Ǔich'ǒn
| English Phonetics | Ǔich'ǒn |
|---|---|
| Sort Name | Ǔich'ǒn |
| Birth: | 1055 |
|---|---|
| Death: | 1101 |
Tibetan calendar dates
Biographical Information
Üich'ön. (C. Yitian MTl) (1055-1101). Korean prince, monk, and bibliophile, and putative founder of the C h ’ö n t’ae ch on g (C. T iantai zong) in Korea. Üich’ön was born the fourth son of the Koryö king Munjong (r. 1047-1082). In 1065, Üich’ön was ordained by the royal preceptor (wangsa) Kyöngdök Nanwön (999-1066) at the royal monastery of Yöngt’ongsa in the Koryö capital of Kaesöng. Under Nanwön, Uich’ön studied the teachings of the A vatamsakasütra and its various commentaries. In 1067, at the age of twelve, Uich’ön was appointed “samgha overseer” (K. süngt’ong; C. sen g to n g). Uich’ön is known on several occasions to have requested permission from his royal father to travel abroad to China, but the king consistendy denied his request. Finally, in 1085, Uich’ön secretly boarded a Chinese trading ship and traveled to the mainland against his father’s wishes. Uich’ön is said to have spent about fourteen months abroad studying under various teachers. His father sent his friend and colleague N akchin (1045-1114) after Üich’ön, but they ended up studying together with the Huayan teacher Jingyuan (1011-1088) of Huiyinsi in Hangzhou. Üich’ön and Nakchin returned to Korea in 1086 with numerous texts that Üich’ön acquired during his sojourn in China. While residing as the abbot of the new monastery of Hüngwangsa in the capital, Üich’ön devoted his time to teaching his disciples and collecting works from across East Asia, including the Khitan Liao kingdom. He sent agents throughout the region to collect copies of the indigenous writings of East Asian Buddhists, which he considered to be the equal of works by the bodhisattva exegetes of the imported Indian scholastic tradition. A large monastic library known as Kyojang Togam was established at Hüngwangsa to house the texts that Üich’ön collected. In 1090, Üich’ön published a bibliographical catalogue of the texts housed at Hüngwangsa, entitled Sinpyön chejong kyojang ch ’ongnok (“Comprehensive Catalogue of the Doctrinal Repository of All the Schools”), which lists some 1,010 titles in 4,740 rolls. The Hüngwangsa collection of texts was carved on woodblocks and titled the Koryö sokchanggyöng (“Koryö Supplement to the Canon”), which was especially important for its inclusion of a broad cross section of the writings of East Asian Buddhist teachers. (The one exception was works associated with the C h an or Sö n tradition, which Uich’ön refused to collect because of their “many heresies.”) Unfortunately, the xylographs of the supplementary canon were burned during the Mongol invasion of Koryö in 1231, and many of the works included in the collection are now lost and known only through their reference in Üichon’s catalogue. In 1097, Uich’ön was appointed the founding abbot of the new monastery of Kukch’öngsa (named after the renowned Chinese monastery of Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai). There, he began to teach Ch ont’ae thought and practice and is said to have attracted more than a thousand students. Uich’ön seems to have seen the Tiantai/ Ch’önt’ae synthesis of meditation and doctrine as a possible means o f reconciling the Sön and doctrinal (kyo) traditions in Korea. Uich on’s efforts have subsequently been regarded as the official foundation of the Ch’önt’ae school in Korea; however, it seems Uich’ön was not actually attempting to Start a new school, but merely to reestablish the study of Ch’önt’ae texts in Korea. He was awarded the posthumous title of state preceptor (K. kuksa; C. GUOSHl) Taegak (Great Enlightenment). (Source: "Ǔich'ǒn." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 935–36. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
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