The Power of the Buddhas: The Politics of Buddhism During the Koryŏ Dynasty (918-1392) (review)

This is a work of impressive scope, minute detail, and wide overview. It presents a period still little known in any detail but widely perceived as thoroughly Buddhist; and it does so in an open, engaging manner that explicitly situates Koryŏ Buddhism in an East Asian context, and the study of Koryŏ Buddhism in the fields of history, religious studies, and Buddhist studies. To start with my conclusion: this volume is essential reading for students of Korean history, Koryŏ history, Buddhist history, and anyone interested in the interaction of politics and religion in general.

It is tempting to see the society of the Koryŏ dynasty as Buddhist, given the ubiquity of Buddhism throughout the five centuries when the Koryŏ state ruled. Yet, although scholars often take the fundamental Buddhist nature of the Koryŏ state as a given, one can legitimately question whether Buddhism was even the state ideology during the Koryŏ period. Sem Vermeersch's The Power of the Buddhas: The Politics of Buddhism During the Koryŏ Dynasty (918-1392) recognizes the pluralist orientation of the Koryŏ state and society, while focusing on the crucial role Buddhism played in shaping the state. At the center of the book lies the question of the exact nature of the relation between religion and politics. Vermeersch problematizes this relationship in several ways but without problematizing these concepts per se: as is clear from the section "Methodological Considerations: Religion and Political Order" in the introduction, he takes these categories, mutatis mutandis, to be universally applicable. While emphasizing the worldly nature of Buddhism in its function in legitimating the state, a characteristic of East Asian Buddhism that, according to Vermeersch, has been frequently underestimated and is second only to Confucianism in this respect, he also engages with the perennial questions debated by scholars of Korean Buddhism. Foremost among these is the often-invoked question of state protectionism. Habitually seen as the defining characteristic of Korean Buddhism, the notion that Korean Buddhism protected the state has been cogently criticized by Robert Buswell and Kim Jongmyung, who remain skeptical, if only because most theories emphasizing Buddhism as legitimating and protecting the state are based on the tenuous practice of retrojecting the idea of the nation into the Korean past.¹ Vermeersch, while largely agreeing with Buswell and Kim, admits that Koryŏ Buddhism to a small degree protected the state, but he additionally points out that the way Buddhism acted in Korea closely resembles how it acted in most other countries: Buddhist institutions allied themselves with, and sought protection from, the monarchy. A crucial point Vermeersch touches on is how the notion of protecting the state is not only too broad to allow meaningful analysis but also obfuscates subtle patterns of Buddhism's interactions with the state and emphasizes the need to protect the state from foreign invasions. Mainstream Korean and international historical scholarship on Korea, and the Koryŏ period in particular, still singles out the occurrence of foreign invasions as a defining characteristic of Korean and Koryŏan historical experiences; still it can be easily argued that periods of peace were actually prevalent in the Koryŏ period.²

The introduction to The Power of the Buddhas can, for once, be taken as a real introduction; it not only presents the themes and issues the book deals with; more importantly, I would say, it gives a near-perfect blueprint of Vermeersch's approach. It makes a succinct and clear statement of Vermeersch's intent, embeds the central issues in general theories that have emerged from the fields of religious and Buddhist studies, and shows both a detailed awareness of Korean scholarship (as well as a balanced historiographical understanding of the historical circumstances that shape scholarly trends) and an excellent command of the sources.

The Power of the Buddhas is divided into three parts: "Historical and Ideological Background," "The Official Institution of Buddhism," and "The...