Reception of Daoism in Korea韩国受容

Also known as

Daoism in Korea, Daoism in Korea (Joseon), Daoism in Goguryeo, Sogyeokseo, Danxue (Study of the Elixir) School

Type

Daoist Schools

Period

Antiquity–Early Modern

Founded

In 624 Emperor Gaozu of Tang sent Daoist priests to propagate the teaching in Goguryeo (Samguk Sagi); Bogwon Palace was built in Goryeo in 1110; Joseon established the Sogyeokseo (1392–1518)

Region

The Korean Peninsula

Status

Absorbed into Other Lineages — There is no surviving Daoist body; Daoist elements have been absorbed into Korean folk custom, new religions and health-cultivation culture, and academic research is active (the Korean Association for Daoist Studies and the Korean Society for Daoist Culture).

Overview

The spread of Daoism on the Korean peninsula began in the Three Kingdoms period. The Samguk sagi records that in the seventh year of the Wude reign of the Tang (624) Emperor Gaozu sent Daoist priests to Koguryo to lecture on the Laozi, and that King Yeongnyu and the people of the state attended; in the reign of King Bojang (643) Yeon Gaesomun memorialized asking that eight further Tang Daoist priests, Shuda and others, be received, in order to check Buddhism by means of Daoism, and the Tang bestowed the Daodejing. Koguryo for a time made Daoism the state religion, but this declined with the fall of Koguryo (668). In the Silla period the Hwarang way was held to contain the thought of divine immortals; Choe Chiwon wrote that "the state has a mysterious and wondrous Dao called Pungnyu," and there are legends of Kim Gagi and Choe Seungu, who entered the Tang to study the Dao and became immortals (found in the Taiping guangji). In the Goryeo period, in the fifth year of King Yejong (1110), the Bogwongung was built at Gaeseong and Daoist zhai and jiao rites were performed there; it was the first formal Daoist temple on the Korean peninsula, and was followed by the Taecheonggwan, the Singyeokjeon and others, the jiao offering becoming one of the rites of state. Early in the Joseon dynasty the Sogyeokseo was established with exclusive charge of astral jiao offerings (especially to the Northern Dipper, the Three Pure Ones and Taiyi); it was abolished in the thirteenth year of King Jungjong (1518) under pressure from Confucian officials such as Jo Gwangjo, was briefly restored in 1525, and was finally abolished after the Imjin War, bringing state Daoism to an end. Among the populace and the literati the tradition of "elixir studies" (danhak) flourished: internal alchemists represented by Kim Si-seup, Jeong Ryeom, Kwon Geukjung and Heo Gyun wrote the Yongho bigyeol, commentaries on the Cantong qi, and the Haedong jeondorok, tracing back a "line of immortals east of the sea" from Silla times onward and forming a school of elixir studies peculiar to Korea. At the same time scriptures such as the Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response, the Northern Dipper Scripture and the Yushu jing (Scripture of the Jade Pivot), together with the cult of Guandi (brought in by the Ming armies after the Imjin War), circulated widely among the people. Modern Korean new religions (Donghak / Cheondogyo, Jeungsangyo, Daejonggyo) absorbed a great many Daoist deities and elixir concepts. Contemporary Korea has no formal Daoist body, but there are many groups practising seondo and dantian breathing and other health-cultivation arts, and the Korean Association for Daoist Studies is their research institution.

Core Doctrine

State Daoism consisted mainly of astral jiao offerings (to the Northern Dipper, the Three Pure Ones and Taiyi) to pray for blessings and avert calamity; the elixir-studies school advocated the dual cultivation of nature and life through neidan, venerated Zhongli Quan and Lu Dongbin and the Cantong qi, and constructed a genealogy of an "immortal lineage east of the sea"; among the populace the ethics of the Treatise on Action and Response and the cults of Guandi and the Jade Emperor were influential; and the new religions blended Daoist deities with elixir teachings. Together these elements make up the many-sided physiognomy of Daoist culture in Korea.

Practice & Ritual

Jiao offerings (the astral offerings of the Sogyeokseo, the jiao to the Three Pure Ones) and recitation of the Northern Dipper Scripture and the Yushu jing; neidan practice in the elixir-studies tradition (the Yongho bigyeol) and breathing methods; worship at Guandi temples (the Eastern Guan Yu Shrine in Seoul); and in the modern and contemporary periods the activities of seondo, dantian breathing and qigong groups. Literati of the Joseon period also took up neidan practice as a form of health cultivation outside Confucian learning, and their "elixir studies" writings were copied and circulated in the later Joseon period, forming an important part of the heritage of Daoist culture in Korea.

Transmission

Tang Daoist priests enter Koguryo in 624, to the Hwarang way of Silla and those who went to the Tang in search of the Dao, to the jiao offerings of the Bogwongung under Goryeo, to the Joseon Sogyeokseo (1392-1518), to the Joseon elixir-studies school (Kim Si-seup, Jeong Ryeom, Kwon Geukjung and others), to absorption by the modern new religions, to contemporary seondo and health-cultivation groups and the Korean Association for Daoist Studies.

Key Scriptures