Taoism—Korea
Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, first entered Korea during the Three Kingdoms period (c. 300–668). Unlike Buddhism and Confucianism, however, Taoism never established a significant institutional presence outside the capital. The only Taoist temples in Korea were government-sponsored temples, and the few Taoist priests performed rituals for the king and the central government only. There were no Taoist temples available to the general population.
State support of Taoist temples was sporadic. In 650 the Koguryo kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE) erected two Taoist temples in the short-lived hope of gaining a spiritual advantage over its rival Korean kingdoms. The Koryo dynasty (918–1392) funded several Taoist temples to supplement its network of Buddhist temples. One of those official Taoist temples survived into the Choson dynasty (1392–1910), and its priests continued to perform rituals on behalf of the royal family until that temple was destroyed in the Japanese invasion of the 1590s. When the last official temple disappeared, Taoism in Korea lost its separate institutional identity.
Taoism nevertheless survived in Choson Korea as a part of popular religion and as the source of longevity-enhancing practices among the neo-Confucian ruling elite. Publication of two Taoist works from China, the Yushujing (Classic of the Jade Pivot) and the Qixingjing (Classic of the Big Dipper), and their popularity among commoners in the second half of the dynasty, is evidence of the Taoist penetration of Korea's popular religion, as is the publication after 1700 of Korean vernacular translations of Taoist manuals of life-span calculation. The inclusion of such Taoist deities as the Jade Emperor among the gods shamans worshipped is further evidence of the assimilation of elements of Taoism into popular religion.
Internal alchemy, on the other hand, was assimilated into the neo-Confucian culture of the ruling elite. Starting in the fifteenth century, scholars began reading and writing commentaries on such alchemical texts as Hwangdingjing (The Yellow Court Classic) and the Cantong qi (Triplex Unity). Renowed neo-Confucian scholars such as Yi Hwang (1501–1570) practiced Taoist breath-control techniques and physical exercises. Interest in internal alchemy techniques subsided after the seventeeth century, only to revive again in the 1970s. In the final decades of the twentieth century, there was an internal alchemy boom as centers for studying "cinnabar field breathing" and pursuing the "way of mountain immortals" began opening throughout South Korea.
Further Reading
Yi Nunghwa. (1977) Choson Togyo-sa (The History of Korean Daoism). Trans. by Yi Chongun (in Chinese and Korean). Seoul: Posong munhwasa.
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