9 BUDDHISM IN KOREA AND VIETNAM
9.1 An Indian Import via China
T
he culture~ of both Korea and Vietnam have long existed in an organic
relationship with that of their dominant neighbor, China. Both coun-
tries adopted the Chinese form of writing, which enabled them to par-
ticipate fully in Chinese literary culture. China's centralized form of
government bureaucracy served as a model for Korean and Vietnamese rulers,
with Confucianism providing the underlying ideology. Chinese models also
influenced their arts and technology.
Within this organic relationship, Buddhism played a paradoxical role, both
contributing to the sense of cultural unity and providing a focal point for dif-
ferences. Buddhism came to both countries largely-although not exclu-
sively-through China. As a result, Chinese schools such as Ch' an and Pure
Land, and cults such as the worship ofKuan-yin, became dominant. The in-
fluence was not entirely one-sided, however. One of the early Buddhist mis-
sionaries in China, K'ang Seng-hui (d. 280), was born in an Indian trading
community located at Chiao-chih, near present-day Hanoi, and received his
initial training in a Buddhist monastery established by Indians there. During
the fourth century, Chinese monks unable to go to India for Buddhist training
and texts would study in Chiao-chih instead. Korean monks wrote some of
the earliest Ch'an texts, and one, Musang (694?-762), even headed a Ch'an
school in Szechuan. Korean scholars played a prominent role in formulating
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