大覺國師義天の燒身供養 --孝を目的とした捨身--

Abstract

This paper examines the self-immolation of Daegakguksa Uicheon 大覺國師 義天. The first section illuminates the fact that Uichen's self-immolation was a manifestation of filial piety. The second section focuses on the intellectual exchange between Yuanzhao (元照) and Uicheon. Among the many monks who accompanied Uicheon during his travel to Northern Song and directly interacted with him, Yuanzhao was one of those who significantly influenced him. The connection between The Brahmajala Sutra 梵網經 and The Yulanpen Sutra 盂蘭盆經 with filial piety as the medium in Uicheon's thought illustrates Yuanzhao's influence on him. The connection between The Brahmajala Sutra, which propagated self-immolation, and The Yulanpen Sutra with filial piety, qualitatively changed the motivation for Uicheon's burning offerings from seeking Buddhism to the practice of filial piety. Section 3 shows that during the reign of King Sukjong 肅宗 (r. 1095-1105), Uicheon's self-immolation became part of the state rituals attended by Sukjong. This would mean that Uicheon's self-immolation, which was linked to the concept of filial piety, became a device to demonstrate the legitimacy of Sukjong's reign to his subjects. Conventional research on the self-immolation has focused on case studies in China and Japan, but not on the Korean peninsula. Therefore, this study will be an indispensable basic work to investigate the spread and acceptance of the self-immolation, in which Chinese characters were used.