조선후기 민간의 불교문화: 불승(佛僧), 단신(檀信), 제장(祭場) = Popular Buddhist Culture in late Joseon: Monks, Devotees, and Ritual Place

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper attempts to understand how Buddhist culture could keep surviving and prevailing in popular society of the late Joseon period. In order to explain the cultural durability and adaptability of Buddhism in late Joseon, I will pay attention to three aspects: religious specialists(佛僧), believers(檀信), and religious place(祭場). Firstly, despite the fact that Buddhist suffered from religious suppression by Confucian, some monks who led monk soldiers against the Japanese invaders were officially ritualized as a national loyalist monk. But other monks who weakened and superseded the then kingship were executed on charges of treason against the Yi dynasty but were finally worshiped as a deity for the masses. In-between national and popular dimension, religious influence and leadership of Buddhist monks remained undiminished in the late Joseon period. Second, religious clients of Buddhism in late Joseon were composed of all social stratum from royal family to lower class. The Buddhist devotees burned with religious passion as well as gave financial support to Buddhist society and culture. Especially, self activities of temple fraternities had Buddhism overcome the tremendous religious and economic difficulties. Lastly, Buddhist temples and shrines invigorated the popular spirituality and faith in late Joseon. Statistically, as compared to the situation of the early Joseon period, the total number of extant Buddhist temple increased in latter half of Joseon dynasty. Most of great temples went down but small temples grew steadily. In spite of the gloomy atmosphere, surviving temples met properly the devotees` religious demands. For example, to match the masses` religious expectations, San-shin-gak(山神閣, mountain-god shrine) or Chil-seong-gak(七星閣, seven stars shrine) began to build around the 17th century, and became more common into the 19th century.