Lotus Sutra vol. 5~7

The Lotus Sutra, also known in short as the "Beophwagyeong," is the fundamental scripture of the Cheontae Order. Its central idea is that the path to becoming a Buddha is open to everyone; together with the Avatamsaka Sutra it has had the greatest influence on the establishment of Buddhist thought in Korea, and it has been the most widely circulated Buddhist scripture since the Three Kingdoms period. The printing format of this text — a single border line at top and bottom, no ruled columns, and twenty-five lines of seventeen characters per line on the printing blocks — was produced as an accordion-folded volume gathered six lines to a fold (five lines on the first page), and comprises thirty-four folded leaves in all. It is a woodblock-printed edition of the Chinese translation made by Kumarajiva in the eighth year of Hongchi of the Later Qin (406 CE), covering volumes five to seven of the original seven. In volume seven, the first twelve lines at the start of folio twenty-one are hand-copied, and six lines at the start of folio twenty-two, together with the final six lines including the colophon, are also hand-copied. The folio-number markings distinguishing the printing blocks appear between lines five and six and between lines ten and eleven, reading "法 五 二" and similar. The cover has been rebound, and it bears neither a title on the cover nor a title slip. Although this Lotus Sutra follows the accordion-fold format popular from the late Goryeo to the early Joseon period and has lost its colophon, so that its exact date of printing cannot be established, the carving of the characters shows outstanding skill, and from the condition of the printing it is presumed to be an uncommon edition produced around the fifteenth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seocho-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산