Songs of the Moon's Reflection on a Thousand Rivers
Songs of the Moon's Reflection on a Thousand Rivers discovered at Silsangsa TempleThis is the Worin cheongangjigok (Songs of the Moon's Reflection on a Thousand Rivers, one of the excavated relics from a Buddha statue of Silsangsa Temple in Junggye-ri, Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun. This song was composed to glorify Sakyamuni’s virtues by King Sejong, It was designated as National Treasure No. 320.
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LocationGunmak-gil Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- CategoryRegional Overview
- Korean「월인천강지곡」
- Chinese月印千江之曲
- FieldHistory / Premodern
- Contents TypeArts / Literary Work
- Background LocationGunmak-gil Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- Definition
- A collection of songs composed by King Sejong in 1447 to honor the greatness of Shakyamuni Buddha.
- Summary
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Songs of the Moon's Reflection on a Thousand Rivers (Worin Cheongangjigok) is a collection of musical works composed by King Sejong (r. 1418-1450). This particular book was found in 1914 in the depository made inside the body of a Buddhist statue enshrined in Silsangsa Temple in Junggye-ri, Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do. When his beloved wife, Queen Soheon, died in 1446, King Sejong issued an order to his son, Prince Suyang (later King Sejo), to compile Episodes from the Life of Sakyamuni Buddha (Seokbosangjeol) to honor Shakyamuni Buddha and thereby pray for his queen’s peaceful rest. The king read through the book thoroughly the following year, and composed verses in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet he had recently commissioned and helped to create, for the songs to be sung to honor the Buddha. Songs of the Moon's Reflection on a Thousand Rivers originally consisted of three volumes, of which only the first volume remains.
- Composition
- As a work of literature, Worin Cheongangjigok consists of three parts printed in three volumes, of which only the first has survived. The first volume contains 194 verses, of which eighteen verses are also included in Seokbosangjeol, including fifteen in Volume 6 (Verses 145-154 and 174-175), two in Volume 9 (Verses 254-255), and one in Volume 13 (Verse 275). In addition, 377 verses plus the latter half of Verse No. 260 are included in Moon Reflections and the Buddha's Life (Worinseokbo). Of the 583 verses conjectured to have formed the entire collection of Worin Cheongangjigok, 65 verses (Nos. 303-311 and Nos. 520-576) have no texts, suggesting that 518 verses of the original book remain today.
- Content
- Regarding the title of the book, the expression “Worinjeongang” means that “the bright rays of the moon are reflected on all the rivers of the world,” a poetic expression conveying the idea that the teachings of Buddha fill the entire world. The first part of the work is based on the Buddhist ideas of samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, and honors the boundless virtues and merits of Shakyamuni through the use of questions and hyperbole. The works in the second part follow the format of four quatrains in two stanzas, which is similar to the Akjang (“musical chapters”) format represented by Songs of Dragons Flying to Heaven (Yongbieocheonga), the first work written using Hangeul, the newly created Korean alphabet. The third part deals with the world before the birth of Shakyamuni, and the origin of his name, Gautama.
- Characteristics
- This particular volume of Worin Cheongangjigok was dedicated to Buddha and stored in the depository made inside the body of a Buddhist statue enshrined in Silsangsa Temple, King Sejo’s guardian temple, in Buan in the mid-fifteenth century. The book was discovered in 1914 when the head monk of the temple opened the depository before incinerating the heavily damaged statue. The book was acquired by a private publisher, Daehan Textbooks (predecessor of present-day Mirae N), and donated to the library of the Academy of Korean Studies (#323 Haogae-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do) in 2013. The book was designated as Treasure No. 398 in 1963, and promoted to National Treasure No. 320 on January 2, 2017.
- Historical Significance
- This volume of Worin Cheongangjigok is highly regarded as the first book printed using Hangeul types, and thus is treasured as a valuable resource for the study of Korean language and grammar in the early Joseon period. In the book, the letters of the newly invented Korean alphabet (Hangeul) are printed in large type, whereas the matching Chinese characters are printed in small type. The Hangeul types used for this book have no circular dot, just like those used for Yongbieocheonga, and, unlike the types used for Hunminjeongeum Eonhae, add no final consonant, “ㅇ”, to Chinese characters that lack the sound of the final consonant.