COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
All rights reserved

PRINTED BY
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

THIS BOOK ON KOREAN BUDDHISM IS
Dedicated
TO
MY FRIEND AND FELLOW-STUDENT
“KUGEN”—OGURI SAN
OF TOKYO

INTRODUCTION

The author does not over-estimatethe importance of this little book:it is nothing more than its titleclaims. It consists of three lectures givento popular audiences, with the accompanimentof many illustrations. It represents,however, a considerable amount of workin an almost virgin field. It has involvedhard journeys to remote mountain monasteries,and days and nights of conversationand inquiry with many monks andpriests. It is not, however, a profoundstudy nor an exhaustive presentation. Itbarely touches many a subject, which wouldalone furnish more material than couldbe treated in three such lectures. It butscratches the surface.

The material which it presents is howevernew. Outside of Mrs. Bishop’s accountof her visit to the Diamond Mountainmonasteries and scattered references inviiiher book to a few local temples, there isalmost nothing on the subject of KoreanBuddhism accessible to English readers.A glance at our bibliography will show thatnot one of the books or articles there listedappeared in the West. All were printedat Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo and publicationsappearing at those centers are littleknown outside. To aid serious readers,who may care to secure them, the publishers’names are given in our list. Theauthor has carefully read all the items listedand acknowledges indebtedness to all theauthors.

The actual amount of material for thefull study of Korean Buddhism is enormous.There are many voluminous worksin Chinese and Korean dealing with Koreanhistory; when carefully sifted, thesewill yield many important facts. Many,perhaps all, of the monasteries have recordsof their history somewhat after thenature of annals; most of these are in manuscript,but a few have been printed, presumablyfrom wood-blocks cut at the establishmentby the monks. There is a thirdixsource of information, as vast in bulk aseither of the other two; it is the inscriptionson monuments, which are scattered in thousandsover the peninsula. The gleaning ofinformation from these three sources—forthe work must absolutely be of the natureof gleaning—will require many years, butthe work is worth the doing. It is urgentalso. Every one of these three

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