“Uich’on and the Golden Age of Koryo Buddhism”

NCKS Colloquium Series 2010-2011:
Richard D. McBride II, Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University-Hawaii

“Uich’on and the Golden Age of Koryo Buddhism”
University of Michigan - Center for Korean Studies
4pm, January 12, 2011 - Room 1636, School of Social Work Building

Although Buddhism enjoyed privileged status as a state-sponsored religion throughout the Koryo period (918-1392), the religion was particularly prominent during the eleventh century. Not only were Buddhist rituals convened regularly, but the royal family spent vast sums of wealth on acts of devotion and piety, such as commissioning woodblocks of the Buddhist canon of scripture, which they believed provided temporal and spiritual benefits to themselves and the Koryo state. The activities and accomplishments of the Hwaom (Ch. Huayan) monk Uich’on (1055–1101) are representative of the privileged status of the Buddhadharma during this “golden age” of the religion on the peninsula: the compilation of a canon of doctrinal teachings of the East Asian masters, the reestablishment of the Ch’ont’ae (Ch. Tiantai) intellectual tradition, and renewed contact and interaction with the flourishing Buddhist traditions of Southern China during the Song dynasty.