Charles Muller

First Published: July, 1996; Updated: August 14, 2003

1. Introduction

Since Korean Buddhism has come to the attention of Western scholarship rather late compared with Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, it still lies, with its deep store of untouched resources, almost fully open for exploration. And while early ignorance regarding the Korean Buddhist tradition lent to some degree of uninformed glossing over from preconceptions drawn from models in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, scholars of East Asian Buddhism nowadays are generally becoming aware of the important role of Korean Buddhism in the East Asian religious/philosophical sphere.

The most distinctive general characteristic that can be seen in the Korean Buddhist tradition is the tendency for its most noted thinkers to be holistic in the interpretation of doctrine and to be exasperatingly thorough inculture was so advanced as compared with that of its neighbors. The transmission of Buddhism to Korea from China happened along with the importation of Chinese ideographic writing and various other currents of Chinese philosophy, as well as medicine, arts and societal customs. Korea was also the source of the initial Buddhist transmission into Japan, remaining in this role for several centuries.

2. Three Kingdoms (??) Buddhism

The Three Kingdoms of early Korea began to take actual formation during the third and fourth centuries, as the various tribal leagues gradually developed larger and more stable alliances. The first kingdom to take form was Goguryeo (???) in the northern part of the peninsula. Goguryeo was soon followed by the establishment of Baekje (??) in the southwest and a bit later by