Amitabha Pure Land paintings that amount to over one third of the Goryeo Buddhist paintings represent the hope and aspiration of Goryeo Buddhists for the Land of Ultimate Bliss. They are renowned both for the refined and sumptuous artistic beauty and ...
Amitabha Pure Land paintings that amount to over one third of the Goryeo Buddhist paintings represent the hope and aspiration of Goryeo Buddhists for the Land of Ultimate Bliss. They are renowned both for the refined and sumptuous artistic beauty and for the excellent artistic technique. The belief in Amitabha Pure Land is based on the three principal texts of the Pure Land tradition (K. Jeongto sambu-gyeong 淨土三部經): The Sutra of Immeasurable Life (K. Muryangsu-gyeong無量壽經), The Sutra of the Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life (K.Gwan Muraygnsu-gyeong 觀無量壽經, hereafter the Contemplation Sutra), and The Amitabha Sutra (K. Amita-gyeong 阿彌陀經). However, Goryeo Amitabha Pure Land paintings not only merged multi-layered and complicated Pure Land beliefs, other than the belief in the rebirth through Buddha Mindfulness (K. yeombul 念佛), but were also produced for various religious activities such as worship, ritual, and practice.
The Amitabha Pure Land belief of the late Goryeo dynasty was combined with Cheontae 天台 (C. Tiantai) Pure Land belief, which was based on the Lotus Sutra and triggered by the movement of the White Lotus Society (K. Baengnyeon gyeolsa白蓮結社), and with the belief in the Chapter on the Vows of Samatabhadra of the fortieth chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra (K. Hwaeom-gyeong 華嚴經). It emphasized the rebirth relying on the self-power through practice rather than the rebirth relying on the other-power through yeombul. The class aiming at the attainment of salvation through the self-power cultivation was the intellectuals with economic power, such as the royal family, aristocrats, local magnates, and clergy. The religious activities of this class, who had economic affluence and was able to delve into Buddhist doctrine, had a great impact on the production of superb paintings of Pure Land Buddhism for Buddhist rituals.
The iconographic origin of Goryeo Amitabha Pure Land paintings, mostly produced from the late thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries, is found in Buddhistm paintings of the Song dynasty, China. Mingzhou 明州 (Ningbo 寧波 today) of the Zhejiang 浙江 Province was the major trade-port between Goryeo, Korea and Song, China, where the Pure Land Buddhism was prosperous and Cheontae Buddhism originated along with the Hangzhou area nearby during the Wu-Yue 吳越 and Northern Song period. The Illustration of the Lotus Sutra, Amitabha Painting including Welcoming Descent, and the Illustration of the Contemplation Sutra of the Zhejiang area were transmitted to Goryeo, influencing the formation of the Pure Land painting of the late Goryeo period and laying the foundation for the Goryeo painting to develop its own style.
The Assembly of the Vulture Peak that is one of the illustrations of the Lotus Sutra is among the representative examples in which Pure Land belief combined with Cheontae Buddhism had an influence on its pictorial iconography. The painting visualizes the theme of attaining enlightenment through penance in the iconography ofthe Jeweled Pagoda and King Ajatasatru. Cheontae Buddhism and its belief in the Pure Land are also seen in such scenes of The Illustration of the Sixteen Contemplations of the Contemplation Sutra as Shakyamuni’s preaching, Buddha’s assurance of the attainment of Buddhahood, the rebirth of female devotees, and the nine grades of rebirth. The scene of Buddha’s assurance of the attainment of Buddhahood in The Illustration of the Sixteen Contemplations in the Saifukuji 西福寺 collection represents the belief in the attainment of Buddhahood based on the doctrine of the ‘One Buddha-Vehicle’ (K. ilbulseung 一佛乘) preached in the Lotus Sutra: that is all sentient beings will attain Buddhahood. The preaching scene in the upper section of the Saifukuji painting has its iconographic source from The Amitabha Sutra, but it can also be interpreted as the representation of the ‘Land of Eternally Tranquil Light’ (K. sangjeok gwangto 常寂光土) where the Buddha Shakyamuni dwells. The reborn souls depicted in The Illustration of the Contemplation Sutra in the collection of Daikōji 大高寺 are all represented in the image of bodhisattvas who have a halo, reflecting the Cheontae thought that understood all the reborn souls as bodhisattvas according to the doctrine of the ‘One Buddha-Vehicle’ of the Lotus Sutra.
The two Illustrations of the Sixteen Contemplations, each in the collections of Chion’in 知恩院 in Kyōto and Rinshōji 隣松寺 in Aichi-ken reorganized the pictorial composition in behalf of the contemplation practice of Cheontae Buddhism. This is a new composition that is not found in the Song and Japanese paintings and is based on the Goryeo Buddhists’ understanding of the interpretation of the Contemplation Sutra according to Cheontae thoughts by Tiantai Zhiyi 天台智顗 (538~597) Siming Zhili 四明知禮 (960~1028). The images of women reborn in the lotus pond in these paintings represent the salvation of women who had been excluded from the social and Buddhist salvation, which is a new representation made by the popularity of Cheontae Pure Land belief.
As the Illustration of the Contemplation Sutra visualizes the Cheontae thought combined with the Pure Land belief through its iconography and composition, the Amitabha Painting also reflects the doctrine that ‘only [my] mind (is) the Pure Land’ (K. yusim gwanbul 唯心淨土) through the practice of ‘restraining mind and contemplating buddha’ (K. yaksim gwanful 約心觀佛) derived from The Contemplation Sutra. The Welcoming Descent of the Goryeo period does not bring the event of rebirth in the Western Paradise into focus but visualizes ‘the image attained in the mind’ (K. simjung gamdeuk 心中感得像) to facilitate the practice. The Welcoming Descent was likely to enable the religious experience in which one attained in his mind the image of Amitabha descending along with his entourage, when he hung the painting in the west, contemplated the Buddha Amitabha, and wholeheartedly recited yeombul on his death bed. The Pure Land belief combined with Cheontae Buddhism is also found in the representation of Ksitigarbha depicted along with Buddha Amitabha, which is related to the episodes of the miraculous efficacy of the Lotus Sutra (K.Beophwa yeongheom-dam 法華靈驗譚) that tell even the sentient beings in hell can attain Amitabha’s salvation through the merits of copying and reciting the Lotus Sutra.
The elements of Cheontae Buddhism are clearly seen in the Illustration of the Contemplation Sutra and the Amitabha Pure Land, whereas those of Hwaom Buddhism are obvious in Amitabha and the Eight Great Bodhisattvas. The Chapter of the Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the fortieth chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra, teaches the Pure Land belief pertaining to the salvation of the Great Vehicle and the self-redemption, which expounds one will save all sentient beings, after meeting the Buddha Amitayus in person and receiving his assurance of the future attainment of Buddhahood. The Pure Land doctrine preached in the Chapter of the Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra was advocated by Jeong An 鄭晏 who led the publication of Tripitaka Koreana and by monks of the Cultivation of Meditation Community (K.Suseonsa 修禪社). This was in accordance with the Pure Land doctrine explicated in the Lotus Sutra and was shared by the aristocracy and clergy of the late Goryeo period. The conformity of the Pure Land doctrine between Cheontae and Hwaeom Buddhism is corroborated by such artifacts as the painting Amitabha and the Great Eight Bodhisattvas in Tokugawa Art Museum where Bodhisattva Manjusri holds a copy of the Lotus Sutra and as the dedicatory inscription of a Pure Land painting which is the excerpt from both the forty-volume Avatamsaka Sutra and the Chapter of the Parable of the Phantom City of the Lotus Sutra.
It is noticeable that the major patrons of Pure Land paintings of the late Goryeo dynasty were royal family, powerful aristocrats, local magnates, and monks. Their thoughts on rebirth in the Pure Land from the perspective of Cheontae and Hwaeom Buddhism were in accord and differ from those of the common people who pray for the rebirth relying on the other power through yeombul. They shared the idea of salvation that they themselves could achieve the enlightenment through their own self-power practices, not through the reliance on the Amitabha’s original vows, and further then they could save the sentient beings. They believed that they possessed‘the seed nature of Bodhisattvahood’ (K. bosal jongseong 菩薩種性), discernable from that of common people, and identified themselves as the rebirths of the upper grade who had the high capacity for enlightenment. This was in accordance with the ideology of the ruling class of the Goryeo political and religious society, and enabled the production both of iconographically peculiar and stylistically sumptuous and elaborate Goryeo Buddhist paintings in compliance with their belief and aesthetics, which are different from the Pure Land painting of Chinese Buddhism.
The Cheontae Pure Land belief based on the Lotus Sutra had an influence on the court Buddhism of the early Joseon period and the pictorial formula of the Amitabha Pure Land which was inherited into the fifteenth century. However, as Cheontae Buddhism was incorporated into Seon (C. Chan) Buddhism through the merger and abolition of Buddhist sects, and as the influence of the Cheontae monks, the painting of the Amitabha Pure Land also experienced pictorial changes. One of the most
conspicuous changes is the appearance of the Bodhisattva Listening to the Law (K. Cheongbeop bosal 聽法菩薩) in the Illustration of the Lotus Sutra who is seen in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, the scriptural source of Seon Buddhism, instead of such iconographies related to Pure Land Buddhism as King Ajatasatru. This tells that the iconography of the Illustration of the Lotus Sutra of the early Joseon period was separated from the Pure Land thought and developed its own iconography, even though the dedicatory inscriptions in the transcribed or printed copies of the Lotus Sutra of the period still show that Cheontae Buddhism was based on the Pure Land belief.
The Illustration of the Sixteen Contemplations of the early Joseon dynasty was also increasingly relieved of the influence of the Cheontae Pure Land belief of the late Goryeo dynasty. The Illustration of the Sixteen Contemplations attributed to the fifteenth century of the early Joseon period in the Hōrinji 法輪寺 collection reflects the Pure Land belief of the early Joseon dynasty when Buddhism was suppressed, in that the composition became so loose, that the iconography was omitted and reduced, and that the iconography of the welcoming dragon boat appeared. The scene of welcoming dragon boat symbolizes the rebirth relying on the other power. It is depicted along with the scene of the assurance of attaining Buddhahood that demonstrates the religious trend of the late fifteenth century when Cheontae Pure Land thought and the Pure Land belief advocated salvation through the other power coexisted.
Paintings of Amitabha Triad and Amitabha and the Eight Great Bodisattvas were still produced in the early Joseon period, but Welcoming Descent went gradually out of existence. This change is likely to have been made, as such Buddhist rituals as the ceremony on the deathbed held to pray for the rebirth in the Western paradise during the late Goryeo dynasty gradually lost its popularity and the faith in the other power relying on the efficacy of Amitabha’s original vows became popular. However,
though the Amitabha Pure Land belief advocating salvation through the other power was expanding, the Pure Land belief based on the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra still maintained in court Buddhism, as seen in the continued productions of Amitabha and the Eight Great Bodhisattvas. In addition, the Ksitigarbha belief combined with Buddha Amitabha became so popular that the iconography of Buddha Amitabha flanked by Avalokitesvara and Ksitigarbha was fixed.