A study of Je-mang-mae-ga as the positive missionary song

Cho, Yong-ho

doi:​​​10.20516/classic.​2016.​34​.43

This dissertation was written for the purpose to suggest some problems that were unsolved in existing discussions about Je-mang-mae-ga and to offer solutions for them. I divided the problems by three categories: linguistic problem, logical problem, and situational problem. The solutions of these problems could be found in a new interpretation of the lyrics of it. The focus of this interpretation was a change in understanding of the listener. I thought that the listener of the song was not the sister of Wol-myeong(the author of Je-mang-mae-ga), but the people who participated in Cheon-do-jae(the ritual that guides the soul of dead person to paradise) and helped to go through the ritual. In the course of developing this thought, firstly, I opposed to an opinion that the letter ‘吾’(‘oh’ that means ‘I’ or ‘We’) had two references. In this opinion, while ‘吾’ referred to the dead sister of Wol-myeong in the fore part, it meant ‘I’(Wol-myeong) in the latter part. Instead, I interpreted it as ‘u-ri’(the plural form of ‘I’) that included not only Wol-myeong but also the people. On the base of this interpretation, Je-mang-mae-ga could consistently considered as a locutionary act from Wol-myeong to the people. In addition to that, I tried to establish a logical consistency of the interpretation of Je-mang-mae-ga by re-deciphering several problematic phrases. As having performed Ceon-do-jae for his sister, Wol-myeong aroused the people in the situation human limitation that they had to be trapped in Samsara(the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth). Furthermore, he suggested the truth that people had to trust the teaching of Buddha and rightly improve their minds for escaping from the repeat of Samsara. Eventually, it was Wol-myeong’s intention being projected in this song that, if people could go to paradise by practicing the truth, they did not only wander around Samsara but also could support their precious connections in the human world. At the point of this view, Je-mang-mae-ga could be defined as the positive missionary song of Buddhism.

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* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

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