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 — No Daoist religious order survives in Korea today; Daoist elements have been absorbed into Korean folk custom, new religious movements, and health-cultivation culture, while academic research remains active (the Korean Society for Daoist Studies and the Korean Society for the Study of Daoist Culture).

Overview

The transmission of Daoism to the Korean peninsula began in the Three Kingdoms period: the Samguk Sagi records that in the seventh year of the Wude era of Tang (624), Emperor Gaozu sent Daoist priests to Goguryeo to lecture on the Laozi, which King Yeongnyu and his court attended; in the reign of King Bojang (643), Yeon Gaesomun petitioned to invite eight more Tang Daoist priests, including Shuda, to counterbalance Buddhism with Daoism, and the Tang bestowed a copy of the Daodejing — Goguryeo briefly made Daoism a state religion, but this declined with Goguryeo's fall in 668. In Silla, the Hwarang tradition is thought to have contained elements of immortality thought; Choe Chiwon spoke of the country having a 'mysterious and wondrous Way called p'ungnyu,' and there are legends of Kim Kagi and Choe Seungu traveling to Tang China to study the Dao and attain immortality (recorded in the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era). In Goryeo, the Bogwongung was built in Gaeseong in the fifth year of King Yejong's reign (1110) to perform Daoist retreat and offering rites, the first formal Daoist temple on the Korean peninsula; it was followed by the Taecheonggwan and the Singyeokjeon, and retreat and offering rites (jiao) became part of state ceremony. In the early Joseon dynasty, the Sogyeokseo was established to conduct star-offering rites (particularly to the Northern Dipper, the Three Pure Ones, and Taiyi); it was abolished in the thirteenth year of King Jungjong's reign (1518) under pressure from Confucian officials such as Jo Gwang-jo, briefly restored in 1525, and finally abolished after the Imjin War, bringing state Daoism in Korea to an end. Among the populace and literati, however, a tradition of 'elixir studies' (danhak) flourished: internal-alchemy practitioners represented by Kim Si-seup, Jeong Ryeom, Gwon Geuk-jung, and Heo Gyun wrote works such as the Secret Instructions on the Dragon and Tiger, a Commentary on the Cantong Qi, and the Record of the Transmission of the Dao in Korea, tracing a 'Korean immortal lineage' back to Silla and forming a distinctively Korean school of elixir studies; at the same time, texts such as the Treatise on Action and Response, the Northern Dipper Scripture, and the Yushu Jing, along with the cult of Guandi (brought in by Ming troops after the Imjin War), spread widely among the populace. In the modern era, Korea's new religious movements (Donghak/Cheondogyo, Jeungsangyo, Daejongyo) absorbed a great many Daoist deities and internal-alchemy concepts. Today Korea has no formal Daoist religious order, but there are numerous health-cultivation groups devoted to sundo (immortality practice) and dantian breathing, with the Korean Society for Daoist Studies serving as the research body for this tradition.

Core Doctrine

State Daoism centered on star-offering rites (to the Northern Dipper, the Three Pure Ones, and Taiyi) for blessing and the warding off of calamity; the elixir-studies school advocated the dual cultivation of nature and life through internal alchemy, venerated Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin and the Cantong Qi, and constructed a genealogy of a 'Korean immortal lineage'; the populace was influenced by the ethics of the Treatise on Action and Response and the cults of Guandi and the Jade Emperor; and the new religious movements blend Daoist deities with internal-alchemical ideas. Together these elements form the many-layered character of Korean Daoist culture.

Practice & Ritual

Offering rites (star-offerings of the Sogyeokseo, offerings to the Three Pure Ones), recitation of the Northern Dipper Scripture and the Yushu Jing; internal-alchemical cultivation in the elixir-studies tradition (the Secret Instructions on the Dragon and Tiger) and breathing methods; worship at Guandi temples (the Dongmyo, Seoul); and, in the modern era, sundo, dantian breathing, and qigong group activities. Joseon-period literati also practiced internal alchemy as a form of health cultivation outside Confucianism, and their 'elixir studies' writings were copied and circulated in the late Joseon period, forming an important legacy of Korean Daoist culture.

Transmission

Tang Daoist priests entering Goguryeo in 624 → the Hwarang tradition of Silla and those who traveled to Tang China to seek the Dao → offering rites at the Bogwongung of Goryeo → the Sogyeokseo of Joseon (1392–1518) → the Joseon elixir-studies school (Kim Si-seup, Jeong Ryeom, Gwon Geuk-jung, and others) → absorption into modern new religious movements → present-day sundo health-cultivation groups and the Korean Society for Daoist Studies.

Key Scriptures