Home Articles Abstract
Research Article

The Relationship with Song China in Buddhist Sculpture of the Goryeo Period

崔聖銀

Published: January 2003 · No. 237 · pp. 49-73
Full Text

Abstract

This paper investigates the stylistic and iconographic influence of the Chinese Buddhist sculpture of the Song period on Koryo Buddhist sculpture. In the Koryo period, official relations with Song China were inaugurated in 962 AD. Political relations between the two countries were accompanied by religious and cultural relations. In addition to exchanges of envoys, Korean merchants, monks and students visited Song China, and their frequent visits played an important part in the cultural interchange. Even after official relations between the two countries were temporarily suspended in the eleventh century, merchants of Song and Koryo continued to carry on trade.*br* Among extant statues, the rock-cut Bodhisattva image of Changam-ri (長岩里) at Ichon, dated 981 AD, shows one of the Buddhist iconographies popular in the Chinese Buddhist art of the tenth century, This image of a seated Bodhisattva wearing a high crown is quite similar to the ink-print image of Maitreya Bodhisattva at Seiryoji (淸凉寺), Kyoto, discovered in the cavity of a wooden Sakyamuni image which Japanese pilgrim-monk Chonen brought from China in 985 AD. Maitreya Bodhisattva is holding a fan called a Tang-fan, which people used to shoo flies. Fans here are most likely a sort of stylistic sinisization of the Nagavrksa (龍華樹) which each Indian Maitreya image of the Pala period is normally holding in its hand. He also wears a high crown with a small stupa in its center. A small stupa represented in a crown is also a typical symbol of Maitreya popular in the Pala period.*br* Another example that shows Chinese influence on Koryo Buddhism and Buddhist art is the cult of Priest Sangha (僧伽大師). According to the record, the Buddhist monk Sangha came to China in the early 660' s (T‘ ang period) from Central Asia. He became famous in China. and after his death miraculous stories about him grew, and being considered as an incarnation of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, he was fervently worshipped by Buddhists in the Song period. The cult of Priest Sangha was introduced in the Unified Shilla period and became popular in the Koryo period. Kings of the Koryo period paid a visit to Seunga-sa (僧伽寺) to pray to the Priest Sangha. The iconography of Priest Sangha of the Song period is a monk wearing a hempen hood. The stone image of monk Sangha at Seunga-sa, dated 1024, exhibits the close similarity between Priest Sangha of Song and Koryo, differing mainly in his hand gesture: the one at Seunga-sa raises his hand and spreads one finger as if pointing out something. This hand gesture is normally regarded as a representation of a discussion or a debate, as we can see in the seated Manjusri Bodhisattva image of Sokkuram Grotto. and is not seen in the Priest Sangha images in China, because the hands of the Priest Sangha images in China are usually covered with garments.*br* Beside the above-mentioned examples, there are many other unique elements of style and iconography of Koryo Buddhist sculptures which are closely related with Song counterparts. It will be worth mentioning that they show that artisans of the Koryo period did not simply copy Chinese style and iconography, but modified it into Koryo style to make a real Koryo art.
Keywords: 불교조각불상고려 조각고려 불상북송 조각대송관계미륵불상