松廣寺의 高麗文書

Documents of Goryeo Period Preserved in the Buddhist Temple Song-gwang-sa

In the Buddhist temple Song-gwang-sa(松廣寺), located at Sin-pyeong-ri, Song-gwang-myeon, Seung-ju-gun(昇州郡松廣面新坪里), of South Jeonla Province, there are preserved many historical remains from Goryeo period, as many as ten items of them having already been designated by the government as cultural properties. Among the old documents there is the collection of King Go-jong’s royal instructions(高宗制書) which has already been designated as a national treasure. And of those documents not as yet honoured by such designation, there are three items of Goryeo period: No-bi-cheob(奴婢帖, a document on slaves) of the years of Chih yüan(至元); Su-seon-sa-hyeong-ji-gi(修禪社形止記), presumably of some time in the reign of King Go-jong(高宗); and Phags-pa papers(八思巴文書), that came from Yüan. In this article, the writer has attempted to introduce the former two items and to study the contents thereof. No-bi-cheob This item is an official document issued by Pan-jeon-li-sa-sa(判典理司事, equivalent to the minister of internal affairs today) in the seventh year of King Chung-reol’s(忠烈王) reign (1281, the 18th year of Kublai Khan of Yüan), approving the request by National Priest Won-o(圓悟國師), the fifth generation master of the Jo-gye Sect Buddhism, for permission to transfer the slaves of his secular home to the fellowship for the Khitan edition of Tripitaka(丹本大藏寶) at the Buddhist temple Su-seon-sa(修禪社). The papers are written in the I-du script(吏讀), and the facts contained in them tally with the correspondent records in such authentic histories as Go-ryeo-sa(高麗史) and others. Being the very oldest document of the kind, No-bi-cheob provides important data for the study of slavery systems in Goryeo. Su-seon-sa-hyeong-ji-gi. This is the records of inspection of the Buddhist temple Su-seon-sa. Surmised to have been prepared some time around the tenth year of King Go-jong’s(高宗) reign, this document contains, to begin with, descriptions of the position of each building and the structure as well as the measurements of each. Also contained are the texts of the inscriptions on the monument to National Priest Bo-jo(普照國師) and of the monument commemorating the reconstruction of Su-seon-sa, and finally the table of assesses d the temple. At its end the document has a signature which shows the inspection performed by the Sa-sin(司辰, astronomical officer) and the Sa-ryeog(司曆, the officer in charge of calendars), both of Sa-cheon-dae(司天臺, office of astronomical and meteorological observation). In addition, there is a sign in cursive style signifying the approval of the document, and the running style of this signature, being a singular one the like of which has never been seen elsewhere before, is worthy of serious research. The penmanship in the document takes after the calligraphic style of Huang Ting-chien(黃庭堅) of Sung China, and nothing like it has ever been discovered from the remains of Goryeo so far.