Lotus Sutra Gwonje1 vol. 1-7 held at Joangsa Temple

The Lotus Sutra (Myobeop Yeonhwagyeong), often abbreviated as the Beophwagyeong, is the fundamental scripture of Korea's Cheontae Order of Buddhism, built on the idea that the path to becoming a Buddha is open to everyone. Together with the Avatamsaka Sutra, it had the greatest influence on the formation of Buddhist thought in Korea, and it has been the most widely circulated Buddhist scripture since the Three Kingdoms period. The Yeonggaksa Temple re-carved edition of Lotus Sutra volumes 1–7 has a half-page text area of 23.3 × 17.8 cm and a full block size of 30.7 × 19.9 cm. According to its colophon, the blocks were re-carved at Yeonggaksa Temple in 1539, and the complete set of seven volumes and twenty-eight chapters survives, with an illustrated frontispiece in volume 1 and a record of the circumstances of the re-carving recorded in volume 7. In fact, however, this particular copy appears to have been reprinted around 1650, with the first page of each volume printed later to complete the set. The Gwisinsa Temple edition of Lotus Sutra volume 1, one volume newly carved and printed at Gwisinsa Temple in 1609, is a woodblock print in which the frontispiece and other illustrations are clearly rendered, and the text of the origin record and the colophon are both clearly recorded. Gwisinsa Temple in Gimje is known to have printed a considerable number of Buddhist scriptures up until the 1700s. In addition, Joangsa Temple holds a large number of Buddhist texts, paintings and old documents, including a vernacular Korean translation of the Lotus Sutra in two volumes, a portrait of Dangun, a portrait of the eminent monk Jinmuk, a membership register of a women's association, the Gwonwangmun (a text exhorting devotion to Amitabha Buddha) and the Gwonseonmun (a text soliciting donations for good works); all of these, however, were produced after 1900.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gimje, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산