Surangama Sutra (eonhae) vol. 7, 8

The Surangama Sutra, also known in short as 'Daebuljeong Suneungeomgyeong' or 'Neungeomgyeong', teaches that the Buddha's words are to be attained through direct personal experience, not merely understood intellectually. Consisting of ten volumes in all, it is a scripture that monks were required to study during their training. This eonhae (vernacular Korean translation) of volumes 7 and 8 renders into Hangul the text translated by the Tang-dynasty monk Pāramiti and annotated by the Song-dynasty monk Jieheng. It is a movable-type edition printed on yellowish paper made of a mixture of straw and mulberry-bark fibre, measuring 37.5 cm in height and 23.8 cm in width; of the ten volumes, only 7 and 8 survive, bound as two separate books. A movable-type edition is one printed by carving individual characters, setting them into a fixed frame, and printing from it; because this edition was produced in an eulhae year, it is known as the Eulhaeja edition. The Eulhaeja edition originated when, in 1449, the thirty-first year of King Sejong, Grand Prince Suyang (later King Sejo) began the translation by royal command, but the work was left unfinished and repeatedly postponed, until it was completed and printed in 1461, the seventh year of King Sejo, with the full mobilisation of eminent monks and Confucian scholars. The Eulhaeja edition became the standard used by the Gangyeongdogam (the office established in 1461, the seventh year of King Sejo, to translate Buddhist scriptures into Hangul and publish them) in printing Buddhist scriptures, and, as few copies survive, it is regarded as a valuable historical source.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jung-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물