The Dhāraṇī Coffin from the Nongso Tomb and the Cult of Shattering Hell during the Koryŏ Dynasty

Abstract

Inscriptions of Buddhist mantras and dhāraṇīs were interred in Chinese tombs on behalf of the deceased from the Tang dynasty onward as the fear of postmortem judgment and punishment in the ten courts of hell became firmly rooted. This notion of the afterlife and the practice of enclosing dhāraṇī inscriptions in tombs seem to have been received by Korean Buddhists by the beginning of the Koryŏ (918–1392). This paper, through a close examination of a wooden inner coffin excavated in 2014 from a tomb in Nongso-myŏn, Ullim-ri, Sunch’ang-gun, North Chŏlla Province of Korea, sheds new light on the use of dhāraṇī on funerary objects and structures during the Koryŏ. The coffin bears, on its lacquered exterior walls, inscriptions of the Mantra of the Six-Syllable King of Great Clarities (Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ) and the Mantra for Shattering Hell (Oṃ karadeya svāhā). While defining the dhāraṇī coffin from Nongso Tomb as one form of funerary dhāraṇī, this paper situates it in the historical trajectory of such practice by comparing it with Liao (916–1125) precedents. The dhāraṇī coffins from Koryŏ and Liao tombs attest that the Buddhists made use of mantras and dhāraṇīs promising salvation of the deceased from hell during their lifetime and beyond. This study shows that two different kinds of dhāraṇīs, which are similarly named and believed to have the power of shattering hell, were practiced by Chinese and Korean Buddhists. It also proposes that the Mantra for Shattering Hell (Oṃ karadeya svāhā) may have been transmitted to the Korean peninsula as part of the food bestowal ritual before its incorporation into the funerary context.

1. Introduction

Buddhism had great influence on the notions of life and death as well as the funerary customs of the Koryŏ 高麗 (918–1392). Cremation and the use of “funerary articles” (songjong chi gu 送終之具) such as stone coffins and urns have long been considered as representative Buddhist elements that were incorporated into the funerary and burial customs of the Koryŏ; however, other Buddhist elements were also incorporated, such as mantras (chinŏn 眞言) and dhāraṇīs (tarani 陀羅尼), which were inscribed on tomb architecture, burial goods, and burial offerings. The modern scholar Liu Shu-fen 劉淑芬 defines the Buddhist incantations used in Chinese funerary art to pray for the deceased as “funerary dhāraṇīs” (Ch. muzang tuoluoni 墓葬陀羅尼), and traces their historical unfolding in detail. She convincingly argues that these dhāraṇīs were interred in Chinese tombs on behalf of the deceased from the eighth century onward as the fear of Buddhist hell permeated among the Chinese populace (S. Liu 2003, 2008).1 Postmortem judgment was a concept unfamiliar in ancient Chinese thought, and tombs were considered to be a “happy home” where the deceased would endlessly enjoy the afterlife (Wu 2010, p. 38). However, as Buddhist scriptures on the netherworld began to circulate in Chinese translation, Chinese Buddhists gradually embraced notions of the afterlife that were foreign to indigenous thought. The cult of ten kings and their postmortem judgment, which appeared at the end of the Tang 唐 (618–907), soon became widespread among Chinese Buddhists. The deceased were believed to undergo judgment for the wrongdoings of their previous life for forty-nine days in the courts of the ten kings. Consequently, the deceased were supposed to transmigrate through the six destinies or be punished in hell in accordance with the judgment. The dissemination of such a view, as Liu Shu-fen has pioneeringly shown, seems to have resulted in a practice of dhāraṇīs said to have the power of “shattering hell” (Ch. po diyu; p’a chiok 破地獄) (S. Liu 2008, pp. 125–28, 163–72).2

The “funerary dhāraṇīs” is a useful concept to better understand the function and meaning of Buddhist incantations that entered the tomb space from the Tang to the Qing 淸 (1644–1912) in the Chinese context as well as the funerary context from the early Koryŏ to the early Chosŏn 朝鮮 (1392–1910). Earlier studies of Buddhist incantations inscribed on funerary or Buddhist artifacts of the Koryŏ have mainly identified their appellations and the scripts used. Considering these inscriptions as a form of decoration, art historians have traced their formal evolution and examined their religious meaning. Fragments of a wooden inner coffin (kwan 棺), recovered from the Nongso Tomb 農所古墳 in Ullim-ri, Chŏksŏng-myŏn, Sunch’ang-gun, North Chŏlla Province in 2014, have been examined along similar lines (Figure 1).3 The wooden coffin received much scholarly attention following its initial discovery due to traces of Sanskrit letters on its lacquered exterior walls. These letters were identified as forming two Buddhist incantations—the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities (Yukcha tae myŏngwang chinŏn; Ch. Liuzi da mingwang zhenyan 六字大明王眞言; Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ) and the Mantra for Shattering Hell (P’a chiok chinŏn; Ch. Po diyu zhenyan 破地獄眞言; Oṃ karadeya svāhā)—inscribed in Siddhaṃ and Lantsa script, respectively (Kungnip Naju munhwajae yŏn’guso 2016). Their religious implications were also examined in the pioneering studies of Heo Ilbeom 허일범 and Eom Gi-pyo 엄기표 published in that report (Hŏ 2016, pp. 141–53; Ŏm 2016b, pp. 154–74).4

The current study reconsiders the “dhāraṇī coffin” from the Nongso Tomb as an embodiment of the Buddhist perspective on life and death embraced by Koryŏ Buddhists. Through a comparison with the Liao 遼 (907–1125) precedents, it situates the Nongso coffin within the historical unfolding of this unique medium in which the form of a coffin is combined with a group of dhāraṇīs. This article sets out to examine some defining features of Liao funerary dhāraṇīs. By examining the textual and ritual contexts in which the Mantra for Shattering Hell—inscribed on the Nongso coffin and Buddhist musical instruments of the Chosŏn—originally occurred, it uncovers an aspect of the Korean reception of the mantra not clearly discussed in previous studies. By so doing, this study reveals the Buddhist perspective on the afterlife reflected in the funerary practice of the Koryŏ and hitherto unknown aspects of the dhāraṇī cult in late medieval Korea. My investigation allows us to situate the dhāraṇī cult of Koryŏ within a greater East Asian context, and contributes to a better understanding of the material culture of the dhāraṇī across medieval East Asia.5

2. Some Aspects of the Liao Funerary Dhāraṇīs

A belief in hell is a prerequisite for the concept of “shattering hell”. The emergence of funerary dhāraṇīs for releasing the departed from hell reveals that the Buddhists of the time deeply believed in the judgment of the ten kings and the punishment of hell in the afterlife. The Buddhist idea of hell was gradually accepted by the Chinese starting in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386–589), as many scriptures related to hell were translated into Chinese and circulated widely. Such a vision of the afterlife, clearly embodied in postmortem judgment for one’s karmic retribution and punishment in hell, brought about belief in the Pure Land to which the devout aspired to be reborn as well as the practice of mantras for shattering hell to release those who suffered therein. The emergence of the funerary dhāraṇīs in medieval China should thus be understood as an inevitable outcome of the growing belief in hell among Chinese Buddhists (S. Liu 2008, pp. 163–80).

Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that the Chinese practice of funerary dhāraṇīs began with the circulation of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī (Sugu tarani; Ch. Suiqiu tuoluoni 隨求陀羅尼) and Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī (Pulchŏng chonsŭng tarani; Ch. Foding zunsheng tuoluoni 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼). The scriptures in which these two important dhāraṇīs are embedded were first transmitted to the Chinese continent at the end of the seventh century and they were translated into Chinese several times since then. The two dhāraṇīs soon took root among Chinese Buddhists due to their promised efficacy, which included the erasure of sin, the release of the deceased from hell, and the deliverance of the deceased. Intriguingly, few examples of dhāraṇī inscriptions have been excavated from tombs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 (907–979) and Song 宋 (960–1279) periods in the Jiangnan 江南 region of China. Given that new materials may still surface through excavation, it is premature to draw any conclusions based on the scant evidence at our disposal. Nevertheless, the geographical distribution of the post-Tang funerary dhāraṇīs that came to light thus far may indicate that such a practice passed on to the Buddhists of the central and northern parts of China under Liao rule.

The Liao funerary dhāraṇīs have a few notable features that distinguish them from their Tang precedents. First of all, a couple of incantations with the power to save the deceased were used in combination inside Liao tombs instead of using a particular mantra or dhāraṇī alone. This development seems to have been rooted in the practice of erecting a “sutra pillar” (Ch. jingchuang 經幢), a visual medium that enjoyed great popularity across China and beyond, from the Tang onward. Stone pillars engraved with Sūtra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī (Ch. Foding zunsheng tuoluoni jing 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經) in Buddhapālita’s (Ch. Fotuopoli 佛陀波利) translation were built across China starting in the eighth century. Earlier examples are usually engraved with the sutra text in its entirety, Zhijing’s 志靜 preface, and votive prayer (Ch. zaochuang ji 造幢記) all over their eight faces.6 However, from the ninth century onward, stone pillars began to be engraved with multiple incantations, as many as ten in some cases, in addition to the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī (Kuo 2014, p. 358). The sutra pillar of Niutuo si 牛頭寺 was, for instance, engraved with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī and eight other incantations. These incantations were the Dhāraṇī Mantra of the Sacred Thousand-eyed, Thousand-armed Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva Who Regards the World’s Sounds with a Vast, Wholly Perfect, Unimpeded, Greatly Compassionate Heart (Ch. Sheng qianshou qianyan Guanshiyin zizai pusa mohesa guangda yuanman wu zhangai dabei xin tuoluoni zhenyan 聖千手千眼觀世音自在菩薩摩訶薩廣大圓滿無障礙大悲心陀羅尼眞言), the Fundamental Dhāraṇī of Akṣobhya That Destroys Unfortunate Destiny (Ch. Achu rulai genben mie equ tuoluoni 阿閦如來根本滅惡趣陀羅尼), the Mantra for Purifying Verbal Karma (Ch. Jing kouye zhenyan 淨口業眞言), the Mantra of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva That Shatters Hell (Ch. Dizang pusa po diyu zhenyan 地藏菩薩破地獄眞言), the Mantra of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva That Eliminates Sin (Ch. Puxian pusa miezui zhenyan 普賢菩薩滅罪眞言), the Mantra for Dissolving Hatred of Many Lifetimes (Ch. Jie duosheng yuanjie zhenyan 解多生冤結眞言), the Mantra of Mañjuśrī with Five Knots (Ch. Wenshu wuji zhenyan 文殊五髻眞言), and the Mantra of the Auspicious Marks (Ch. Jixiang zhenyan 吉祥眞言).7

A parallel is found in the “funerary pillars” (Ch. muchuang 墓幢), which were erected on tomb grounds or buried within tombs to pray for the repose of the deceased. The octagonal stone pillar, built for a certain nun Wei Qiyi 韋契義 of Longhua si 龍花寺, who died in 818 (Yuanhe 元和 13), was engraved with the Mantra That Eliminates Unfortunate Destiny (Ch. Mie equ zhenyan 滅惡趣眞言), the Mantra of Mañjuśrī in Six Syllables (Ch. Wenshu liuzi zhenyan 文殊六字眞言), the Mantra of Mañjuśrī in Eight Syllables (Ch. Wenshu bazi zhenyan 文殊八字眞言), and the Mantra of Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva of the Five Kinds (Ch. Wuzhong Xukongzang pusa zhenyan 五種虛空藏菩薩眞言), the Mantra of Mañjuśrī in Five Syllables (Ch. Wenshu wuzi zhenyan 文殊五字眞言) together with the Sūtra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī. The lower part of the stone pillar was further engraved with the Most Secret, Well-established Dhāraṇī of the Vast Gem-encrusted Tower (Ch. Guangda baolouge shanzhu mimi tuoluoni 廣大寶樓閣善住秘密陀羅尼; hereafter, Dhāraṇī of the Gem-encrusted Tower), the Heart Mantra (Ch. Xin zhenyan 心眞言), the Heart of Hearts Mantra (Ch. Xin zhong xin zhenyan 心中心眞言), and the Mantra of the Buddha of the Lamp of Knowledge Who Shatters Hell (Ch. Zhiju rulai po diyu zhenyan 智炬如來破地獄眞言; hereafter, Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge).8

Another example is a stone pillar commissioned by Xue Chou 薛籌 in 868 (Xiantong 咸通 9) to pray for the repose of his deceased mother. This funerary pillar bears inscriptions of the Mantra for Shattering Hell (Ch. Po diyu zhenyan 破地獄眞言), Mantra for Opening the Throat [of a Hungry Ghost] (Ch. Kaihou zhenyan 開喉眞言), Mantra for Dissolving Hatred (Ch. Jie yuanjie zhenyan 解怨結眞言), and Dhāraṇī of the Heart of the Great Compassionate One (Ch. Dabei xin tuoluoni 大悲心陀羅尼) along with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī.9 Of the mantras and dhāraṇīs mentioned above, the Dhāraṇī of the Heart of the Great Compassionate One, Dhāraṇī of the Gem-encrusted Tower, Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge, and Heart of Hearts Mantra were frequently used in the funerary context during the Liao. Moreover, the use of multiple short incantations on stone pillars continued well into the Liao and Jin 金 (1115–1234) dynasties.10

Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood through the Perfect Penetration of the Exoteric and Esoteric (Ch. Xianmi yuantong chengfo xin yaoji 顯密圓通成佛心要集; hereafter, Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood), an influential text composed by Daozhen 道㲀 sometime between 1079 and 1089, had a great impact on the selection of incantations for funerary purposes in the late Liao dynasty.11 Stone pillars erected after the Qiantong 乾統 (1101–1110) reign of the Liao are often engraved with the Mantra for Purifying the Dharma Realm (Ch. Jing fajie zhenyan 淨法界眞言), Mantra for Protecting the Body (Ch. Hushen zhenyan 護身眞言), Spell of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities (Ch. Liuzi daming zhou 六字大明呪), Great Cundī Dhāraṇī (Ch. Da Zhunti tuoluoni 大准提陀羅尼), and Mantra of the One-syllable Wheel-turning King (Ch. Yizi dinglun wang zhenyan 一字頂輪王眞言). As the modern scholar Zhang Mingwu 張明悟 has rightly pointed out, this combination is based on the “Instructions for Recitation” (Chisong yigui 持誦儀軌) section of Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood, which gives detailed instructions for practicing the Great Cundī Dhāraṇī (M. Zhang 2013, pp. 102–32).12 Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge, recommended for practice in “Rite of Offering to the Buddhas and Benefitting Living Beings” (Gongfo lisheng yi 供佛利生儀)—an addendum to Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood—was frequently engraved with the set of dhāraṇīs prescribed in “Instructions for Recitation”. Although this mantra is included in more than six scriptures and ritual manuals, those inscribed on stone pillars or buried within tombs of the Liao and Jin dynasties were all derived from Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood.13 A good example is a stone stele of 1096 (Shouchang 壽昌 2), which was found next to a stone coffin in Tomb No. 3 of Wohuwan 臥虎灣, Datong City, Shanxi Province. While the front of the stele bears an inscription of the Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge that is almost identical to the one in Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood, the back is engraved with the Mantra for Purifying the Dharma Realm, Mantra for Protecting the Body, and Dhāraṇī of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities in accordance with the sequence prescribed in Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood (Figure 2).14 In addition, the Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge engraved on a gilt-bronze tablet (Ch. xiongpai 胸牌), excavated from a late Liao tomb in Batuyingzicun 巴圖營子村, Xinmin City, Liaoning Province, accords well with the mantra in Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood (Feng 1960, p. 23; M. Zhang 2013, p. 121).

Secondly, the combined use of multiple dhāraṇīs brought a change in the materialization of dhāraṇīs. During the Tang, the logic of how the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī and Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī become efficacious, which are explicated in their scriptural bases, appears to have influenced their material forms and practice. For example, Sūtra of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī instructs practitioners to carry its dhāraṇī or wear it on one’s neck or arm to attain the greatest efficacy. Furthermore, it provides detailed instructions on how to write down this dhāraṇī and which figures—divine or human—should be drawn together. The majority of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇīs—either in manuscript or xylograph form—have been excavated from tombs of the Tang and Five Dynasties periods. Some of them, encased in a metal container, were found beside the body of the deceased, whereas others were retrieved from armlets on the body (Figure 3). Such conditions indicate that the buried dhāraṇīs may have been previously owned by the deceased and that the bereaved followed scriptural prescriptions during the burial.15

By contrast, the Liao dynasty witnessed increasing use of multiple incantations on a single object or within a tomb space. Therefore, it is difficult to single out any one incantation or text as the governing authority behind materialization. While using various incantations from different scriptural sources in a limited space, such as the surface of a funerary article or the interior walls of a tomb, it would have been difficult to follow all the scriptural instructions for different incantations. Instead, the Liao Buddhists emphasized the direct contact between materialized incantations and the body of the deceased. A piece of evidence that supports this supposition can be found in an ink inscription inside a late Liao tomb at Labagou 喇叭沟, Aohanqi 敖漢旗, Neimengu Province, discovered in September of 1991. This brick tomb has an octagonal plan with a vaulted ceiling and consists of a chamber, corridor (Ch. yongdao 甬道), ceiling, and a sloping passageway. The interior walls of the chamber and corridor, as well as the brick wall outside the tomb gate, were covered in white plaster and bear murals or ink inscriptions. At the time of discovery, the west, northwest, north, northeast, and east walls of the tomb chamber, as well as the margins of the coffin stand (Ch. guanchuang 棺床), were reported to have borne ink inscriptions of some two hundred letters in Indic script. Of particular note is a four-line verse, inscribed on the center of the northern part of the vaulted ceiling, reading “When Sanskrit letters of the mantras touch the body and bones, the deceased will soon be reborn in the Pure Land, encounter the Buddha, hear the dharma, receive the personal guarantee of the attainment of Buddhahood in the future, and quickly realize the peerless great enlightenment” (眞言梵字觸尸骨, 亡字卽生淨土中; 見佛聞法親授記, 速證無上大菩提) (Figure 4) (“Aohanqi” 1999, p. 92).

This verse turns out to be praise for the Light Mantra of the Great Consecration of the Infallible Lasso Vairocana (Ch. Bukong juansuo Piluzhenafo daguanding guang zhenyan 不空羂索毘盧遮那佛大灌頂光眞言), which is said to have power to deliver all souls of the deceased (Ch. wangling 亡靈). Commonly known as the Mantra of Light (Ch. Guangming zhenyan 光明眞言), this incantation occurs in a sutra by the same name translated by Amoghavajra (Bukong Jingang 不空金剛, 705–774). Intriguingly, as Zhang Mingwu has pointed out, the verse quoted above appears not in the sutra but in Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood.16 Light Mantra of the Great Consecration of the Infallible Lasso Vairocana relates that when a practitioner scatters sand empowered by 108 recitations of the mantra on bones or a tomb, the deceased will be freed from the tortures of hell and reborn in the Western Paradise through the efficacious power of the mantra.17 Besides empowering with sand (Ch. tusha jiachi 土砂加持), Daozhen introduced another method of practicing this mantra in Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood: inscribing the mantra on paper or silk to be placed on the body or bones of the deceased. The lack of further evidence prevents us from ascertaining whether the bereaved of the tomb occupant at the Aohanqi Tomb followed the practice of empowering with sand. Given that this four-line verse was inscribed on the ceiling, and that the Sanskrit letters covered the interior of the tomb chamber, the mention of “Sanskrit letters of the mantras” (zhenyan fanzi 眞言梵字) in the inscription seems to have referred to various incantations inscribed within the tomb chamber as a whole instead of the Mantra of Light alone. By emphasizing the contact or physical proximity between inscribed mantras and the corpse, as manifested in this verse from Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood, the Liao Buddhists were able to use as many dhāraṇīs and mantras as possible in a single space without being restricted to the prescribed methods of practicing each incantation.

Thirdly, the Liao Buddhists began the practice of inscribing the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī on a coffin, which is not mentioned as a proper carrier of this incantation in the sutra. This combination represents a change in the cult of Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī that occurred in the underground tomb space, apart from the historical unfolding of funerary pillars aboveground. In particular, the wooden coffins excavated from the Zhang family cemetery in Xiabali 下八里 of Xuanhua 宣化, Zhangjiakou City 張家口市, Hebei Province provide crucial clues as to how and why the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī was inscribed on coffins. Furthermore, these wooden coffins deserve attention for showing the aforementioned tendency to inscribe multiple incantations on a single object and to emphasize the direct contact between materialized incantations and the body of the deceased. A group of ten tombs known as the Xuanhua Liao tombs 宣化遼墓 came to light through four excavations conducted from 1974 to 1993. These tombs, primarily built during the Da’an 大安 (1085–1094) and Tianqing 天慶 (1111–1120) reigns of the Liao, were constructed with bricks in imitation of timber frame architecture. Eight of the ten tombs were built for members of the Zhang family. Six yielded tomb epitaphs bearing the names and dates of the occupants: Zhang Kuangzheng 張匡正 (died in 1058 and buried in 1093), Zhang Wenzao 張文藻 (died in 1074 and buried in 1093), Zhang Shiben 張世本 (died in 1088 and buried in 1093), Zhang Shiqing 張世卿 (died in 1116 and buried in 1116), Zhang Shigu 張世古 (died in 1108 and buried in 1117), and Zhang Gongyou 張恭誘 (died in 1113 and buried in 1117).18 Although some tombs were installed with a bier while others were not, these six tombs all housed a wooden coffin inscribed with Buddhist incantations. The body of each occupant had been cremated according to the “rite of cremation in India” (Xitian tupi li 西天茶毗禮) (Hebei sheng wenwu yanjiusuo 2001, vol. 1, p. 238). Ashes culled from the funerary pyre were either directly placed in a wooden coffin or inserted in a portrait sculpture of the deceased—called an “idol with the true visage” (zhenrong ouxiang 眞容偶像)—then placed in a wooden coffin.19

Wooden coffins from the tombs of Zhang Kuangzheng, Zhang Wenzao, Zhang Shiben, and Zhang Shigu, which are in relatively good condition, allow us to examine their form, kind and method of inscription (Figure 5 and Figure 6).

Composed of a lid in truncated pyramidal shape and rectangular body, the Xuanhua coffins differ markedly from those favored since the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Since the latter consist of a vaulted lid and rectangular body, they are classified as a “type with round top and rectangular bottom” (shangyuan xiafang xing 上圓下方形) in modern scholarship. In contrast, these Liao wooden coffins are rather similar to Buddhist reliquaries consisting of a lid in truncated pyramidal shape and square body—the most basic form of Chinese reliquaries that trace back to the Northern Wei 北魏 (386–534). Three of the lid’s four sloping sides bear an inscription in Chinese, while the remaining side bears five Siddhaṃ letters. The Chinese inscription reads: “The dhāraṇī coffins are efficacious in protecting what comes under their shadow. It is hoped that they will transcend the substance of the returning hun soul, exempt it from hell, and further award it with an eternal heavenly body. We trust that the good causes of dust [on the dhāraṇī coffins] and ink [used to inscribe incantations] are as indestructible as [the universe, which is sustained by] the energy of qian and kun. Reverently inscribed” (陀羅尼棺, 以其影覆之功, 冀濟魂歸之質, 不聞地獄, 永受天身. 諒塵墨之良因, 與乾坤而等固. 謹記) (Figure 7).20

This inscription reveals not only the rationale underlying the dhāraṇī coffin but also aspirations of the deceased and the bereaved. The mention of efficacious shadow in the inscription reminds us of the teaching that the wondrous power of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī could be transferred to practitioners through the shadow of the pillar on which it is inscribed. Similar phrases praising the efficacy of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī are also found in votive inscriptions carved on stone pillars. Additionally, the phrase “good causes of dust and ink” in the inscription recalls the Sūtra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī, which argues that one could be relieved of the pain of the unfortunate path, receive the guarantee of future enlightenment by all buddhas, and attain enlightenment simply by coming in contact with dust blown from a pillar inscribed with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī (Ch. zunsheng chuang 尊勝幢).21 Intriguingly, the emphasis is placed on seeing and physically touching the dhāraṇī rather than reading or reciting it. Notably, the Xuanhua coffins are not inscribed with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī. The art historian Hsueh-man Shen has convincingly argued that inscribing the aforementioned dedicatory prayer on the four sloping sides of the lid would have been considered equivalent to constructing a pillar engraved with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī or sprinkling soil empowered with this dhāraṇī on graves (Shen 2005, p. 107).22 The wooden coffins from the Xuanhua Liao Tombs, as indicated by the merit of “shadow and dust,” represent one modality of the funerary dhāraṇīs, which was derived from funerary pillars engraved with the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī (S. Liu 2008, p. 190).

3. Buddhist Perspective on the Netherworld and Funerary Dhāraṇīs of the Koryŏ

Along with the eastward transmission of Buddhism, Koreans had received the idea of hell and postmortem judgment by the Unified Silla 統一新羅 (676–935) period (Kim 1996, pp. 114–40). On the one hand, the textual and material evidence from this period is too scant to reconstruct the cult of hell. On the other, there is ample evidence for the ancient Korean cult of dhāraṇīs although their contexts of use, and hence, their meaning, were quite different from those of contemporaneous funerary dhāraṇīs from the Chinese continent. To put it differently, the Unified Silla period witnessed great popularity of the dharma relic cult (pŏp sari sinang 法舍利信仰)—a practice of enshrining inscriptions of Buddha’s words, usually in the form of dhāraṇī inscriptions, together with or in place of bodily relics of the Buddha, inside pagodas. The Silla Buddhists tended to enshrine a copy of the Sūtra of the Great Dhāraṇī of Immaculately Pure Light (Mugu chŏnggwang tae tarani kyŏng 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經; Ch. Wugou jingguang da tuoluoni jing; hereafter, Pure Light Dhāraṇī Sūtra) or inscriptions of its dhāraṇīs inside stone pagodas. Or, they would enshrine miniature pagodas inside a larger freestanding pagoda according to the instructions laid out in the sutra.23 This type of pagoda-building practice seems to have been based on the sutra’s claim that one could eradicate sin and prolong life by means of the merit derived from repairing old pagodas or placing numerous miniature pagodas inside them.24

While emphasizing that postmortem judgment and punishment were unavoidable, the sutra promotes the practice of its dhāraṇīs as a means to overcome fears. Dyads of fears about the afterlife and their remedies, brought to the fore in the Pure Light Dhāraṇī Sūtra, are commonly found in Sūtra of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī and Sūtra of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī, all of which were translated into Chinese almost simultaneously. As examined previously, the use of Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī and Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī in the mortuary context pervaded China. Notably, material traces of the Pure Light Dhāraṇī Sūtra, whether as inscriptions of its dhāraṇīs or pagoda miniatures, are difficult to find in tombs or funerary art of the Unified Silla period. This, in turn, might indicate that the Silla Buddhists faithfully followed its instructions of enshrining dhāraṇī inscriptions or pagoda miniatures inside larger pagodas. In other words, as the Buddhists of the Tang and Silla faithfully followed the instructions in dhāraṇī sutras of their choosing, the spatial contexts and material forms of dhāraṇīs changed accordingly. According to the archaeologist Ch’a Sunchŏl 차순철, the Silla Koreans came to build a pagoda or hold a funerary rite inside a Buddhist temple for the repose of the dead after the introduction of the Pure Light Dhāraṇī Sūtra to the kingdom, thereby shifting away from the previous customs of building a tomb for a cinerary urn or scattering ashes after cremation at the seaside or in the mountains. Consequently, tombs with cinerary urns fell out of favor by the late Silla (Ch’a 2008, pp. 72–74). It is noteworthy that inscriptions of the verse of dependent origination (Skt. pratītya-samutpada-gāthā; yŏngi pŏp song 緣起法頌) or Cundī Dhāraṇī were also discovered within stone pagodas of the Unified Silla and early Koryŏ. This further indicates that inscriptions of mantras and dhāraṇīs were primarily used in the context of pagoda worship instead of tombs.25

By the Koryŏ dynasty, the idea of Buddhist hell seems to have made a greater impact on the minds and daily life of Koreans.26 Good examples are found in the anecdotes of King T’aejo 太祖 (r. 913–918), the dynastic founder of Koryŏ, and King Kwangjong 光宗 (r. 949–975), both of whom slaughtered many opponents to consolidate royal power. The “Stele Inscription for the Powŏl Sŭnggong Stūpa of the Master Chinch’ŏl of Kwangjosa in Haeju” (Haeju Kwangjosa Chinch’ŏl taesa Powŏl Sŭnggong t’appi mun 海州廣照寺眞澈大師寶月乘空塔碑文, dated 937) relates that King T’aejo, who was a Buddhist, feared that he would be judged by King Yama in hell due to his sin of killing. Consequently, the king is said to have sought advice from the monk Yiŏm 利嚴 (870–936) (Yi 1994, pp. 37–40). Having worried about retribution, King Kwangjong is recorded to have held many assemblies (chaehoe 齋會) to atone for his taking of lives.27 Belief in the ten kings of hell, which was well received by Korean Buddhists by the mid-Koryŏ, must have paved the way for the emergence of funerary dhāraṇīs. Highly developed in Tang China in the ninth century, the cult of the ten kings seems to have arrived in the Korean peninsula by the tenth century. Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha to the Four Orders on the Prophecy Given to King Yama Concerning the Sevens of Life to Be Cultivated in Preparation for Rebirth in the Pure Land (Ch. Foshuo Yanluowang shouji sizhong nixiu shengqi wangsheng jingtu jing 佛說閻羅王授記四衆逆修生七往生淨土經; hereafter, Sūtra of the Ten Kings)—a Chinese apocrypha known to have been composed by a monk Zangchuan 藏川 of Dashengci si 大聖慈寺, Chengdu Prefecture 城都府 sometime between the late Tang and Five Dynasties—draws from the Buddhist cult of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Daoist notion of postmortem judgment.28 Sūtra of the Ten Kings instructs one to hold ten memorial services after a person’s death—seven performed at seven-day intervals for forty-nine days, one held 100 days after the death, one held on the one-year anniversary, and the last on the three-year anniversary—to pay tribute to the ten kings and acquire merit for the deceased.

According to some accounts scattered throughout History of Koryŏ (Koryŏsa 高麗史), the royal court had already accepted the cult of the ten kings and halls or temples that housed images of the ten kings had been built in the capital Kaegyŏng 開京 by the early Koryŏ. For instance, Kim Ch’iyang 金致陽 (d. 1009) was recorded as having constructed Siwangsa 十王寺 to the northwest of the palace city (kungsŏng 宮城) in 1004. Unfortunately, there is no visual evidence that allows us to grasp the form and material make-up of the ten kings cult in the Koryŏ. History of Koryŏ further relates that “the paintings and statues were so bizarre that it was difficult to describe them” (其圖像奇怪難狀).29 This account suggests that paintings of scenes from hell together with statues of the ten kings were enshrined at Siwangsa. When Hall of the Ten Kings (Siwangdang 十王堂) of Hŭngboksa 興福寺 in Sŏgyŏng 西京 was completed in the fifth day of the ninth lunar month in 1102, King Sukchong 肅宗 (r. 1095–1105) commanded the crown prince to pay a visit and burn incense. On the following day, the king—together with his principal queen (hubi 后妃), crown prince, and lords—personally visited the temple to celebrate the completion of its construction.30 Though fragmentary, a record found in History of Koryŏ points to the royal court’s embrace of the ten kings cult since the twelfth century. When King Injong 仁宗 (r. 1122–1146) took ill, prayers for his good health were offered at Siwangsa.31 By the end of the eleventh century, ten memorial services based on Sūtra of the Ten Kings were held after a person’s death as indicated by the stele inscription for a funerary stūpa of the monk Sohyŏn 韶顯 (1038–1096) of Kŭmsansa 金山寺 (Chōsen sōtokufu 1919, p. 301; Chŏnggak 2002, p. 319). The “Tomb Epitaph of Chŏng Chiwŏn” (Chŏng Chiwŏn myojimyŏng 鄭知源墓誌銘, dated 1149) suggests that a memorial service on the 100th day after death was also practiced in the twelfth century (Y. Kim 1993, p. 104).

Inscriptions of Sanskrit dhāraṇīs, mantras, and seed syllables in various forms have been found in Koryŏ and Chosŏn tombs in the southern Korean peninsula. Judging from the cases known so far, seed syllables were engraved on the outside of tombs in the twelfth century,32 and tomb epitaphs engraved with mantras and dhāraṇīs were buried with the deceased in the thirteenth century. Two tomb epitaphs from the mid and late Koryŏ, respectively, show a tendency to include several dhāraṇīs, considered efficacious in eradicating sins of the deceased and facilitating their rebirth in the Pure Land. The selection of such incantations, as we have examined above, parallels the historical trajectory of Chinese funerary dhāraṇīs. The back of the tomb epitaph of Yang T’aekch’un 梁宅椿 (1172–1254), a scholar-official who was a devout Buddhist in the late Koryŏ, bears inscriptions of the Mantra of the Highest of the Highest Stage (Sangp’um sangsaeng chinŏn 上品上生眞言), Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities, Mantra of the Gem-encrusted Tower, and Spell of Settling on Rebirth in the Pure Land (Kyŏlchŏng wangsaeng chŏngt’o chu 決定往生淨土呪). Each incantation is first engraved in Siddhaṃ letters, followed by its title in Chinese characters from top to bottom (Figure 8 and Figure 9) (Hŏ 1984, pp. 143–48; Kungnip chungang pangmulgwan 2006, pp. 86–87). The tomb epitaph of Yun Po’s 尹珤 wife—Hŭngnye kundae puin 興禮郡大夫人 of the Pak clan 朴氏 (d. 1321)—ends with the Mantra for Being Born in Various Heavenly Palaces (Ku saeng che ch’ŏn’gung chinŏn 求生諸天宮眞言), Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities, and Mantra for Purifying the Dharma Realm—all of which are inscribed in Siddhaṃ letters without accompanying Chinese titles.

Xylographs of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī and other mantras, as well as bronze mirrors cast with the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities, Cundī Dhāraṇī and so on constitute one form of funerary dhāraṇīs as well (Ŏm 2016a, pp. 35–82). A good example is a xylograph copy of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī and its metal container—allegedly found inside a Koryŏ tomb during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The usage of the dhāraṇī and its material make-up closely mirror Chinese precedents from the Tang and Five Dynasties. Despite the chronological gap between the Tang and Koryŏ examples, this set attests that Chinese and Korean Buddhist followers interred inscriptions of the Mahāpratisarā Dhāraṇī faithfully following scriptural prescriptions (Figure 10).33

Mantras and dhāraṇīs used in tomb burials and funerary customs of the Koryŏ were believed to have the efficacy of eliminating bad karma, shattering hell, and granting the deceased rebirth in the Western Paradise, as their titles clearly suggest. For their supposed efficacy, these incantations had been widely used for funerary purposes in China. However, when did this group of incantations begin to be used in combination with the form of a coffin? Wooden coffins were the burial articles most favored by the upper echelon of Koryŏ, although they were rarely found intact due to their highly biodegradable nature. The foregoing analysis suggests that wooden coffins inscribed with incantations, efficacious for shattering hell and saving the deceased, were most likely used in tomb burials by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

4. Dhāraṇī Coffin of Nongso Tomb and the Cult of Shattering Hell

Known as the tomb of a Wang clansman or a king, the Nongso Tomb had been robbed but was excavated by the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (Kungnip Naju munhwajae yŏn’guso 국립나주문화재연구소) in 2014. Consisting of an earthen burial mound and facilities aboveground with a burial pit underground, it is a typical Koryŏ pit tomb with a wooden coffin (mokkwan togwang myo 木棺土壙墓) (Figure 11). The wooden inner coffin, enshrined within a wooden outer coffin, was buried at the center of a vertical pit. The space between the earthen walls and the coffin construct was tightly packed with charcoal to protect the wood from moisture (Figure 12).

In addition, a niche was made in the east, west, and south walls of the pit, respectively. The location of these niches led the excavators to surmise that grave artifacts had been stored there prior to the placing of the wooden coffins. The east niche held a bronze bowl of hair placed on a lacquer stand, whereas the west niche held stacked lacquer pieces, nine in total, a bronze spoon and chopsticks, and a bronze bowl. The south niche yielded a bronze bowl (Kungnip Naju munhwajae yŏn’guso 2016, pp. 59–78). At the time of discovery, the wooden inner and outer coffins completely adhered to each other, and the top plate of the inner coffin had rotted and sagged due to the weight of the earth. After the initial investigation, the wooden inner coffin was separated into its east, west, south, and north side plates and bottom plate. The east and west plates correspond to the long sides of the rectangular inner coffin, while the south and north plates correspond to the short sides (Figure 13). The wooden inner coffin, in relatively good condition, measures approximately 220 cm long, 95 cm wide, 55 cm high, and 11 cm thick. Although the fragmentary state of the top prevents us from reconstructing the complete form of the inner coffin, it is still discernible that the wooden inner coffin is much larger than a cinerary urn for cremated remains of the deceased. Considering that a skeleton was found inside the inner coffin during the excavation, the tomb occupant apparently chose to be buried instead of cremated.34 The two kinds of incantations on the inner coffin indicate that the deceased was a devout Buddhist. This further suggests that Buddhism still had a considerable impact on burial customs of Koreans even in the late Koryŏ when cremation fell out of favor. Judging from the structure of the tomb and formal features of the coffins, it appears to have been a tomb of an upper-class person built in the late Koryŏ although no written records identifying the date of tomb construction or name of the deceased were found (Yi et al. 2016, pp. 138–39).

The wooden inner coffin bears Sanskrit inscriptions of the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities (Oṃ maṇi pad me hūṃ) and Mantra for Shattering Hell (Oṃ karadeya svāhā) all over its lacquered surface. Circles with a diameter of 8–10 cm were drawn on the surface in greyish white pigment containing silver. A Siddhaṃ letter was written inside each circle in yellow pigment containing gold (Figure 14). Currently, some 350 letters are discernible. Considering the size of the wooden plates, the rectangular coffin likely was covered with 738 Siddhaṃ letters in total on all of its sides except for the bottom (Figure 15) (Yi et al. 2016, p. 133). In addition to Siddhaṃ script, Lantsha script was sometimes used, and some of the letters forming the incantations were omitted in the inscriptions. In accordance with the writing style of Chinese characters at the time, the Sanskrit letters were inscribed from top to bottom and right to left. The question then arises as to the origin of this particular combination of incantations.

The Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities is an important incantation that was frequently inscribed on Buddhist and funerary artifacts of the Koryŏ and Chosŏn periods. Beginning in the twelfth century, the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities appeared on Buddhist ritual implements of the Koryŏ. One early example is the incense burner dated to 1177 in the collection of P’yoch’ungsa 表忠寺, Miryang 密陽. Its rim bears six inlay Siddhaṃ letters reading Oṃ maṇi pad me hūṃ, while its body is inscribed with four Siddhaṃ letters reading Oṃ ah hūṃ hrih in silver inlay (Figure 16).35 Also, four Sanskrit letters reading Oṃ maṇi padme, an abbreviated form of the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities, are inlaid in silver on the body of an undated bronze incense burner in the collection of T’ongdosa Museum (T’ongdosa sŏngbo pangmulgwan 通度寺聖寶博物館) and another incense burner that once belonged to the Residence of Princess Hamp’yŏng (Hamp’yŏng kungju pang 咸平宮主房) and is now in the collection of Taegu National Museum (Kungnip Taegu pangmulgwan 國立大邱博物館). A gilt-bronze sutra case housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is also inscribed with the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities in Siddhaṃ. The sutra case, stylistically datable to the twelfth century, attests to the great popularity that the incantation enjoyed among Koryŏ Buddhists of the time (Figure 17 and Figure 18).

By contrast, there are few examples inscribed with the Mantra for Shattering Hell from the Koryŏ dynasty. It was only in the Chosŏn dynasty that the Mantra for Shattering Hell in conjunction with the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities was more widely used on Buddhist temple bells (Figure 19 and Figure 20).36 Inscriptions of the two mantras on the Nongso coffin are the only examples known to appear on a funerary artifact rather than a Buddhist ritual artifact. Moreover, the Nongso coffin predates all known examples of the Buddhist temple bells cast with the two mantras. The combination of the coffin form and the use of the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities together with the Mantra for Shattering Hell strongly recalls the dhāraṇī coffins from the Xuanhua Liao Tombs examined previously. Given that dhāraṇīs in various material forms were interred in Liao tombs and that the Liao and Koryŏ had vibrant cultural exchanges via Buddhism, it is highly plausible that the Liao cult of funerary dhāraṇīs may have reached the Korean peninsula and had a considerable impact on Koryŏ. Given that the Liao and Koryŏ Buddhists used different mantras with a similar name and identical efficacy on coffins, we should scrutinize the transmission and reception of the Mantra for Shattering Hell in Koryŏ more closely.

The Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities appears to have been transmitted to Koryŏ by the end of the eleventh century through the Sūtra of the Sublime Treasure King of the Great Vehicle (Skt. Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra; Taesŭng changŏm powang kyŏng 大乘莊嚴寶王經), translated into Chinese by Tianxizai 天息災 (fl. 980–1000) under the Northern Song (M. Kim 1986, pp. 551–608). Previous studies tended to focus on fascicle 4, which has direct bearing on the Mantra of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities. However, we should look at how Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, the utterer of the mantra, is portrayed within the overall synopsis of the sutra and examine what type of efficacy was hoped for in return for the practice of the mantra. This is because the framing narrative would have functioned as a tool to promote the efficacy of the mantra newly introduced to the Koryŏ people.

Fascicles 1 and 2 offer an abundance of hell imagery in graphic detail. Fascicle 1 relates that those who hear and recite the Sūtra of the Sublime Treasure King of the Great Vehicle will have their karma perished and will be reborn in the land of ultimate bliss. It further relates that Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva will descend to Avīci Hell to save all sentient beings from incessant suffering and to deliver hungry ghosts. In this respect, it differs from the ancient cult of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva based on the “Chapter of the Universal Gateway” (Kwanseŭm posal pomun p’um; Ch. Guanshiyin pusa pumen pin 觀世音菩薩普門品) in the Lotus Sūtra, which stresses salvation in the present world. The spectacle of shattering hell is vividly rendered as follows: “When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva enters the midst of that hell, a boiling cauldron becomes broken and all the raging fire disappears, and the huge fiery pit transforms into a treasure pond, and a lotus flower as large as the wheel of a cart blooms in the pond”.37 Next, fascicle 3 stresses the difficulty of obtaining the dhāraṇī method of the Dhāraṇī of the Six-syllable King of Great Clarities and explicates the merit generated by practicing the dhāraṇī. The method of chanting the Mantra of the Six-syllables indicated here is rather generic, and there is no emphasis on specific methods of practice such as carrying it on one’s body or in particular mediums such as dust and shadow. However, mention should be made of a passage reading “If one who holds this dhāraṇī touches another person’s body, the person in contact will also soon attain the status of a bodhisattva”.38 This clearly reveals a notion that the efficacy of the dhāraṇī could be transferred from a practitioner to a third party through direct contact. The Mantra of the Six-syllables first appears in fascicle 4, where Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin Bodhisattva (Chegaejang Posal 除蓋障菩薩) utters the efficacy of this dhāraṇī: it “breaks the reincarnations in the five destines, cuts off worldly desires by purifying all hells, and saves and releases animals”.39 The foregoing analysis allows us to grasp the reason why the Mantra of the Six-syllables—included in a sutra translated under the Northern Song—was quickly accepted in Liao and Koryŏ and utilized in tombs for the postmortem benefit of the deceased. Past scholarship regarded the Mantra of the Six-syllables as primarily practiced through chanting in the Koryŏ. However, the Nongso coffin attests that this mantra was materialized and utilized inside tombs. The teachings of Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood, which advocates the practice of the Mantra of the Six-syllables, seem to have influenced the formation of the Koryŏ practice as in the case of Liao funerary dhāraṇīs.

While the Mantra of the Six-syllables was widely used to pray for the salvation of sentient beings transmigrating in the six paths and for one’s rebirth in the Pure Land, the Mantra for Shattering Hell seems not to have enjoyed such popularity and was mostly used in conjunction with the Mantra of the Six-syllables on the surface of Buddhist temple bells. Previous studies suggested that the sound of such temple bells was believed to deliver beings from hell. However, the scriptural source and original context in which this mantra occurs has not been examined thus far. As mentioned previously, two mantras by a similar name enjoyed popularity almost simultaneously in late medieval China and Korea.40 The first corresponds to Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge, which was frequently used in the funerary context during the Tang and Liao periods. This incantation occurs in Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Lamp of Knowledge (Ch. Zhiju tuoluoni jing 智炬陀羅尼經), translated into Chinese by Devaprajña (Ch. Tiyunbore 提雲般若, fl. late 7^th century), and Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī of the Gnostic Lamp Which Destroys All Karmic Hindrances (*Skt. Jñānolkādhāraṇī-sarvadurgatipariśodhanī; Ch. Zhiguang mie yiqie yezhang tuoluoni jing 智光滅一切業障陀羅尼經), translated by Dānapāla (Ch. Shihu 施護, d. 1017).41 When recited, Avīci Hell—the lowest of all realms in hell—would be destroyed and the beings suffering therein would attain enlightenment. This mantra began to be practiced in the Tang dynasty and circulated widely in the Chinese Buddhist sphere well into the Song and Liao dynasties. For instance, Yongming Yanshou 永明延壽 (904–976)—the eminent Chan master of Wuyue Kingdom 吳越國—recited a total of 11 dhāraṇīs and mantras day and night. He chanted the Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge in order to destroy all hell realms and shut down the unfortunate paths.42

The section of Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood entitled “Rite of Offering to the Buddhas and Benefitting Living Beings” elaborates upon the method of practicing this mantra, the merit derived therefrom, and the use of Sanskrit letters during the practice. It relates that “If one wishes to deliver the hell [beings], one should recite the Mantra of the Mind of the Buddha of the Lamp of Knowledge Who Shatters Hell one time. Then, the Unremitting Hell would be shattered like dust. Sentient beings who suffer pains there would all be reborn in the realm of the ultimate bliss” (若救地獄, 誦智炬如來心破地獄眞言一遍, 無間地獄碎如微塵. 於中受苦衆生, 悉生極樂世界).43 It claims that “If one inscribes this dhāraṇī on a bell, a drum, a handheld bell, a wooden gong and so on, upon hearing its sound all beings will be freed of their sin [generated from] ten unwholesome behaviors, five heinous sins, and so on, and would not fall into evil rebirth” (若書此陀羅尼, 於鍾鼓鈴鐸作聲木上等, 有諸衆生得聞聲者, 所有十惡五逆等罪, 悉皆消滅不墮諸惡趣中).44 It further states that “Also, all sutras say that the written dhāraṇīs that bring benefit and joy to living beings are all [written] using the Sanskrit letters of India. It is not written in any other script. Or, if it is written in both Indic letters and Chinese characters, it would be absolutely marvelous” (又凡諸經中説, 書寫陀羅尼利樂有情者, 皆用西天梵字. 非是隨方文字也. 如或梵漢字雙兼書之, 更妙).45 Intriguingly, the Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge has bearings on ritual manuals for the food bestowal (sisik; Ch. shishi 施食). Referred to as the assembly for feeding hungry ghosts (si agwi hoe; Ch. shi egui hui 施餓鬼會) as well, the food bestowal is a ritual of feeding orphaned souls (kohon; Ch. guhun 孤魂) or hungry ghosts. A number of manuals for this ritual ceremony were compiled during the Song and Yuan dynasties. A mantra for shattering hell that appears to have the same root yet with slightly different pronunciation was published in manuals for the food bestowal ritual compiled in the Jin and Yuan dynasties. Good examples are found in Sūtra of the Flaming Mouth Liturgy, the Collected Essentials of the Yoga of the Dhāraṇī That Saved Ānanda (Ch. Yuqie jiyao qiu Anan tuoluoni yankou yigui jing 瑜伽集要救阿難陀羅尼焰口儀軌經) from the Jin dynasty and fascicle 1 of Food Bestowal Rite of the Collected Essentials of Yoga of Flaming Mouth (Ch. Yuqie jiyao yankou shishi yi 瑜伽集要焰口施食儀) of the Yuan dynasty, respectively.46

Surviving evidence suggests that Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge was not widely circulated or practiced during the Koryŏ.47 Instead, a different incantation for shattering hell, sounding Oṃ karadeya svāhā, was inscribed on the Nongso coffin and temple bells of the Chosŏn dynasty. It is noteworthy that Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood was already known among the Koryŏ Buddhists by the early thirteenth century and had considerable impact on the dhāraṇī cult of the time. During the Koryŏ, dhāraṇīs culled from various sutras were often published as a compendium. Among such compilations, Collection of Sanskrit Dhāraṇīs (Pŏmsŏ ch’ongji chip 梵書摠持集) was deemed worthy of reprinting several times since the mid-twelfth century. Of the six xylograph editions of Collection of Sanskrit Dhāraṇīs known thus far, a preface to the edition published in 1218—in the former collection of Professor Min Yŏnggyu 민영규 and now housed in Yonsei University Library—included a fair amount of texts culled from Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood.48 To put it differently, although Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood—the scriptural basis for Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge that was used on stone pillars or in tombs of the Liao dynasty—was known to Koryŏ by the early thirteenth century, the Koryŏ Buddhists chose a different mantra for breaking open the gates of hell.49 Then, when and where was Mantra for Shattering Hell established? And, how did this mantra find its way to Koryŏ?

Although the material evidence at our disposal is too scant to draw any conclusions, Mantra for Shattering Hell seems not to have been widely used in the Chinese funerary context. Rather, this mantra is closely related to manuals for the food bestowal ritual that were compiled after the Southern Song. Consequently, this mantra may have been transmitted to Koryŏ as part of the food bestowal corpus including the water and land retreat (suryuk chae; Ch. shuilu zai 水陸齋). To the best of my knowledge, one of the early sources in which the mantra occurs is Survey of Food Bestowal Rites (Ch. Shishi tonglan 施食通覽), compiled in 1204 by Zongxiao 宗曉 (1151–1214) of the Southern Song. Toward the end of this survey appears a four-line verse titled “Efficacy of Reciting the Verse for Shattering Hell” (Song po diyu jie ganyan 誦破地獄偈感驗), which is said to have been uttered by the Bodhisattva Enlightened Forest (Jielin Pusa 覺林菩薩) in the Flower Garland Sutra. It is followed by a miraculous tale and an incantation reading Oṃ karadeya svāhā (唵佉羅帝耶薩訶) in Chinese transliteration under the entry titled the “Efficacy of Reciting the Spell for Shattering Hell” (Song po diyu zhou ganyan 誦破地獄呪感驗).50 Several food bestowal liturgies, compiled by Zunshi 遵式 (964–1032) of the Northern Song and included in Survey of Food Bestowal Rites, include neither the Verse for Shattering Hell nor the Mantra for Shattering Hell. This may indicate that the verse and mantra were added to the food bestowal corpus by the Southern Song. An identical combination of the four-line verse and mantra also appears in fascicle 3 of Ritual Manual for Performing the Retreat of the Grand Assembly of All Saintly and Mundane Beings of Water and Land (Ch. Fajie shengfan shuilu shenghui xiu zai yigui 法界聖凡水陸勝會修齋儀軌), compiled by Zhipan 志磐 (1220–1275) of the Southern Song and amended by Zhuhong 祩宏 (1535–1615) of the Ming 明 (1368–1644).51 The identical mantra occurs in fascicle 1 of Ruxing’s 如馨 (1541–1615) compilation, titled Principle for a Meeting [to Observe] the Condition of the Precepts according to the Scriptures and Rules Collections (Ch. Jingllü jiexiang busa guiyi 經律戒相布薩軌儀).52 It is also found in fascicle 9 of Precious Repentance of the Grand Retreat of All Saintly and Mundane Beings of Water and Land (Ch. Fajie shengfan shuilu da zhai falun baochan 法界聖凡水陸大齋寶懺) compiled by Zhiguan 咫觀 of the Qing dynasty.53

Scholars of Buddhism and book culture have suggested that manuals for the assembly of feeding hungry ghosts were not introduced to Korea, and related rituals were not conducted, until the middle and late Koryŏ. It was not until the end of the Koryŏ or the early Chosŏn dynasty that Revised and Augmented Ritual Liturgy for the Food Bestowal in Meditation and Teaching (Chŭngsu sŏn’gyo sisik ŭimun; Ch. Zengxiu chanjiao shishi yiwen 增修禪敎施食義文)—conventionally associated with the Southern Song Chan master Mengshan Deyi 蒙山德異 (b. 1231)—was well received by the Buddhist community and that a number of manuals for the assembly of feeding hungry ghosts were compiled and published (Chŏnggak 2002, pp. 330–36; Hŏ 2008, pp. 80–91). This influential manual is also fraught with limitations. It is not to be found in Chinese Buddhist canons, which prevents us from examining where the edition extant in Korea was published and how this edition found its way to Korea (Uhlmann 2007, p. 113). However, this ritual manual holds a significant place in the Korean Buddhist tradition, for it served as a model for a number of manuals for the feeding hungry ghost assembly. Such manuals, circulated and practiced in Korea, commonly instruct practitioners to summon souls (ch’ŏnghon 請魂), to state one’s intention (p’yobaek 表白), and to recite the Spell of the Great Compassion (Taebi chu 大悲咒), the Verse for Shattering Hell from the Flower Garland Sutra, and then the Mantra for Shattering Hell. This combination and sequence are traceable to both Survey of Food Bestowal Rites and Revised and Augmented Ritual Liturgy for the Food Bestowal in Meditation and Teaching, examined previously.

5. Conclusions

Through an analysis of the dhāraṇī coffin excavated at the Nongso Tomb, this study has examined how Koryŏ Buddhists embraced Buddhist notions of the netherworld and practiced dhāraṇīs. The dhāraṇī coffin shows that the Koryŏ Buddhist devotees not only practiced incantations, believed to relieve souls from the suffering of hell, in their life on earth but also used them inside tombs where the body would be laid down posthumously. This paper has situated the Nongso coffin in the historical unfolding of Liao funerary dhāraṇīs in an attempt to find its origins. Like the Tang precedents, funerary dhāraṇīs of the Liao and Koryŏ were closely related to the notion of destroying hell to save the deceased from suffering. The idea of shattering hell is premised upon a belief in hell. Therefore, the widespread use of such dhāraṇīs attests that the Buddhist view of life and death—including retribution, postmortem judgment in the underworld, transmigration through the six kinds of rebirth, and punishment in hell—had widely permeated the hearts of medieval East Asians.

A few well-known incantations, such as the Mantra of the Six-syllables and Mantra of the Gem-encrusted Tower, were known to have been favored during the Koryŏ. With inscriptions of the Mantra of the Six-syllables and Mantra for Shattering Hell, the Nongso coffin showcases hitherto unknown, diverse aspects of the dhāraṇī cult in the Koryŏ period. Of course, limitations of the materials at our disposal hinder us from explaining the temporal gap between the Koryŏ and Liao funerary dhāraṇīs. Considering that Koryŏ and Liao exchanged Buddhist texts and material culture, it is highly plausible that Liao ritual manuals for practicing Buddhist incantations such as Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood were transmitted to Koryŏ and had considerable impact on its Buddhist devotional culture.54 As in the case of Mantra of the Six-syllables, the Mantra for Shattering Hell, whose scriptural authority has yet to be found, may have been transmitted to Korea couched within a dhāraṇī sutra translated under the Northern or Southern Song. Or, it could have been known to Koryŏ Buddhists as part of secondary sources such as Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood.

The Mantra for Shattering Hell that the Koryŏ and Chosŏn Buddhists preferred differs from the one with a similar name favored by the Tang and Liao Buddhists. As I have shown in this article, the mantra seems to have been transmitted to Korea as part of the food bestowal corpus. The belief that the sound of the mantra, actualized through the performance of the Buddhist musical instrument on which it is inscribed, relieves sentient beings from the tortures of hell is clearly stated in Yanshou’s Record of the Personal Conduct (Ch. Zixing lu 自行錄) and Daozhen’s Collected Essentials on Attaining Buddhahood. However, the Mantra of the Lamp of Knowledge presented in these two texts has yet to be found on Buddhist musical instruments or funerary articles from Koryŏ. This raises the possibility that the route through which the hell-shattering mantras reached Korea was far from singular.