김지선 / 2005 / A Study on the Grotesque in the Zhi-guai(志怪) / 중국소설논총 / 한국중국소설학회 (22) : 57~82

[journal] 南愷時 / 2017 / 中國的割股奉親：絲綢之路的舶來品？ / 中國俗文化研究 (1)

[journal] 呂昂 / 2015 / 從捨身本生看佛教倫理中國化 / 五台山研究 (4)

[journal] 임명옥 / 2000 / 中國割股孝行故事小考 / 중국학논총 / 한국중국문화학회 (9) : 195~223

[journal] 程毅中 / 1991 / 敦煌本“孝子傳”與睒子故事 / 中國文化 (5)

[journal] 정재서 / 2009 / 道敎說話의 政治的專有와 民族正體性 ―韓ㆍ中ㆍ日 3國의 경우 / 도교문화연구 / 한국도교문화학회 (31) : 9~28

[journal] 정재서 / 2005 / A Comparative Study on Cultural Transformation of Eastern and Western Cosmogonic Myth / 중국어문학지 / 중국어문학회 (17) : 1~19

[journal] 鄭在書 / 2002 / 동아시아 문화담론과 성 - 효녀 서사를 중심으로 / 중국어문논총 / 중국어문연구회 23 : 281~306

[journal] 조남욱 / 2009 / A Comparative Study on the Theory of Filial Piety on Confucianism and the Dutiful Acts of Injuring / 유교사상문화연구 / 한국유교학회 (37) : 123~146 / 10.23012/tsctc..37.200909.123

[journal] 蔡偉堂 / 2004 / 敦煌壁畫中的睒子本生故事畫 / 敦煌研究 (5)

[book] Kristen Guest / 2001 / Eating Their Words: Cannibalism and the Boundaries of Cultural Identity / State University of New York Press

[book] Mark Edward Lewis / 1990 / Sanctioned Violence in Early China / SUNY Press

[web] / 동국대학교 한글대장경 / https://abc.dongguk.edu/

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status