288 pol vanden broucke and sem vermeersch
and built a temple, called Sinch’ung Pongsöng-sa.^68 When
the temple was nished, a song was heard in the sky:
Because the king has built a temple, I am released from my suffering and
reborn in heaven.
My hatred has vanished.(Some sources include this event in the biography of Chinp’yo ,^69
but this is a mistake.)
The Chörwön-tang was built on the place where [this] song
[was heard]. The hall and the temple still exist.
Before this, after Milbon, there was a high monk called Myöngnang.^70
He entered the Dragon Palace^71 and obtained the divine seal (what
is called mudr^72 in Sanskrit, is called sinin “divine seal” in this
[country]). For the rst time he founded [a temple] in the Sinyurim
forest (now Ch’ö nwang-sa )^73 and offered numerous
prayers against invasions from neighbouring countries.
Now, preceptor [Wang] transmits the essence of [Shan]Wuwei [sanzang]
[ ] [ ]. He travels throughout the dusty world, saving and
guiding people. At the same time, he builds temples and eliminates
resentment with his knowledge of the former existences. The esoteric
doctrine is ourishing. The Ch’ongji-am 74 on Ch’önma[-san]
(^68) A temple which was located in Kyöngju, Söngdong-dong. See Yi 1996, pp.
265–266 s.v. 69 Pongsöng-sa.
The story in the Samguk yusa, titled Chinp’yo chön kan (Chinp’yo Transmits the Tab-
lets), in part 5 of vol. 4. See HPC, vol. 6, pp. 350a20–351b9. See also the subsequent
story, titled Kwandong P’ung-ak Paryönsu sökki (The Record on Stone of the Paryönsu
Temple on Mt. P’ung-ak in Kwandong), 70 HPC, vol. 6, pp. 351b10–352c7.
This passage probably belongs to the next story, “Myöngnang’s Divine Seal”;
see below. 71
Dragons play a conspicuous role in protecting the Buddhist religion in the early
stages of its development in Silla. As they appear not only in the Indian Buddhist tradi-
tion, but also in Chinese and Korean legends and folklore, albeit in different roles, they
provided an ideal vehicle to introduce a new tradition. The association of dragons with
water stems from the Chinese tradition, so it is not surprising to nd them protecting
and aiding Korean monks who traversed the sea to nd the Law in China. Visits to
the Dragon Palace under the sea, a recurring motif in the biographies of monks, are
also commonly seen in later folk narrations. See below, note 81. 72
Transcribed munduru. See below, note 132, and also p. 296 for more evi-
dence that this is a transcription of mudr and that it is here used not in its standard
sense of hand gesture, but rather in the sense of a seal on which the name of a Buddha
is engraved and which is endowed with magical properties. 73
See below, note 130.
(^74) The term ch’ongji (Chin. zongchi), “all-retaining”, is a Sino-Korean translation for