Surukjea, one of the buddhist rites, is an illegality-expounding and food donation ritual to comfort the phantoms wandering in the waterside and land and the starving ghosts. It was held many more during the Joseon Dynasty than the Goryeo Dynasty, the...
Surukjea, one of the buddhist rites, is an illegality-expounding and food donation ritual to comfort the phantoms wandering in the waterside and land and the starving ghosts. It was held many more during the Joseon Dynasty than the Goryeo Dynasty, the Buddhist country. Futhermore, it was the only mandatory buddhist rite recorded in Gyeongjeayukjeon because the Joseon dynasty, fundamentally based on confucianism, was difficult to apply these Buddhist rites to social unrest phenomena. Conversely, during the Goroyeo Dynasty, there was the wide range of the buddhist rites against the social unrest phenomena respectively: natural disaster, chronic disease, and etc. All ages have several social unrest phenomena and the Joseon Dynasty is no exception. Thus, the royalty and aristocrats had to find alternative ways to stabilize their public sentiment whenever the social unrest phenomena rose.
Consequently, there was adopted Surukjea that possible to settle the complicated circumstances in different ways. Though the buddhist rite, the social unrest phenomena could be prevented from the way of Heaven for the dead, and it made sense of the propriety of Confucianism. Since then, the diversely executed Buddhist rites were mustered to Surukjea before the Joseon attempted to change it in the procedure and purpose adapted to the circumstances. It was that Surukjea was turned into a mourner of the Joseon. Even though the Confucian mourner of Gamoujea(the Family Shrine), enforced by the first king of the Joseon Dynasty, Taejo, was defined by law as carrying it out with Yangban(the noblemen), but it had trouble in actually implementing it. Hence, the Buddhist mourner was supposed to be used as the purpose of Surukjea was turn the way of Heaven into the commemorative rites for ancestors.
There needed the Buddhist temple for the execution of Surukjea with this purpose, and it was found the best Buddhist temple, Jingoan, located in Samgaksan(Triangle Mountain). The Jingoan temple built in Goryeo is founded by a special tie of the king of Goryeo Dynasty, Hyeonjong. Thus, it was flourished vigorously with the fully support a number of kings since Hyeonjong, and considered that it was chosen as the well-known temple because of being used to the public.
Since the execution of Surukjea in the Jingoan temple at the first in January of 7years of Taejong, it had been implemented total 48 times for the Joseon Dynasty until a leap month, April of 10 years of the dethroned tyrant King Yonsan. It is more than twice as the Joseon-led Surukjea in the Jingoan temple than it in the other place, recorded by 28. It was shown that Surukjea in Jingoan temple was implemented intensively, and it become clear that the objective was the government-led Surukjea of the ritual of the way of Heaven for the Joseon Dynasty, added keeping Gisinjea(the ancestral rites), Chilchiljea(the 49th day after death), and chucheonjea(the ritual of the way of Heaven for spirits) together at Surukjea in Jingoan temple under the great Sejong. However, the Surukjea implemented in the Joseon period did not have all of them. The Surukjea in the other place had implemented by several purpose: natural disaster, chronic disease, longevity, exorcisation, and etc. Therefore, it was the rite used extensively for the settlement of several social unrest factors.
The government-led Surukjea in the Jinjoan temple enjoyed a large-scale prosperity in the Joseon compared to the Goryeo period, but it was the particular purpose of the Joseon Dynasty for settlement and propagation of the Confucian mourner. It, though the buddhist rite, was forbidden to read the Buddhist scriptures and laid down a restriction on the rituals, for example, the particular order for the King was arranged, and Buddhist monks' role. However, the most reason for recognizing the Surukjea, fundamentally maintaining a policy against the Buddhism, was that the Buddhist rite revered more than 1,000 years was taken root in most people's inner life. Futhermore, the Buddhist rite could not be denied completely and reformation not be progressed at one sweep as the Confucian rite was not prepared.
What it boils down to is that the Surukjea of the Jingoan temple at the beginning of Joseon Dynasty shows the conflict between the Confucianism, a political ideology of the Joseon Dynasty, fulfilled through several systems and the customary Buddhist rites from old times.