. early esoteric buddhism in korea 577
Milbon, including his persona, constitutes what may be seen as stereo-
typical for a Buddhist thaumaturge, in effect a template, and as such
fits nicely with standard accounts of other monks found in compi-
lations of the “accounts of great monks” type (see Kieschnick 1997,
67–111). In order to give an idea of how the SGYS has constructed
the image of this particular Esoteric Buddhist wonder worker, we shall
give a full translation of the section in question as follows:
Queen Sŏndŏk [called] Tŏkman had become terminally ill. The monk
Pŏpch’ŏk from Hŭngryŏn Temple was ordered to stop the disease, but
after [having tried for] a long time, there was no result. At that time
there was the dharma master Milbon, whose virtuous cultivation was
known in the land and praised everywhere. The queen ordered that he
be invited to enter the palace. [However, Mil-] Pon remained outside the
royal palace, where he recited the Bhaiṣajyaguru sūtra. Having recited
the entire text, he threw a wand with six rings into the [queen’s] bed-
chamber, where it penetrated an old fox and Pŏpch’ŏk. He [then] threw
them into the courtyard, whereupon the queen’s disease was cured. At
that time there issued forth five-colored spiritual rays from the top of
Milbon’s head, and those who witnessed it were all astonished. (HPC
vol. 6, 355a)The perceptive reader will note that the above story of Milbon curing
Queen Sŏndŏk has many points in common with an incident found in
the biography of Vajrabodhi (669–741) according to the Song gaoseng
zhuan (Song History of High Monks; T. 2061), where he
is said to have cured the daughter of the Tang emperor Xuanzong
(r. 712–756) (T. 2061.50:711c). Iryŏn is known to have utilized the
Song gaoseng zhuan diligently when compiling the SGYS in order to
fill the many lacunae in the early Korean sources. Hence, it is rather
obvious that he took the Vajrabodhi story from the Chinese work and
transposed the Milbon persona unto it. The fictitious nature of the Mil-
bon story is further underscored by the fact that we encounter it once
more in the SGYS, but this time with another thaumaturge, the monk
Hyet’ŏng (n.d.), cast in the role as the hero.^6 It is obvious that it
(^6) Hyet’ŏng is another Silla monk associated with Esoteric Buddhist practices. He
also figures in the SGYS only, and therefore belongs together with Milbon to the trans-
historical category of Korean Buddhist lore. Hyet’ŏng is supposed to have traveled
to Tang China during the middle of the seventh century, where he is said to have
cured the daughter of Emperor Gaozong (649–683) by using dhāraṇīs. Note again
the similarity with the account of Vajrabodhi as mentioned above (cf. HPC vol. 6,
344c–356b).