It is evident that these two forms of Buddhism could not diverge more widely than they do. The early Buddhism taught by Sakyamuni is called Hinayana or the “Little Vehicle.” The other form is known as Mahayana the “Great Vehicle.” Korean Buddhism is and for the most part always has been Mahayana, yet in the Buddhist temples of the Korean monasteries one finds many a figure of Sakyamuni and the worshippers seem totally unconscious of their inconsistency and of the fact that their worship of Sakya is a contradiction in terms.
PLATE XVII
Main Temple: Yuchom-sa, Diamond Mountains [Page 35]
This leads us to inquire regarding sects. Japanese Buddhism is divided into many. Thus we may speak of Shingon, Jodo, Zen, or Nichiren Buddhism there. Each of these names stands for a definite system of doctrinal belief. Every student of Buddhism in Japan knows the fundamental differences upon which the dozen or more Japanese Buddhist sects are based. Knowing something of these divisions in Japan it was natural to ask on coming into contact with Korean Buddhism what sects they have. The answer was always immediate and glibly given. “We have two sects—Syen and Kyo.”
This was said everywhere, but I cannot see that there is anything in Korean Buddhism like the sects of Japan. In Shingon there is a whole series of doctrines and beliefs and practices; so in Zen, so in every other sect. Every person belonging to a given sect holds those dogmas and practises those ceremonials characteristic of his sect. No man is at once Shingon and Zen. But in a Korean monastery we find Syen people meditating and Kyo people reading and to-morrow the situation will be reversed, and it seems as if the terms apply merely to two modes of discipline, not to actually different sects. At all events in the same monastery we regularly find Syen and Kyo.
The texts of Mahayana Buddhism were originally in Sanskrit. They have been translated into Chinese and it is in their Chinese form that they are generally studied in China, Korea and Japan.[7] In Korean monasteries we not infrequently find books that are printed, at least in part, in Sanskrit characters. Do the Korean monks know the Sanskrit language? Far from it. I doubt whether there are a half-dozen priests in all Korea who know anything whatever of the language.
At every temple one may secure tarani. A tarani is a sheet of paper with something printed on it in red from a wood-block. The wood-blocks at the different temples vary and while most of the characters in the printing are Chinese, there is a sprinkling of Sanskrit. A tarani is a sort of passport to the Western Paradise and it is supplied for burial with the dead. When a man is burned or buried a tarani is placed with his body. We secured them from almost every monastery visited. Perhaps no priest in Korea can read them. We saw, however, at one monastery, an old book concerning tarani, and it seems probable that these texts have been copied from such books. About sixty years ago there seems to have been a special fancy for cutting these wood-blocks for printing tarani and most of those we saw date from that time.
Interesting are sari monuments. As we neared Yuchom-sa we passed ten or twelve stone monuments with a square base, a swelling body and decorated tip. We were told that these were sari stones and that in them a sari or “jewel” was buried. These sari are curious things. It is said that when the body of a monk of special piety is burned a little pebble will be found among the ashes. It is irregular in form, clearly shows fusion, and looks a little like a gem or crystal. It is believed that it has been formed from the elements of the dead body, and they say that only about one man out of four hundred gives rise to one of these sari.
PLATE XVIII
Carved Door: Yuchom-sa [Page 82]