The Encounter and Separation of: Focus on the tales of Samgukyusa
Authors:   Liberal Arts Innovation Center, Hong Teahan 
Published: December 2022

This study examines the relationship between Buddhism and folk beliefs focusing on the tales of Samgukyusa. Through the stories of <Hwangryongsa Gucheungtap>, <Cheoyongrang Manghaesa>, <Dohwanyeo Bihyeongrang>, and <Gyeongdeokwang Chungdamsa Pyohoon Daedeok>, the author presents how this relationships changes. In <Hwangryongsa Gucheungtap>, a nine-storied pagoda is completed through the efforts of General Lee Jeok, by which the Three Kingdoms are unified. This suggests that the coexistence of Buddhism and folk beliefs is necessary for stability in reality. In <Cheoyongrang Manghaesa>, a dragon king wants to build a pagoda with a Buddhist figure, and as one of the figures in folk beliefs, Cheoyongrang meets the goddess of smallpox. Here, the two worlds of Buddhism and folk beliefs coexist equally as Manghaesa Temple was built and a picture of Cheoyong was present as a charm. In <Dohwanyeo Bihyeongrang>, the world of Buddhism cannot be found specifically, but figures like Biyeongrang or Gildal are obviously those from folk beliefs. This compels Gildal to be put into reality, but Gildal refuses, while Biyeongrang, who has already been incorporated into the real world, kills Gildal as a way to cut off the incorporation of folk beliefs into the real world. This disconnection is more clearly revealed in <Gyeongdeokwang Chungdamsa Pyohoon Daedeok>. In this work, the Buddhist figure Chungdamsa composes <Anminga> under the order of King Gyeongdeok, and this is shown as subordination into the real world that is centered on the state and the royal authority, not Buddhism. Pyohoon Daedeok eventually has a role to disconnect heaven from the human world even though he has the ability to handle both Buddhist and folk beliefs. He belongs to Buddhism, but he is completely subjected to the real world. This aspect of Buddhism and folk beliefs shows the pattern and the flow that the two worlds coexisted, but Buddhism became the center of the real world by gradually encompassing folk beliefs. As above, the four stories contained in Samgukyusa show the coexistence and separation of Buddhism and folk beliefs. From this, we can see that Buddhism has already been accepted in the real world and has become the center, while folk beliefs are distant from the real world. Therefore, it is the real world that has had the greatest influence on the encounter and separation of Buddhism and folk beliefs. The status of Buddhism, having become the mainstream and order of the real world, is different from that of folk beliefs that are relatively alienated from the mainstream. In summary, the separation is the result of the two worlds whose relationship with the real world has changed. Buddhism that came from the West becomes the leading ideology of the state while actively intervening in solving problems in reality and eventually forms the order of reality. Although folk beliefs have not become the mainstream, they encounter and are separated from Buddhism according to the needs in each moment. The process of establishing Buddhism firmly required the world of folk beliefs, and the two worlds cooperated to build either towers or temples. The figures that exist as the symbols of this cooperation are Cheoyong, Biyeongrang, and Gildal.