The chief celebrations of the day and night in Yu-chom-sa are accompanied by the booming of the great bronze bell—an elaborate casting of the fourteenth century—and by the beating of a large circular drum many feet in circumference. Both instruments stand in their own towers in the courtyard. During the minor services, the genuflections of the priests are accompanied by the jarring notes of the small brass bells, which they strike repeatedly with deer-horns. A magnificent figure of Buddha sits in the Temple of the Lotus Blossom, in an attitude of impassive benignity behind a screen of glass, looking solemnly upon the devotions and pious exercises of his faithful attendants. This altar is recessed, the entire shrine being protected by plates of glass, and the offerings of rice, which are presented to the altar for benediction, stand without the screen. Among other temples and shrines at Yu-chom-sa there are the House of Everlasting Life, the Temple of the Water Month, the Temple of People who come from the West. There are fifty monks in Yu-chom-sa, twelve nuns, and eight boys who have not yet been admitted to the order. Many of the boys in these monasteries are quite young. Some have been handed over by their parents in extreme infancy, while others have been received out of the wide charity of the Buddhists, and dedicated to the service of the monasteries. These boys appear intelligent. They are taught little beyond the different chants and litanies, with the words of which they soon become familiar. The boys are clean and well fed; but the monks, if equally clean, are more sparing in their diet. Their frugal repast consists of rice and varieties of minced vegetables, cakes of pine nuts glued together with honey, and other cakes of popped rice and honey. The extreme richness of the dishes soon palls upon the palate. While managing to exist, signs of emaciation are noticeable in their bodies and faces. Among the nuns who are attracted to these different monasteries, there are many who have entered the cloister from religious motives, and a few who, alone in the world, find it a convenient spot in which to pass their lives. Neither class, however, encroaches upon the religious and devotional functions of the monks, but lives entirely apart, existing altogether in a world of their own making.
YU-CHOM-SA
The forms of religion which prevail in Korea to-day are Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shamanism. Statements of ancient Chinese and Japanese writers, and the early Jesuit missionaries, tend to prove that the worship of spirits and demons has been the basis of national belief since the earliest times. The god of the hills is even now the most popular deity. Worship of the spirits of heaven and earth, of the invisible powers of the air, of nature, of the morning star, of the guardian genii of the hills and rivers, and of the soil and grain, has been so long practised that, in spite of the influences of Confucianism, and the many centuries in which Buddhism has existed in the land, the actual worship of the great mass of the people has undergone little material alteration. However widespread this leaning of the lower classes towards demonolatry may be, the philosophy of Confucius has been from the fifteenth century the official and fashionable cult in Korea. In its middle period, it attained to that point when a religion, which at first was fostered by the few and has spread gradually until it became absorbed by the people, feels itself firmly established, and emphasises its ascendency by the bigotry of its assertions, its intolerance, and, crowning triumph of all usurping tenets, by the virulence of its persecution. Confucianism now overspreads the whole peninsula. From the fourth to the fourteenth century, when the religion of the Enlightened One prevailed, it was studied and practised only by the learned classes. Buddhism predominated throughout the southern half of the peninsula, and only partially leavened the northern division of the Empire, where it was unable to combat the teachings of Confucius. Throughout its development, however, Buddhism has exercised a potent influence in Korean affairs, which continued until the close of the last dynasty. The power of the bonzes at one time controlled the Court and nullified the decrees of the monarch. During its pristine supremacy it became the strongest and most formidable factor in the education of the country. It wielded unlimited and unrestricted power, while it guided the political and social revolutions of the period. Great respect is still shown to the tenets of Buddhism in Korea. New monasteries and temples are in process of construction—the Buddhist priests of Japan and Korea making common cause against the activities of Western missionaries. The Emperor has also shown himself interested in the propagation of this faith, and, with Lady Om, he has given large sums to the restoration of certain dilapidated temples without the city. All things considered, Buddhism has left such a mark upon the history of the little kingdom that, although the purely ethical character of the teachings of Confucius be acknowledged, Korea must be classed among the Buddhist countries of the earth.
AN ALTAR-PIECE
CHAPTER XX
The Abomination of desolation—Across Korea—The east coast—Fishing and filth
The peace, piety, and sublime earnestness of the monks of the monasteries of Yu-chom and Chang-an is in startling contrast to the state of things at Shin-ki-sa. The magnificence of Yu-chom-sa, and the charitable benevolence of Chang-an-sa, engender a mood of sympathetic appreciation and toleration towards those, whose lives are dedicated to the service of Buddha, in these isolated retreats of the Diamond Mountains. The spectacle presented by the monastery at the north-eastern base of the Keum-kang-san, however, reveals the existence of certain evils which happily do not disfigure the more important Buddhist centres in this region. It is not time which alone has brought about the disorder; nor would the material decay be so lamentable if the dignity and charm of a picturesque ruin were not lacking. The tone of the monks here is totally different. Everything is neglected, and every one is indifferent to the needs of the temples. A litter of broken tiles lies about the buildings; dirt and dust, the natural consequences of carelessness and neglect, disgrace them within. The spirit of reverence is wanting. The scene is changed.