朝鮮寶冠持花菩薩裝掛佛與《八相禮》關係及其信仰硏究

Abstract

The paper explores the ritual meaning and the religious conception of the “Ratna-k?ta Bodhisattva Holding up a Lotus Joseon Gwaebul painting” of the late Joseon Dynasty. The study applies the following methodologies: literature study of the rituals, comparative analysis of the artworks, and investigation of the ritual paintings preserved in temples. On analyzing the mural inscriptions of the〈Magoksa Temple Joseon Gwaebul painting〉,〈Tongdoksa Temple Joseon Gwaebul painting〉stating the conceptions of “Infinite- Change Sakyamuni Buddha” and the “Sixteen-foot Golden Body Sakyamuni Buddha”, the paper discovers the relations between the《Ba-xiang Li》(八相禮) ritual of Buddha’s birth and the Joseon Gwaebul painting. The main object of the painting is the “Imagery of Buddha’s Birth”, of which originated from the Dharma meaning of the Eight-phase Buddhaship. The Buddha figure in the Joseon Gwaebul paintings are similar to that of the Maitreya images of the〈Tongdoksa Temple Joseon Gwaebul painting〉, of which should be derived from the Buddhism meaning of “Identity”exhibited in the demonstration of the Eight-phase Buddhaship brought by the birth of Maitreya and the form-change of Sakyamuni Buddha, his body of Incarnation. The Bodhgay? samdarsana of the Sakyamuni Buddha and the future samdarsana of Maitreya is identical in its conceptions: it is one of the many forms of Sakyamuni, it is the Dharmak?ya, the self-form of Sakyamuni. Regardless of the past, the present, and the future, Buddha enlightens all-beings with the loving-kindness of Dharma. The samdarsana of the Sixteen-foot Buddha Body should be the Skillful Means towards Enlightenment that is given to the common-beings and the Two Vehicles according to their capacities. The making of the “Ratna-k?ta Bodhisattva holding up a lotus Joseon Gwaebul painting” of the late Joseon Period is inseparable from the Tiantai Tradition doctrine of the everlasting of Dharma, the infinite continuation of Buddha's spiritual body.