• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.37
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• pp.445-469
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• 2004

The Avatamsaka Sutra copied in ink on the white paper of Shilla Period is the oldest manuscript in korea. This Avatamsaka Sutra is volume 1-10 and 44-50 of the 80 volume's transcription. According to the postscript, written with 528 letters at the end of the volume 10 and 50, this sutra is made during A.D. 754-755, for six months by the order Master Yon-gi(綠起 法師) who founded Hwaumsa Temple(華嚴寺.) It explains the procedure of the ritual and production method of the sutra-copying, and also shows the 19 participants with their name, address, official title, and etc. When the sutra was founded, volume 1-10 were so congealed that we could not open the volumes. And volume 44-50 was prohibited to take photograph for preservation. According to the recent examination, it proved that this sutra is the treasure for the study of the characters made by Empress Wu Zetian(則天武后.) The characters made by Empress Wu Zetian(A.D. 625-705) are new shape of chinese characters which is different from the traditional characters. After the demise of the Queen, the characters were not used any more officially, but privately some people used the characters for personal tastes and interest. The characters in the sutra includes 512 characters of 13 kinds of Empress We Zetians'. Compared to the Tun-huang version of the sutra, this is far better treasure for the study of Empress We Zetians' characters in terms of the number of the character and the their use of frequency. The Avatamsaka Sutra of Shoso-in(正倉院) in japan copied in A.D. 768 does not use the Empress We Zetians' characters. In this respect, this Shilla Avatamsaka-Sutra is a unique one preserves the original forms of Chinese translation at that time.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-27
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• 2019

Beginning in the northwestern region of India, and spreading through Central Asia and the rest of Asia along the Silk Road, the making of colossal Buddha statues has been a major theme in Buddhist art. The colossal Buddha statues predominantly feature Śākyamuni (the Historical Buddha), Maitreya (the Future Buddha), and Vairocana (the Transcendant Buddha), and they were fashioned out of religious devotion and frequently in conjunction with notions of Buddhist kingship. This paper examines the religious, social and political circumstances under which these colossal statues were made, focusing on examples from Central and East Asia made during the first millennium CE. Beginning in the 1990s, there was a revival of making colossal Buddha statues across China and elsewhere. The paper also briefly compares the current wave of building colossal Buddha statues with historical examples.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.61-73
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• 2016

Objectives : Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu is a book that strongly influenced the following generations' theory of five Circuits and six Qi. It is understood that Wangbing authored the book during the Tang dynasty, but another theory suggests that a nameless author devised the book falsely in Wangbing's name. A comprehensive research is greatly significant in the development of the theory of five Circuits and six Qi. Methods : The study will focus on the analysis on the truth about Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu, its impact on the following generations' theory of five Circuits and six Qi, the contents and comparison of Suwen's xuanzhumiyu, and the 17 books and 27 chapters of xuanzhumiyu. Results & Conclusions : First, xuanzhu was authored by Wangbing sometime around 762 AD, and Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu was written in 690 during the rule of Empress Wu Zetian, meaning that Wangbing is not the author of Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu. Second, Wangbing's style of writing is regular yet elegant, and keeps itself within the range of medical style of writing, but Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu is written in a very rough style, and finds itself within the range of Tao literatures and books on trickery. Third, Wangbing's xuanzhu is a commentary on Suwen, whereas Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu is consisting of the theory of five Circuits and six Qi, and trickeries predictive picture. As such, the two books have entirely different characters. Theories that received relatively significant impacts to the following generations' the theory of five Circuits and six Qi include Gandeokbu, Jeongwhadaewha, and the Calculation method of normal Qi. Suwen's chapter on the theory of five Circuits and six Qi and Suwenliuqixuanzhumiyu have many inconsistent and differing theories, leading the scholars to believe that they are dealing with different theory of five Circuits and six Qi which derived from separate schools of beliefs.