Review of the square footstone of the wooden pagoda site in Hwangnyongsa Temple

The present study is aimed to reconsider the time of installation and the purpose of the square footstone located at the center of the wooden pagoda in Hwangnyongsa Temple, based on related precedent studies. Precedent studies are divided into two streams of assertions: one is that the square footstone was to support the major pillars at the time of building and the other is that it was installed to store Buddhist reliquaries inside the central foundation stone after the wood pagoda burnt down in the Invasion of Mongol. Summarizing the grounds with which the precedent studies support their assertions, they are the relation with Gaseopbul Yeonjwaseok, the emerging time of the square footstone, repairing work at the level of reconstruction, additional enshrinement of general Buddhist reliquaries and so on. The present study reviewed the key grounds suggested in the previous studies regarding the square footstone. First, it was determined that the square footstone has nothing to do with Gaseopbul Yeonjwaseok, after looking into the timings of appearance, condition and shape in literatures. Rather, it was assumed that Gaseopbul Yeonjwaseok resembles a stone column. Next, the square footstone is assumed to be installed after the 4th year of King Kwangjong's rule because the wood pagoda was lost in fire in the 4th year of Kwangjong's rule and it had been left alone for 68 years until the repair work finished in the 13th year of King Hyunjong. It is assumed that repair works at the level of reconstruction had been twice in total, say, once during King Kyungmun and Hyunjong, respectively. Next, looking into the establishment of the general Buddhist reliquaries and the repair work during King Kyungmun, it was not common then to enshrine additional Buddhist reliquaries when repair work progressed and so there was not an additional enshrinement of Buddhist reliquaries after King Kyungmun. However, it is hard to decide that there was no repair work at the level of reconstruction at that time. Last, we can find a similar case to the square footstone of the wood pagoda in Hwangnyongsa Temple in the copper pagoda in Japanese Yaksasa Temple. In conclusion, it is assumed that the wooden pagoda in Hwangnyongsa Temple was lost to the fire in the 4th year of King Kwangjong's rule and thus the square footstone had been used as Jinho stone to protect Buddhist reliquaries and used as a propping stone for the major pillars after King Hyungjong.

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