Нарративные аспекты прошлой жизни (전생) в буддийских историях республики Корея и Шри-Ланки

2. History record under the buddhist view of the world

The Samgukyusa (Overlooked Historical Records of the Three Korean Kingdoms. 三國遺事) is a historical records of the three ancient Korean kingdoms: Shilla (신라. 57BC~935AD), Goguryeo (고 구 려. 37BC~668AD) and Baekje (백 제. 18BC~660AD) with several other ancient tribes forming the origin of the history of Korean nation. However, it is not a literally history book because it includes not only historical facts but also many different types of records like myths, legends, anecdotes, and other marvelous things. The publication of this book is presumed somewhere between 1281 and 1283 in the king Chungyeol period of the Goryeo Kingdom.

Its author, a Buddhist monk named Iryeon (일연), intentionally include a great deal of mythological and folklorist materials. So that this book usually has been compared with an official history book of the same three Korean kingdoms' era, titled Samguksagi (The History of the Three Korean Kingdoms. 三國史記), written by Kim Bu-Sik (김부식), a high government official of the Goryeo Kingdom, following the Chinese convention of Confucian historiography. Finally, the Samgukyusa is usually `said` as a treasure of Koreanology ranged from history, to literature, religions, geography, archeology, architecture and the arts. The Samgukyusa examined how Buddhism has had a great influence on Korean culture since the three Korean kingdoms period. Mahayana Buddhism first penetrated Goguryeo Kingdom through China in 372 AD, and Baekje Kingdom adapted Buddhism in 384 AD. A Goguryeo monk introduced Buddhism Shilla Kingdom somewhere between 417~458 in the king Nulji period, but in 527 Buddhism was officially allowed in Shilla through a martyrdom of a government official Yi Cha-Don. The Maha vam sa is a Sri Lankan chronicle that had been converted by many authors since 6th century. It describes the royal descendants of Sri Lanka in chronological order. Especially the first part, presumed written by a Buddhist monk Maha na ma in sixth century, of this book has a similar writing pattern with Samgukuysa in the sense of a mixture of written records on Sri Lankan history and oral traditions. It also includes myths, legends, and folk tales of the island country. Furthermore, this book shows anecdotes of Buddhist monks, stories on establishment of a temple, and stories on `images` and pagodas as if we can find such stories in the Samgukyusa.

Some stories in the Maha vam sa including Buddha’s three times of visiting Sri Lanka, story of King Vijaya the founding father of Sri Lanka, story of Mahinda who introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka, and story of King Dut t haga man ī are strongly believed as their history by the people of Sri Lanka. In other side, this book is regarded as a history of Buddhism reported by Maha viha ra of Anuradhapura. The book is a record admiring the kings’ charity for the Buddhist monastery during Anuradhapura period. In this sense, the Maha vam sa is either a history or a Buddhist canon. The Saddharmaratna valiya, preserved originally in the form of palm leaf manuscripts in 13th century as a translation of the 5th century Pali work the Dhammapadatthakata or Dhammapada Commentary by a monk Dharmasena Thera, contains many Buddhist stories including life stories of many monks. Those stories are certainly a version of Ja taka tales concerning the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Even they were originated from the Buddhist literature tradition, the Saddharmaratna valiya, contains additional stories, expanded descriptions, new metaphors, and elaborate `images` not in the Pali Dhammapada Commentary [4].

The basic common feature of these three main source books is that they are written or translated in 13th century by an erudite Buddhist priest. In addition, they are a collection of old stories, which have been handed down from generation to generation. The 5th century Pali text on which the 13th century Sinhala version was based was originated from the previous Sinhala text. Same with this, the 13th century Korean historical text written in Chinese characters collected many vernacular stories remained in circulation in the local area. Therefore, those books are very important classic literary canons.