韓龍雲과 白龍城의 근대 불교개혁론 비교연구

Comparative Study on Modern Buddhist Renovation Theories of Han Yongun and Baek Yongseong

In his youth, Han Yongun absorbed the western modern philosophy such as Ideology of Natural Right and Theory of Social Contract by reading a book(『飮氷室文集』) by Liang Chi Chao(梁啓超) and On Liberty by J. S. Mill. Also, he saw the modern society by traveling around Vladivostok and Manchuria and visiting Japan. He advocated that the reformation of Buddhism should be accomplished by changing Buddhist priests’ idea into modern one through education and ultimately, Buddhism should be converted into modern philosophy. His renovation theory is well shown in Chosun Buddist Renovation Theory(『朝鮮佛敎維新論』). He recommended that there should be reformations in education of Buddhist priests, locations of temples and marriage issue of priests. According to his idea, the reformation of Buddhism could be made possible only when Buddhist priests switched their idea into modern perception. For that, he believed that the education of priests was the first priority. He encouraged them to adopt the western culture and institutions through general studies such as cultural and teaching studies and even studying abroad. Moreover, through his claim that Chosun Buddhists should perform missionary work in foreign countries, we can understand that he was well aware of how rapidly the international society was changing. He laid down that Buddhism could never develop as long as it pursued complicated ceremonial procedures and had to abolish the empty formalities. When it came to missionary work, he suggested to follow the developed foreign propagative methods. He also proposed to issue newspapers and magazines and publish the translated version of the Buddhist Scriptures. Furthermore, he emphasizes on the enlightenment of civilians through volunteer works. On the issue of priests’ marriage, he made a recommendation to the Residency-General insisting that they guarantee Buddhist priests’ marriage by establishing a law. However, this proves that he did not understand the true nature of colonist governor’s power and made a mistake of attempting to resolve the Buddhist contradiction using the power. Nevertheless, Han Yongun’s Buddhist Renovation Theory was progressive enough to suggest problems and alternatives about the general matters in Buddhism. At the same time, his renovation theory was too innovative to be adopted by Buddhist society. Nonetheless, it was still meaningful in that he proposed the direction that Buddhism in the time had to lead to. Baek Yongseong, who participated in the 3 1 Movement in 1919 as a national representative of Buddhists along with Han Yongun was sent to prison for 3 years. In prision, he saw other religious people read their own religion’s scriptures in Korean and realized Buddhists did not have scriptures to read. Then, he decided to start translating the scriptures in Chinese into ones in Korean after being released from prison. Discharged from prision, he organized a group called Samjangyeokhoei and launched the translation work. As a result of his effort, a lot of Scriptures including Diamond Sutra(金剛經) The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment(圓覺經) The Avatanska Sutra(華嚴經) were translated into Korean. Also, he marched in the van of movements for spreading Buddhism into the general public. Through the Daegaggyo Movement(大覺敎運動), he tried to propagate Buddhism to the public. Engaged in farming, he tried to practice the Buddhist priest who lives by both ascetic practice and agricultural production. He bought the farmland in Jilin, China and encouraged priests to be engaged in farming and practiced community life by running a farm called Hwagwawon(華果院) in Haman, Kyeongnam. When it came to priests’ marriage, he stood in the side of protecting the Buddhist discipline. At that time, while most of the Buddhist priests coming from Japan were having changed life, he lamented that Buddhist laws would be destroyed if the priests ate meat and became obsessed with personal profits.