Cult of the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha or Medicine Buddha(Kr. Yaksayeorae) has continued to survive in East Asia since ancient times for its “this-worldly” and popular belief system that cures disease, prolongs life, and grants wishes of a believer who ... Cult of the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha or Medicine Buddha(Kr. Yaksayeorae) has continued to survive in East Asia since ancient times for its “this-worldly” and popular belief system that cures disease, prolongs life, and grants wishes of a believer who worships the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha presiding over the Eastern Paradise of Lapis Lazuli Light(Skt. Vaidurya Prabha) and performs the rituals related to him. This aims to examine the cult of Medicine Buddha developed in Korea from the Three Kingdoms to the early Goryeo periods and the sculptures of Medicine Buddha from multiple perspectives, thereby offering a better understanding of its characteristics. As the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha(薬師經, Kr. Yaksagyeong), the foundation of the Medicine Buddha belief, in Chinese was included in volume 12 of the apocryphal Sutra of Consecration(灌頂經, Kr. Gwanjeonggyeong) during China’s Northern and Southern dynasties and translated into several versions by Dharmagupta(達摩笈多) in 615 during the Sui Dynasty, and Xuanzhang(玄奘) and Yijing(義淨) of the Tang Dynasty respectively in 650 and 707, the faith in Medicine Buddha began to spread. The Sutra of the Medicine Buddha not only describes the Great Vows of the Medicine Buddha(藥師十二大願, Kr. Yaksasibidaewon), the core of the Medicine Buddha cult, but also includes rites, such as offering rituals dedicated to the Medicine Buddha images, Ceremony of Enhancing Longevity with Banners and Lamps(續命幡燈法, Kr. Songmyeongbeondeungbeop), and Ritual of Healing Disease by Knotting the Strand of Five Colors(五色縷法, Kr. Osaengnubeap). Such rites were mentioned in the Compiled Dharani Sutra(陀羅尼集經, Ch. Tuoluonijijing) translated in Chinese in 654 during the Tang Dynasty, and thereafter such rituals were gradually reorganized into the altar rites of Esoteric Buddhism by the eighth-century Esoteric Buddhist monks, including Amoghavajra(不空), which had strengthened the “this-worldly” quality of the Medicine Buddha cult. The ancient Korean rulers embraced and benefited from the Medicine Buddha cult’s aspect of “protecting the country(護國, Kr. hoguk).” The royal court of Silla had kept a close relationship with the Medicine Buddha belief, while the Goryeo Dynasty(918~1392) held a national Buddhist service with the Medicine Buddha image as the main object of worship(藥師道場, Kr. Yaksadoryang), praying to defeat the foreign enemy. Monks also contributed to the interpretation and distribution of the faith in Medicine Buddha by writing the annotated versions of the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, and practicing dharma in a temple enshrining a Medicine Buddha sculpture as the main image. Ancient Koreans regarded Medicine Buddha as the representative Buddha of the Eastern Paradise, corresponding to the Amitabha Buddha of the Western Paradise. Medicine Buddha is different from the Akshobhya Buddha(阿閦佛), the Buddha of the East in Esoteric Buddhism. The Medicine Buddha belief of the ancient Korea developed regardless of the contents of the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha. According to the Japanese medical text Ishinpō(醫心方) written in 984, remedies in the Prescription of Silla Buddhist Monks(新羅法師方, Kr. Sillabeopsabang) recommend praying to the Medicine Buddha of the East when taking medicine. This combination with the actual treatments demonstrates the expansion of the Medicine Buddha cult during the Unified Silla period(676~935). Moreover, two monks, Suneng(順應) and Ijeong(理貞), cured a disease of the queen by using the strand of five colors during the reign of King Aejang(哀莊, r. 800~809) in the ninth century. This episode demonstrates the possibility that Ritual of Healing Disease by Knotting the Strand of Five Colors in the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha may have been transformed and practiced as an individual therapy during the Unified Silla period. In this way, the Medicine Buddha cult became greatly indigenous and transformed. In order to understand the characteristics of the ancient Korean Medicine Buddha sculptures, I compared them with their Chinese counterparts. The murals in Dunhuang caves, which depict the contents of the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, present both an old-styled, bland Medicine Buddha and a new-styled Medicine Buddha holding a medicine bowl(藥器, Kr. yakgi) shaped like an alms bowl(鉢盂, Skt. patra; Kr. baru) in his hands. In the mid-seventh century of the Tang period, the iconographic representation of standing Medicine Buddha holding a medicine bowl in his left hand and a monk’s staff(錫杖, Kr. Seokjang) in the right was established. Both attributes appeared in the later seated images of the deity. The Ritual Manual of Invocating Medicine Buddha(藥師如來念誦儀軌, Kr. Yaksayeoraeyeomsonguigwe) translated in Chinese by Amoghavajra in the mid-eighth-century Tang stipulated that a Medicine Buddha figure had a medicine bowl in one hand. However, the actual image of the deity in Dunhuang appeared a hundred years before the manual, which proved that its iconography came first. The earliest extant image of Medicine Buddha in Korea is the standing buddha on the left in the Rock-carved Standing Buddha Triad in Dongmun-ri, Taean, Chungcheongnam-do, which was sculpted during the Baekje period between the late sixth and early seventh centuries of the Three Kingdoms period. The medicine bowl that the figure holds has a lid with a knob that seems to have been invented by Baekje artisans. The seventh-century Gilt-bronze Standing Buddha of Silla that holds a wish-fulfilling jewel(寶珠, Kr. boju) is also presumed to be an early image of the Medicine Buddha. In Korea, numerous sculptures of the Medicine Buddha began to be made during the Unified Silla period. Unlike their Chinese counterparts, the Medicine Buddha sculptures of the Unified Silla did not need to have a monk’s staff in their hands; instead, most of them hold a medicine bowl in the left hand. This clear difference became established as an iconographic tradition, which had continued until the Goryeo period. Medicine Buddha sculptures of the Unified Silla appear as a solitary image and as one of the triad or of the buddhas in four directions. Solitary sculptures are divided into standing and seated figures. Seated Medicine Buddhas, in particular, either make the earth-touching mudra(降魔觸地印, Skt. Bhumisparsha mudra; Kr. Hangmachokjiin) with their right hand or hold the right hand in front of their chest. The latter was produced not as sculptures carved in the round, but as those in relief. Medicine Buddha triads of the late Unified Silla were created on a large scale in open spaces in the ninth century, thus revealing that sculptures of the deity gained popularity as objects of worship because the Medicine Buddha faith reached local regions around this time. During the Unified Silla period, Medicine Buddha images were often carved as one of the buddhas in four directions. In the sculpture of buddhas in four directions, the Medicine Buddha is visible on the east side that signifies his Eastern Paradise. This arrangement differs from that of the buddhas in four directions of the Esoteric Buddhism, which places Akshobhya Buddha in the east. Therefore, Medicine Buddha images were chosen as a symbolic, devotional entity, popular in the Unified Silla Kingdom. In the Unified Silla Kingdom, Medicine Buddha images started appearing on the east side of stone pillars, as shown in Rock-carved Buddhas in Four Directions at Chilburam Hermitage(七佛庵) on Mt. Namsan, Gyeongju, from the early-eighth century and Stone Buddhas in Four Directions at Gulbulsa Temple Site(掘佛寺址), Gyeongju, from the mid-eighth century. Around the ninth century, the deity was carved on the east side of the first story of a stone pagoda’s main structure. On the west side, opposite to the east side depicting Medicine Buddha, of the stone pagoda and sculptures of buddhas in four directions is seated Amitabha Buddha with the hand showing the wheel-turning mudra(轉法輪印, Skt. Dharmachakra mudra; Kr. Jeonbeomnyunin), making the Medicine Buddha of the East and the Amitabha Buddha of the West balance each other. However, in the late-ninth century, this disposition changed. For example, seated Vairocana with the wisdom fist mudra(智拳印, Skt. Bodhyagri mudra; Kr. Jigwonin) is placed on the south side, or seated Maitreya Buddha on the north side. Except the Medicine Buddha on the east side, the placement of the other three buddhas altered. Such change embodies the originality of the Unified Silla’s sculptures of the buddhas in four directions, which is different from the rigid and formularized iconography of the Esoteric Buddhism. The iconographic tradition of ancient Korean Medicine Buddha images, which was accomplished during the Unified Silla period, continued in the early-Goryeo period. The sculptures of Medicine Buddha made in this era fundamentally followed the conventions of the Unified Silla examples, yet their details varied. Those variations resulted from the regional diversification of Buddhist sculptures in the early-Goryeo Dynasty. As a case in point, buddhas in four directions were carved in the form of other stone structures, such as stupas enshrining sarira of respected monks, besides stone pagodas enshrining the relics of Buddha. Nonetheless, the traditional arrangement with the Medicine Buddha on the east side continued. In the early-Goryeo period, a new form of the Medicine Buddha image holding a kundika(water bottle) emerged. A buddha with a kundika is rarely seen. Its earliest example is a gilt-bronze buddha of the eighth-century Tang. This exceptional iconography seems to have resulted from the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha translated by Yijing in Chinese that noted a disease could be cured by drinking water, to which dharani was added. Images of Medicine Buddha with a water bottle might have been transmitted to Goryeo via its northern regions, including during the Balhae(渤海, 698~926) and Liao(遼, 916~1125) dynasties. Accordingly, the iconography of the deity in the early Goryeo period became more diversified than that of the Unified Silla Kingdom. Lastly, in this the iconographic features of ancient Korean Medicine Buddha images are analyzed by examining their postures and attributes. Particularly, the seated Medicine Buddha holding his right hand in front of the chest universally appears in China and Japan, whereas the seated Medicine Buddha with the earth-touching mudra is shown only in Korea. Moreover, the shapes of a medicine bowl held by Korean Medicine Buddha are quite diverse. For instance, the medicine bowl in the form of a wish-fulfilling jewel is often seen in Korean Medicine Buddha, but not in Chinese and Japanese images. A distinctive Bhaisajyaguru Buddha cult in the ancient Korea was based on the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha translated into Chinese, yet was practiced in various ways, not abiding by the contents of the sutra to the letter. The majority of the Korean Medicine Buddha images have not a monk’s staff but a medicine bowl, and most seated images of the deity are depicted with the earth-touching mudra. These are exclusive characteristics of Korean Medicine Buddha sculptures distinguishing them from Chinese and Japanese images of the deity. In combination with other diverse figures, the Medicine Buddha placed on the east side in the sculpture of the buddhas in four directions is differentiated from that in the Esoteric Buddhist iconography. Bhaisajyaguru Buddha images of the ancient Korea had great significance in the history of sculpture in that they not only embodied the universality of East Asia but also devised the distinguishing iconographical features differently from their Chinese and Japanese counterparts.
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