624 henrik h. sørensenthe eye), in which images and votive paintings are empowered, and
the related making of the intestinal “bag” (pokchang ) made for
Buddhist votive images. The pokchang consists of holy objects placed
inside images and relic containers for paintings. In the course of the
second half of the Chosŏn, the primary manual for both the ch’ŏm’an
ritual and the making of the pokchang was the important Chosang
kyŏng (Scripture on the Creation of Images),^16 a compilation
partly based on canonical sources with links to Esoteric Buddhist prac-
tices current the Koryŏ.
In conclusion we may say that the ritual manuals of the Chosŏn
dynasty reflect the norms of a syncretic and essentially non-sectarian
Buddhism in which the practices and doctrines of the dominant Sŏn
tradition were fully integrated with those of mainly Pure Land and
Esoteric Buddhism. The ritual manuals are significant as an original
type of Korean Buddhist composition, tailored to suit the spiritual
and ritual requirements of the local Buddhist tradition. Although
these works are unique to Korea, they are of course still linked with
the larger East Asian Buddhist tradition in so far as they draw on the
same textual sources and ideologies. This is directly observable, as the
ritual manuals often incorporate passages and ritual elements from
the Buddhist ritual literature of China, especially that associated with
the form of Esoteric Buddhism as transmitted via the Tripiṭaka avail-
able in Korea from the eleventh century onwards.
Esoteric Buddhist Rituals during the Chosŏn
The suryuk feast or water and land type of rituals were argu-
ably the most important and significant of all the many Buddhist ritu-
als performed under the Chosŏn.^17 This is not only evident from the
(^16) The edition at my disposal was published at Yuch’ŏm Temple and is
dated to 1824. There is also a modern edition of the same text entitled Che pul posal
pokchang tan ŭisik 17 (1992).
These rituals, actually grand-scale ceremonies lasting several days, were designed
to liberate the spirits of those who had died violent deaths at sea and on land. For a
highly perceptive study of the shuilu tradition in China, whence this ritual originated,
see Stevenson 2001, 30–70. The way these rites were performed in Chosŏn Korea
did not correspond exactly to the way the Chinese performed them. One example
of this difference is the organization and arrangement of the ritual space, which was
considerably more elaborate and, we must presume, more costly to set up than those
of their Korean counterparts. One example of this difference is that the Korean water
and land rites do not feature the same impressive sets of votive paintings known from
the Chinese Buddhist tradition.