BUDDHISM IN KOREA AND VIETNAM 2259.3.2 Son (Ch'an)
Pomnang (fl. 632-46), a Korean disciple of Fourth Ch'an Patriarch Tao-hsin
(580-651), is credited with bringing Ch'an to his homeland, although his lin-
eage soon died out. Other Ch'an lineages arrived later, becoming organized
into the kusan (Nine Mountains) system by the early tenth century. Almost all
were founded by disciples trained in the tradition of Ma-tsu Tao-i (see Section
8.5.5). In emulating their master's idiosyncrasies, these disciples soon found
themselves at odds with the five doctrinal schools. Frustrated by the obstacles
the schools placed in their way, some of them began mounting direct attacks
on their opponents. Thus as the Unified Silla dynasty drew to a close, Korean
Buddhism found itself radically split between textual study and practice, the
widespread perception being that the two approaches were irreconcilable.
9.4 The Koryo Dynasty (918-1392)
Under the Koryo dynasty, Buddhism continued in its cultic role as the state
religion, reaching a high point in its Korean history. The founding king of the
dynasty, Wang Kon (T'aejo, r. 918-43), regarded the Dharma as the founda-
tion for his rule and instituted an examination system for Buddhist monks,
modeled on the Confucian civil service exams, that provided avenues for
monks to become advisers to the court.
Perhaps the main reason for government patronage of Buddhism was an
unstable military situation that plagued the dynasty and fueled the perceived
need for supernatural assistance. The most striking monument to this per-
ceived need is the Korean Tripi taka. Around the turn of the eleventh century,
Korea was harassed by the Khitans, an invading tribe from Manchuria. Thus,
by royal decree, a complete canon of all available Chinese and Korean Bud-
dhist texts was compiled and carved in wooden printing blocks in hopes of se-
curing Sakyamuni's protection for the country. The project-utilizing more
than eighty thousand blocks-took two decades to complete, but had little ef-
fect on the ongoing warfare. The Khitan menace did not end until1218, when
the tribe was stamped out by the Mongols, who posed an even bigger threat
to the peninsula and actually put the Tripitaka blocks to the torch. In 1236, a
royal decree ordered that another set ofblocks be carved. Again, the more
than eighty thousand blocks completed in 1251 did not immediately drive
away the Mongols, although the country suffered less than many others from
Mongol depredations. Eventually Mongol power in Korea began to wane in
the 1350s, and ended altogether in 1381 with the downfall of the Yuan dy-
nasty in China. This second set of blocks has survived to the present, and in
the early twentieth century formed the basis for the massive Japanese Taisho
edition of the Chinese Canon.