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영어

In the article Ukmyon the Slave-girl Who entered the Lotus Paradise in the Samguk Yusa there are two main characters Baljing(Paljiin) and Ukmyon who appear almost simultaneously. Previous research, by failing to identify Paljin with Baljing, has caused Ukmyon to become the center of attention, thereby causing the greater part of this article to become a useless historical article where the context was self-contradictory. But suprisingly upon careful analysis, there are several leads in the Ukmyon article, and supporting evidence for this is found in the Keonbongsa Sajoek. Here the author will examine and synthesize these leads and draw several inter-related conclusions based on historical, narrative and Buddhist doctrine. Of the Amitabha Buddha invocation societies historically known to have been held in Silla society there were two. The first was held by Baljing at Wongaksa(Koseong Keonbongsa) monastery during the reign of King Kyeongduk(reigned 748-776), the second was held by Agan Kwijin, who lived near Kangju(Yeongju), and others at Mitasa monastery during the reign of King Aejang(reigned 808-815). At the time, Ukmyon was a slave of Kwijin and by secretly invoking the Buddha without her master's knowing, was able to enter the Lotus Paradise. That these two distinct events were woven into one narrative was because they were woven together by Buddhist narrative where, first, the first invocation society was a large ceremony large enough to be revered by and known to Buddhists of other areas, and second, that Ukmyon who invoked the Buddha sincerely was able to enter the Lotus Paradise was because the reincarnation motif where those who were not saved during the first invocation society were redeemed in the next existence and because Baljing who made this vow appears as the Goddess of Mercy. Such devotion to the Amitabha faith caused a reappraisal of Buddhist priest Hyesook, and that Hyesook's Mitasa monastery where at this stage, the second invocation society was held, was viewed as a sacred ground is justifiable. The Ukmyon narrative where even those sentient beings capable of sinning have easy passage into eternity has the Pure-land doctrine as it's foundation, and moreover the Pure-land doctrine itself was intended just for those common people and preaches that even women are capable of passage into eternity, and shows that Wonhyo-type popular Buddhism was being disseminated among the populace in the form of easy-to-understand narrative form. Nevertheless the dark aspects of mid-Silla society shown in the underside of these miraculous stories must not be overlooked. The message of the Ukmyon narrative is that a humble female slave prayed to Amitabha and entered the Lotus Paradise, but what made her enter the Buddhist sanctum was a 'heavenly voice' and it seems that before entering the sanctum she was hovering between life and death in the courtyard. If that is the case then, that Ukmyon was punished for neglecting her social standing and her presumptuous behavior seems closer to the truth. The Ukmyon narrative derives from the Buddhist establishment and if we remember that the intellectuals of the time were aristocrats and monks, we can on the contrary see the reality of that period through the Ukmyon narrative.