Bulseolsusaenggyeong Bulseoryesusibwangsaengchilgyeong Sutra (Lidded Box Bu)

It is a woodblock-printed book bound in the traditional five-hole stitched binding. The cover bears the title Beopeo ('Discourses'), but the book's original title is Mongsanhwasangbeobeoyangnok. It records the words and teachings of the Buddha and served as a practice manual for monks. The discourses of the eminent Yuan-dynasty monk Mongsan Deok-i were excerpted during the Goryeo period by the Venerable Bojejonja and rendered into twelve maxims (gyeol) in translation by the Venerable Hyegakjonja. Queen Insu (1437-1504), consort of King Deokjong of Joseon, was deeply versed in Buddhism. In 1471, the second year of King Seongjong, she had scriptures purchased from Ming China, and in 1472, the third year of King Seongjong, she had 2,815 copies of 29 kinds of Buddhist scripture, including the Lotus Sutra, printed to pray for the repose of the souls of King Sejo, King Yejong, and Crown Prince Uigyeong. At the same time, 200 copies of the Mongsanhwasangbeobeoyangnok were also published. All of the texts printed on this occasion have since been designated treasures. It continued to circulate widely afterwards, in editions such as the Gounsa Temple edition in Chungcheong Province (1516), the Yujeomsa Temple edition in Gangwon Province (1521), the Seongnyunam Hermitage edition in Punggi (1523), the Songgwangsa Temple edition in Suncheon (1577), and the Sinheungsa Temple edition on Jirisan Mountain (1579). In this edition, the printed area (bangwak) measures 14.7 cm wide by 20.3 cm high, with seven lines of eighteen characters each. The 1.2 cm centrefold bears an engraved fishtail motif of three-lobed flowers facing inward, top and bottom. A list of donors survives at the end of the volume, but the section giving the printing colophon is missing. In its paper, character forms, and the wording of the closing vow and list of donors, this book resembles printings from the 16th century. The Hyeonsu Jeseungbeopsu is a kind of dictionary that gathers, from across the Buddhist scriptures, terms commonly expressed as numbered categories, and arranges them in numerical order for ease of reference. It was compiled by Hyeonsu, the third patriarch of the Hwaeom school, and later re-edited by Haengsim during the Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty. The book opens with a preface written in 1387, the 13th year of King U of Goryeo, by Cheontae Beomgo. In this edition, the printed area measures 13.3 cm wide by 18.2 cm high, and the 0.5 cm centrefold bears an inward-facing floral fishtail motif, top and bottom. Terms are gathered and arranged in order starting from the number one, and their related meanings are linked together with lines in hundreds of diagrams and illustrations, showing their manifold variations. In the upper margin, notes are recorded in fine brushstrokes on such subjects as the Parable of the Ganges Sands, the Judgment on Confucius's Dream of the Pillars, the Rules of Deportment, the naming of geographical measures, and the Chart of the Heavens' Circuit. In Korea, one volume was printed as a woodblock edition in 1427, the ninth year of King Sejong, and later editions followed, including the Bongseosa Temple edition in Hapcheon (1500) and the Eodueam Hermitage edition in Gosan, Jeolla Province (1570). The Bulseoryesusibwangsaengchilgyeong Sutra was written by the monk Jangcheon of Daeseongjasa Temple in Seongcheonbu, in Tang-dynasty China. It runs to fourteen chapters and contains thirty-three eulogies on the practice, undertaken in advance of death, of chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha in order to be reborn in the Pure Land. In Korea, editions include a Goryeo-period woodblock print from Haeinsa Temple, as well as one-volume editions from Seobongsan on Gwanggyosan Mountain (1601) and from Songgwangsa Temple on Jogyesan Mountain (1618). In this edition, the outer frame is a single line and there are no ruled column lines. The printed area measures 15.4 cm wide by 18.5 cm high, with eight lines of fifteen characters each. The colophon at the end of the volume records that it was newly carved in 1521, the 16th year of King Jungjong, at Jeungsimsa Temple in Gwangju, Jeolla Province. Similar editions include one from Beopjusa Temple in Boeun (1568) and a re-carved edition from Songgwangsa Temple (1628), now held at the Harvard-Yenching Library in the United States. Although this is a combined volume containing several separate texts, the uniform condition of the paper throughout suggests that the constituent scriptures were bound together into a single book at the time they were made.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sacheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산