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A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea Mark A University of Hawai'i Manoa Kahualike UH Press Book Previews Fall 7-31-2018 From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea Mark A. Nathan Follow this and additional works at: https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr Part of the Asian History Commons, and the Buddhist Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nathan, Mark A., "From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea" (2018). UH Press Book Previews. 1. https://kahualike.manoa.hawaii.edu/uhpbr/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Kahualike. It has been accepted for inclusion in UH Press Book Previews by an authorized administrator of Kahualike. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From the Mountains to the Cities Contemporary Buddhism MARK M. ROWE, SERIES EDITOR Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Disengaged Buddhism in Asia’s Museums, Monuments, and Amusement Parks Justin Thomas McDaniel Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest Border Thomas A. Borchert From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea Mark A. Nathan From the Mountains to the Cities A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea Mark A. Nathan UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I PRESS HONOLULU © 2018 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 23 22 21 20 19 18 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nathan, Mark A., author. Title: From the mountains to the cities : a history of Buddhist propagation in modern Korea / Mark A. Nathan. Other titles: Contemporary Buddhism. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2018] | Series: Contemporary Buddhism | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018004208 | ISBN 9780824872618 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Buddhism—Korea—History—20th century. Classification: LCC BQ665 .N38 2018 | DDC 294.3/7209519dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004208 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Cover art: The recently remodeled Buddhist propagation temple Pulgwangsa, Seoul, 2017. Photo courtesy of Henry William Link and Hyunhee Lee. To my father Peter E. Nathan (1935–2016) Contents ix Series Editor’s Preface xi Acknowledgments 1 CHAPTER ONE BUDDHIST MISSIONS AND DHARMA TRANSMISSIONS 29 CHAPTER TWO SECURING THE FREEDOM TO PROPAGATE BUDDHISM in the Cities in Late Chosŏn 54 CHAPTER THREE MONASTIC REFORMS AND BUDDHIST PROPAGATION UNDER JAPANESE COLONIAL RULE 81 CHAPTER FOUR THE INFLUENCE OF POST-LIBERATION POLITICS AND POWER STRUGGLES ON PROPAGATION 102 CHAPTER FIVE BACK TO THE MOUNTAINS: Contemporary Korean Buddhist Propagation 130 CHAPTER SIX THE PAST AND FUTURE OF P’OGYO: Law, Religious Pluralism, and Lay-Monastic Recombination 143 Notes 171 Bibliography 187 Index Series Editor’s Preface IN THE FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BOOK TO SPAN the entirety of modern and contemporary Korean Buddhism, Mark Nathan has provided us with a groundbreaking account of Buddhist propagation. The question here is not, as some might have it, whether or not Buddhism has a tradition of missioniz- ing, but rather what a systematic and sustained effort to propagate Buddhism reveals about the transformation of the Korean Buddhist tradition since the start of the twentieth century. Nathan considers the legal, symbolic, and socio-spatial dimensions of propagation as well as its doctrinal and historical aspects. As he so clearly demonstrates, p’ogyo was not “an ancillary enter- prise,” but “one of the organizing principles for the creation of modern Korean Buddhist organizations.” By placing Buddhist propagation in the broader context of law, Japanese occupation, modern religious pluralism, post-war economic growth, and competition from other institutionalized religions, this book offers a magisterial and intimate account of twentieth-century Korean Buddhism. ix Acknowledgments I HAVE MANY PEOPLE TO THANK FOR the completion of this book, more than I can hope to mention in this short space. Because this project began years ago when I was still a graduate student, countless people have helped me along the way. My advisor, Robert Buswell, who witnessed the genesis of the book, deserves special mention for helping me turn my ideas into a dissertation. He has remained a supporter and a friend ever since that time, and I am grate- ful for his continued mentorship. John Duncan and William Bodiford also provided valuable feedback in those early stages of the project, and Gregory Schopen shared both his knowledge of Buddhism and his skills on the basket- ball court. Paul Nam heard more about p’ogyo than he ever bargained for, but our long-distance, late-night discussions kept me sane at the end. Sujung Kim was kind enough to obtain some materials I needed from Korea at a couple of critical moments. The project entered the next phase of becoming a book after I took a position at the University at Buffalo. I’d like to thank my colleagues in the Department of History and also the Asian Studies Program for their support throughout this process. I feel privileged to have worked alongside such a tal- ented group of researchers and teachers. Kristin Stapleton, as the director of the Asian Studies Program when I first started and then as my faculty mentor in the department, has been a steady and guiding presence in my young aca- demic life. I’m grateful to my two department chairs, Jim Bono and Victoria Wolcott, for their dedication, hard work, and protective instincts on behalf of junior faculty members like myself. A Humanities Institute Faculty Research fellowship, along with a College of Arts and Sciences junior research leave, generously provided me with the time that I needed to finish a complete draft of the monograph. I thank the editors and staff at the University of Hawai‘i Press for their help in bringing this project to fruition. Stephanie Chun and Grace Wen have both been a pleasure to work with and reliable partners in this process. Lys Ann Weiss carefully and skillfully edited the text. A special thanks goes to Mark Rowe, the series editor of Contemporary Buddhism, for championing xi xii Acknowledgments this project from the moment he first heard about it and for using his editorial talents to improve the revised manuscript in the final stages. I will be forever grateful to him for believing in this project and for helping to make this pub- lication a reality. In addition to institutional support, I also benefited from more informal conversations and exchanges with numerous colleagues and friends over the years. Ramya Sreenivasan and Rebecca French were two of my earli- est writing group partners in Buffalo. Rebecca and I worked closely together, with help from Rob Vanwey and Josh Coene, on a co-edited volume, and our countless conversations (and sometimes disagreements) about Buddhism and law helped me sharpen my understanding of the important role that law played in modern Korean Buddhist propagation. Walter Hakala and Jang Wook Huh kindly read and commented on drafts of the chapters, and their insights and suggestions for improvement were an enormous help. I also want to thank Hwansoo Kim for giving me several opportunities to discuss my work through events he arranged at Duke University with experts in the field, none more important for my work than he himself. I always learn something from Hwansoo, about Korean Buddhism or about life, and I owe him a deep debt of gratitude. Finally, the biggest thanks go to my family, for without them none of this would ever have been possible. My mother, Florence, who will surely cry when she reads this (and not just the first time), has always been there when I needed her, and her love has sustained me throughout all these years. I have dedicated this book to my late father, Peter, who passed away before he could see the actual book. No one in the world could be more excited or more proud than he would have been when holding this book in his hands for the first time. My brother and sisters have been another source of support and comfort, particularly since our father’s unexpected death. Spero Michailidis merits appreciation for listening and offering advice about all matters great and small. To my wife, EunHee, and my two children, Dylan and Sarah, I offer heartfelt thanks for filling my life with so much joy and love. 1 Buddhist Missions and Dharma Transmissions GIVEN THE GEOGRAPHICALLY AND SOCIALLY MARGINALIZED PLACE of the monastic community after centuries of official suppression and popular ridicule during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), the resurgence of Buddhism over the last century of Korean history seems every bit as remark- able as the meteoric rise of Protestant Christianity in Korea. The stunning growth of Korean Christianity over the last one hundred years has garnered considerable attention from scholars seeking to identify the decisive factors for its success. Much less attention has been paid, however, to the largely suc- cessful efforts on the part of the Korean Buddhist community to keep pace with Christianity’s growing influence in society. The fact that Buddhism has also managed to become an enduring part of the religiously plural environment of contemporary South Korea is equally deserving of analysis. Notwithstanding the long history of Buddhism in the peninsula, it was far from certain at the dawn of the twentieth century that the tradition would be able to secure a viable and legitimate place in modern Korean society. This book argues that a key factor in the effort to revitalize the religion was the concerted and sustained attempt by a wide variety of Bud- dhist organizations and individuals to systematically propagate Buddhism in Korean society.
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