The study on Korean Taoism is at the first stage now. This is obvious in point that basic documents are not systematically arranged.
In Korea Taoism has been less prevalent than Buddhism and Confucianism. The reasons were especially Taoism had not r...
The study on Korean Taoism is at the first stage now. This is obvious in point that basic documents are not systematically arranged.
In Korea Taoism has been less prevalent than Buddhism and Confucianism. The reasons were especially Taoism had not religious body but supported hermits and believed as a folk religion. Therefore Taoist documents were more short. Taking these situations into account, Koryo Dynasty seems to be a theasure-ho- use of studies on Taoism. Koryo Dynasty indiscriminately accepted almost all religions and Taoism was the most dominating religious factor throughout the Korean history. As the result of it, so many Taoist documents were remained.
They are arranged as two sorts. One is historical documents, the other is funeral-oration documents. The former has been arranged and veported in my article in " Korea Religion" No. 10 ; 1985 published by the Research Institute for Religions, Won Kwang Univ, the latfer in this article.
I focus on document in Koryo Dynasty, but works of Choi Chi Won(857~?) who lived in the end of Shilla Dynasty and Lee Seung So(1422~1484) who lived in early Yi Dynasty are in cluded. Therefore I think documents which are arranged in this article include all remained Korean funeral-oration have been regarded as typical samples. And works in Koryo Dynasty succeeded to Yi Dynasty when Taoist royal rituals were disappeared.
We can rearrange and analyze the Taoist thoughts of Koryo Dynasty from these documents. And Social conditions of Taoism can be made clear by the fact that all writers of these documents were high bureaucrats and Confucian scholars.