Investigation into Ven. Beop-Jeong’s Social Democratization Movement in the 1970s: Focused on the Manuscripts Published in “Voice of the People”

This study is to investigate the social democratization movement of the 1970s of Buddhist Ven. Beop-jeong (1932-2010) who lived together in our era. He was born on the beach in Haenam, Jeollanam-do Province, studied in Mokpo since the days of middle school, attended College of Commerce, Chonnam National University and became a Buddhist monk. Serving as a teacher Ven. Hyobong who was a former judge and high priest of the time and who became a monk in Miraesa Temple located in Tongyoung, Beop-jeong extensively read the Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province through Ssanggyesa Temple and Seonunsa Temple. At Haeinsa Temple, he greatly realized that a female believer saw the Tripitaka Koreana as a “laundry board” and pledged to translate numerous Chinese Buddhist scriptures into Hangeul. He who studied numerous Buddhist scriptures at Haeinsa Temple took a keen interest in social democratization by listening to the teachings of democratic figures such as professor Hwang San-Deok, Jang Joon-Ha, and minister Ham Seok-Heon. He, who launched into the Korean Buddhist dictionary compilation project, helped Ven. Un-heo to create “The Dictionary of Buddhism” at Tongdosa Temple. After that, he came to Seoul to become a translation member of Dongguk Buddhist Scripture Translation Institute established by Dongguk University and played a leading role in the Korean alphabetization process of Chinese Buddhist scriptures. In this process, he contributed his writings in the Buddhist Newspaper (Korean Buddhism at the time) and became an intellectual figure representing the Buddhist world. He, who worked on various writing and engaged in writing activities, contributed to “Voice of the People”, a magazine that led democratization as a progressive medium at the time in 1970. Starting with the first manuscript in 1972, he promoted Buddhism to people on the one hand and began to inform the world of the pain of the people suffering under the Yushin dictatorship by publishing various articles on social democratization on the other. It is noteworthy that it was his activity as a Buddhist monk, the figure of Buddhism, when the Buddhist circles seldom engaged in activities in the history of the social democratization movement in the 1970s. He published a total of 16 articles such as columns and discussion poems on “Voice of the People” to convey Buddhist teachings, and also insisted on how social democratization should be achieved based on Buddhist teachings. In particular, with the promulgation of the Yushin Constitution in October 1972, he published poems offering resistance to the dictatorial regime, causing repercussions. These activities were monitored and suppressed by the government, and he got a lot of activities restricted. Shocked to see that young people were sacrificed by the Second Inhyukdang Incident amid rising levels of oppression, he retired to Songgwangsa Buliam(Bulilam Hermitage in Songgwangsa Temple) in 1975 to return to the original truth before the practice. He also conveyed Buddhist teachings through various writing activities there as well on the one hand and engaged in the voices of social democratization. I hope that the research of these Beop-jeong’s activities will be actively conducted and the history of social democratization movements in the Buddhist community will be re-established.