Outline Lecture Eleven— and Silla Unification in

I) Political Developments in 7th century Korea a) The Three Kingdoms i) Koguryo in the north, Paekche in the west, and Silla in the south ii) Rise of Paekche ambitions in 660 C.E. b) Tang ’s Intervention i) Pincer Movement on Korean peninsula ii) Triumph of the Tang-Silla alliance c) Gradual Assertion of Independence under Unified Silla (668-935 C.E.) i) 676—pivotal year of full Korean independence ii) Benefits of tributary relations with Tang (1) Linked Korea to the cosmopolitan network of Eurasia (2) Gained first-hand exposure to workings of Chinese bureaucracy (a) Capital at Kyongju modeled after Chang’an (b) Office of the Chancellery (Chipsabu) (c) Provincial management

II) Buddhism in the Silla State a) Initial Entry of Buddhism i) Into Koguryo between 4th to 6th century ii) Entry into 6th century Silla (1) Attempt to gain official patronage in the Silla court (2) The Martyrdom of Icha-don iii) Buddhism accepted as a superior form of shamanism b) in 7th century i) Among the elites, esoteric schools like Huayan were more popular ii) Among commoners, devotional sects like Pure Land were more popular c) as Chakravartin i) Kingship modeled after Asoka as “The Turner of the Wheel of ” ii) Sending Korean monks to study in (1) ’s pilgrimage to India (704-787) iii) Commissioning Buddhist sites (1) E.g. Pulguk-sa as “Buddha-nation Temple” (2) E.g. Sukkuram as protection for royal ancestors

III) Sokkuram: A Case-study of Religious Syncretism through Architecture a) Construction of Sokkuram in mid-8th century i) Interior layout: hierarchical progression to the central figure of the Buddha ii) “Cosmopolitan credentials” iii) Power through “mathematically perfection” (1) Meticulous balance and symmetry in the layout (2) Evocative of a concrete, three-dimensional mandala b) The Persistence of Indigenous Traditions i) Function of Neolithic Korean sodos ii) Design of Sokkuram’s exterior mound (1) Amitabha Buddha or Vairocana Buddha? (2) Function as a “spiritual force-field” c) Residual Shamanism in Korean Buddhism i) Neolithic ancestry from Siberia and northeast Asia ii) Shaman-kings seen as intermediaries between gods and people (1) Descendents of the high-god, Chonshin iii) Synthesized shamanistic role with Buddhist notion of ruler as Chakravartin (1) Occult Buddhism had greater appeal than doctrinal Buddhism (2) The syncretic quality of Buddhism in East Asia