Seonjong yeonggajip

Seonjong yeonggajip is a woodblock-printed book in two volumes bound as one, containing dharma talks composed by the Tang-dynasty monk Hyeongak and annotated by the Song-dynasty monk Haengjeong. It served as an essential manual of the Seon (Zen) school and was widely used in Korean Seon monasteries. Its contents are organised into ten sections: aspiring to the path, guarding against extravagance, purifying the three karmas, a verse on śamatha, vipaśyanā, a verse on upekṣā, the gradual stages of the three vehicles, the non-duality of principle and phenomena, a letter of exhortation to a friend, and a vow. According to the colophon, the woodblocks were carved in the 3rd year of Wanli (1575) by the monk Neungin and others at Cheonbulsa Temple on Buldasan Mountain in Jangyeon, Hwanghae Province, to pray for the longevity of Gongui Wangdaebi, consort of King Injong. The book has a single-line border on all four sides, no ruled lines dividing the columns of text, and each full leaf carries 11 lines of 19 characters. Among the copies of Seonjong yeonggajip known to survive is a 1381 edition from the 7th year of King U of Goryeo - the Chinese-text edition designated as a treasure in 1978. This book is presumed to be one of the copies produced in 1472, the 3rd year of King Seongjong, when, upon the death of Queen Dowager Insu, woodblocks kept at twenty-nine different repositories were used to print between five and five hundred copies each, to pray for the repose of Kings Yejong and Deokjong and for the long life and blessings of the Queen Dowager, the reigning king and the queen; Kim Su-on is said to have written a single colophon for the whole printing, which was set in the small Gapin type and attached to the end of each sutra. This copy, however, has no colophon, and it is not known whether the colophon was removed to make the book appear to have been printed earlier, or whether it was in fact printed before that project. Another surviving copy is the 1464 vernacular Korean translation (eonhae) edition from the 10th year of King Sejo, designated as a treasure under the title Seonjong yeonggajip (eonhae) in 1984. Two further copies are kept at Beomeosa Temple in Busan: one published in the 37th year of King Jungjong (1542), and the other a later printing from woodblocks of the 20th year of King Jungjong (1525). This latter Beomeosa copy was designated a Tangible Cultural Heritage of Busan Metropolitan City on 19 November 1999.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Danyang, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산