Chapter 9 Korea 357sightseeing to even the most distant mountains and rivers. Much can be
learned of a man’s character by watching him in these activities. Those who
fared well were recommended to the court. (Lee and de Bary 1996:55)
These origins of the hwarang, and these gentler attributes of cultural refine-
ment and physical beauty, all reflect important dimensions of Silla society. Silla
Korea is also known for its prominent queens depicted in images that date to
this period, such as Queen Seondeok who reigned in the seventh century, was a
patron of Buddhism and learning, and is today a popular character in Korean
films and television series.Koryo Dynasty (918–1392)
During the 450 years of the Koryo era, Mahayana Buddhism flourished
alongside Confucianism as competing cultural forces. Throughout Koryo, the
“Golden Age” of Buddhism, the new faith gained adherents and power, with
monks serving in high official advisory positions and Buddhist temples becom-
ing rich and powerful. Kings and aristocrats donated land and slaves to temples
seeking blessings from the Buddha, and some temples maintained private
armies to protect their interests. At times Confucian and Buddhist institutions
coexisted harmoniously and productively, but as in Tang China, the Confucian
officials of Koryo were suspicious of Buddhism, as its monastic institutions
became powerful in countless communities. Occasionally, the land and coffers
of a monastery were seized if it rivaled the local or national government.
Who could resist the beauty of Buddhism? We have seen in the account of
the hwarang of Silla the romantic integration of military prowess with Buddhist
aesthetics (seen also in the previous chapter, and in different form, with Zen
Buddhist and samurai militarism). We saw in the previous section the impact
Buddhism had on the imagination of Koreans of the Three Kingdoms period
as new ideas, texts, arts, disciplines, rituals, temples, and costumes emerged
over the centuries of its adoption and elaboration. Buddhism is filled with daz-
zling metaphors: the Dragon Flower Tree, Wheel of Dharma, the Dharma
Nature, Buddhahood, the Pure Land, the Dharma Realm, the Lotus Store-
house Realm. There were exotic texts in Chinese writing with names like the
Lotus Sutra, the Flower Adornment Sutra, the Sutra of the Thousand-armed Thou-
sand-eyed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and the Brief Explanation of the Vow Made at
White Flower Enlightenment Site. Of course the texts were for a small group of
monk-scholars, but monks like Kyunyo (923–973) and Ch’ewon (fourteenth
century) found ways to convey these exotic new ideas to the masses, such as in
Kyunyo’s “Song of Worshipping All the Buddhas” (Kim 2015).
The texts and the songs of the monks spoke of marvelous divinities. There
was Maitreya (miruk-bosul), the Buddha of the future, somewhat androgynous
(as with the hwarang); Avalokiteshvara, sometimes male, sometimes female
(e.g., Guanyin, the water-moon Avalokiteshvara, Suwol gwaneum); and
Amitabha. Their images arrived at first as Chinese sculptures, but soon the