통일신라와 나말려초기 지옥관념의 전개

Abstract

The idea of Hell is a way of thinking that man will be judged by what he has done during his life time, and be punished for his sin. It has its origin in mans desire to recover the incompleteness of this world in afterlife, but it has political and social character as it had developed. The idea of Hell has positive effect to help the individual to have ethical self-consciousness by self-reflection.

The thought of hell in Buddhism has developed on the base of retribution and transmigrationism, The idea of Hell was introduced in the early Sutras, and was spread through these Sutras as Buddhism was induced in East Asia. But the commons could access the idea of Hell by the folk lore, folk painting, courtesy, not by the Sutras which the commons could not understand. So The idea of Hell of Buddhism had filtered into the life of the ordinary people.

Buddhism was accepted by the public in the period of Silla Dynasty, The idea of Hell had affected the ordinary people, We can figure out the situation by the existence of story of hell which had transformed Chinese story of hell. But It seems to have a limitation in spread of the idea of Hell, because of Korean traditional idea of the next world and ignorance of gentility. Then, During the political chaos between Silla and Goryeo, people had compared the reality with the hell, this made the people have concrete idea of hell, and in Koryo Buddhism had strong effect to the daily life. As a result, The idea of Hell had influenced on peoples way of thinking and life style.