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Understanding of Chapter of Pieun in “Samgugyusa”

Nayeong Kim 1

1성신여자대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

There has been an ongoing streak of researches to help understand the tales in “Samgugyusa”. Thanks to those researches, it’s been evaluated to be a great work to specifically present the Buddhist philosophical principles of Il Yeon, the author, and strike harmony of the practice logic towards Nirvana between facts and fictions. It’s also impressive to have few opposing arguments to the judgment. Despite those multifaceted studies on “Samgugyusa”, however, it’s also true that there still is lack of discussion. In particular, research efforts have been concentrated on certain books or intentionally selected tales, which means that not all the books and tales of “Samgugyusa” have received even attention. Thus this study set out to focus on the Pieun tale, whose discussions had not been brisk in relative terms in the researches on “Samgugyusa”, and examine what kind of roles it played in the organization of its overall meanings. The results were as follows: First, the Pieun tale as a succeeding story reflects Il Yeon’s Buddhist yearning to reach the state of Nirvana along with the public through the harmony of the secular and the sacred and the unity of nature, humanity, and Buddhism. And secondly, the tale-based symbols and metaphors were used to reveal that the priest author’s determination to propagate Buddhism would be attained not through Buddhist ceremonies and lectures but through the principle of the intuitive discernment of Buddhahood. Those results prove that “Samgugyusa” was a book of doctrines that stressed the practice of realization and the importance of enlightenment rather than realization itself and, at the same time, the practical type of propagation adopted by Il Yeon to spread Buddhist philosophy. As a result, “Samgugyusa” was a text where there was a match between form and practice.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.