Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism

Gendered Response to Modernity: Kim Iryŏp and Buddhism1

5 Gendered Response to Modernity Kim Iryŏp and Buddhism1 Jin Y. Park Discussions of Buddhist modernity in Asia have frequently characterized the phenomenon with the emergence of nationalism, mass-proselytization, lay Buddhist movements, and the influence of political situations such as imperialism, communism, and colonialism, to name a few.2 The modern period in Korean Buddhism was the time for reform.3 Whether it takes the form of a revival of Zen tradition or a proposal for a total reform of traditional Buddhism,4 Buddhist modernity in Korea began with a strong desire to repeal the suppression of Buddhism during the Chosŏn Dynasty.5 In the process of transformation, Korean Buddhism faced the issue of nationalism and colonialism.6 It had also become evident that there was a need to translate the language of Buddhist scriptures into Korean, to reconsider the strict demarcations between clergy and laities, and to revisit the meaning of Buddhist practice in the environments of modern time. What these descriptions suggest is that Buddhism’s encounters with modernity in Korea have been understood mainly in connection with the political situation. The primacy of political situation in the understanding of modern Korean Buddhism inevitably marginalizes the experience, which, at first glace, is not understood as directly related to the politics of the time. One such area has been the role of gender in Korean Buddhism’s encounters with modernity. In this essay, I consider Kim Iryŏp’s (1896–1971) Buddhism revealed through her life and thoughts as another expression of Korean Buddhism’s encounter with modernity. The questions I attempt to answer in this essay are as follows: What was the role that Buddhism played in the construction of woman’s identity at the dawn of the modern period in Korea? Which aspects of Buddhism made an 109 SP_PAR_Ch05_109-128.indd 109 SP_PAR_Ch05_109-128.indd 109 1/8/10 2:38:43 PM 1/8/10 2:38:43 PM 110 Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism appeal to a woman who was searching for her identity and independence? How would this consideration of the role of gender change our view about modern Korean Buddhism? This essay unfolds in three parts. The first two sections discuss Kim Iryŏp’s life before she joined the monastery as a case study of a Korean woman’s encounter with modernity; the third section investigates Kim Iryŏp’s Buddhist thought and the position of Buddhism in her philosophy; the final section considers the complex synergy in the play of gender, modernity and Buddhism in Kim Iryŏp’s writings. Love and Modernity Kim Iryŏp’s first publication as a Buddhist nun appeared in 1960, when she was sixty-four, under the title Silsŏngin ŭi hoesang (Memoir of the One who Has Lost the Mind), better known by its subtitle, Ŏ’nŭ sudoin ŭi hoesang (A Memoir of a Practitioner).7 More than a half of this book consists of her letters to ex-lovers . These letters were again reprinted in her second publication, Ch’ŏngch’ŭn ŭl pulsarŭ’go (Having Burned out the Youth, 1962). Both the first and second books became bestsellers and were credited with having converted many women to Buddhism. Readers of these books, however, might experience some uneasiness. The nature of this uneasiness is somewhat different from the uncanny feeling one frequently encounters in reading the paradoxical and unconventional language in Zen writings. In considering the reason for the uneasy feeling, one might realize that it has to do the content of these books: The main parts of both publications deal with Kim Iryŏp’s love affairs. Reading a love story of a Zen teacher in a first-person narrative is not a common experience, even when the love story takes the format of a reflection thirty years after the affairs came to an end. Despite some uncomfortable feelings readers might have as they read the details of Kim Iryŏp’s love stories, according to Kim, these books were written for the purpose of proselytization.8 In her third and last publication, entitled Haengbok kwa pulhaeng ŭi kalp’i esŏ (In Between Happiness and Misfortune, 1964), Kim Iryŏp assumes the role of a counselor by providing her advice about love for all those who suffer from both happy and unhappy experiences caused by love. Love stories have rarely been a topic of discussion in Korean Buddhism. The love story between Wŏnhyo (617–686) and Princess Yosŏk in...