BETWEEN COMMON HUMANITY AND PARTIALITY: THE CHOGYE BUDDHIST CHAPLAINCY MANUAL OF THE SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY AND ITS RELEVANCE TO INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

ABSTRACT

The Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism (K. Chogye chong or Jogyejong 曹溪宗) compiled a booklet called Kukkun pŏbyo chip (Essential Buddhist Teachings for the Armed Forces, 國軍法要集, EBTAF hereafter), which is distributed in the military Buddhist temples (K. kun sachal; Ch. jun sisha 軍寺刹) of South Korea. This manual for Buddhist military personnel draws on Buddhist classical texts and teachings to provide them both with doctrinal and practical information, and guidance as well as litanies for chaplains to perform crucial rites such as funerals. At the same time the EBTAF contains some distinctively Korean Buddhist references and ideas, and combines them with elements of Korean nationalism. In this context, this article analyses (1) the ideal traits of Buddhist combatants suggested in the EBTAF and their compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL); (2) the conflicting values illustrated in the booklet between Buddhist soldiers’ religious aspirations to uphold common humanity and the partiality inherent in their governmental affiliation; and (3) a passage to resolve the disparity. While the EBTAF aligns with IHL principles, some parts of it reflect a tension between Buddhist aspirations for peace and the military necessities of the state. Though IHL is not explicitly mentioned in the EBTAF, there is potential for embedding education on mutually complementary Buddhist and IHL values into Korean military chaplaincy.

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhist Military Chaplaincy
• Impartiality
• Chogye Order
• International Humanitarian Law
• Korean Buddhism

Acknowledgements

I express my gratitude to the jurors, participants and editorial board members involved in the ICRC Project on Buddhism and IHL for their invaluable comments on my first draft.

Disclosure statement

This article has been supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Romanisation of Korean follows the McCune–Reischauer system and the pinyin system is used to romanise Chinese characters. K. for Korean; Ch. for Chinese; Skt. for Sanskrit; J. for Japanese. Because all Korean words that appear in this article can be written in Chinese logographs, only rominisations are provided, followed by English translations and Chinese characters.

2. The Education Centre for the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism published a book titled History of the Chogye Order (Education Centre for the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism 대한불교조계종교육원 2001). For a concise introduction to the Order in English, see Buswell and Lopez (2014, 185). For the historical development of Buddhism in modern Korea, see Park (2014). For the contemporary monastic practices of the Chogye Order, see Buswell (1992).

3. The other three denominations are the Protestant Church, the Catholic Church and Won Buddhism. Won Buddhism was founded in 1916. There are debates on whether it should be regarded as a new religion or a form of Buddhism. It joined the chaplaincy service in 2007.

4. A higher educational institute for Buddhist monks and nuns, founded and run by the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

5. A private university founded and run by the Chogye Order. Contrary to Joong-ang Sangha University, it is open to the unordained public as well. The Chogye Order recruits military chaplains by offering tuition fee waivers to aspiring Buddhist chaplains.

6. In 2014, the first Buddhist nun was assigned to military chaplaincy service. A recent publication by the Ordinariate, namely the 50-Year History of the Buddhist Chaplain Service, includes interviews with four female military chaplains.

7. See the Ordinariate’s official homepage: www.gunindra.com.

8. I am indebted to Noel Trew for his kind suggestions regarding IHL reading materials related to my research.

9. http://www.hyunbulnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=294124.

10. Flower Garland Sutra (Skt. Avataṃsaka Sūtra; Ch. hua yan jing 華嚴經). Tripiṭaka Koreana K0079; K0080; K1262. https://kabc.dongguk.edu/.

11. The Korean translation of this passage in the EBTAF diverges marginally from the standard one of the Tripiṭaka Koreana by the Institute for the Translation of Buddhist Literature at Dongguk University. No classical Chinese is provided for this passage. The EBTAF sometimes omits the exact bibliographical information for its canonical source. Based on the comparison of the three versions of the Flower Garland Sutra, the translation given above proved to be the closest to the version with 60 volumes, which was initially translated into classical Chinese by Buddhabhadra (359–429 CE).

12. Parts of the English translations of the EBTAF were carried out by the author without consultation regarding possible variations, due to the lack of extant research on the EBTAF.

13. GC I–IV, Common Art. 3(1); CIHL, Rules 87 and 88.

14. GC II, Art. 12; AP I Art. 10; ICRC study on customary IHL, Rule 55.

15. GC I, Art. 15; GC II, Art. 18; GC IV, Art. 16; AP I, Art. 34(1); CIHL, Rule 113. Recited from Melzer (2019).

16. For different interpretations of the five worldly precepts, see Yim (2014). For their ethical underpinnings, see Im (2012), Lee (1990) and Yi (2014).

17. Tikhonov notes, ‘it is no accident that the chief Buddhist military temple attached to the Ministry of Defence was named in honor of the priest [Won’gwang]’ (Tikhonov 2015, 15–16).

18. During the last few decades, this term and the associated ideology have met harsh criticism with a trend of Buddhist scholarship reassessing characteristics of Korean Buddhism (Kim 2013, 2014; Mohan 2006; Pak 2010; Shim 1989; Sorensen 2008). Despite diminishing acceptance among academics, however, the SPB rhetoric still prevails among and continues to shape the religious experience of South Koreans. For the doctrine and practices of SPB in East Asia, in the premodern and modern era, see Daoru (2012).

19. The rhetoric against Māra is often found in Theravada Buddhist countries. For the case of Sri Lanka, see Seneviratne (1999), Bartholomeusz (2002) and Frydenlund (2013). For Thailand, see Nilsen (2013), Tambiah (1992) and Jerryson (2010, 2011, 2013). As for Mahāyāna countries, concepts such as no-self or ethical transcendentalism – bodhisattvas transcending normative ethics – are employed as just-war ideologies. For the case of Japan, see Auerback (2013), Kleine (2006) and Victoria (2003, 2006). For China, see Yu (2005, 2010, 2013). In the case of South Korea, the discourses on state-protecting Buddhism are the most dominant in the disputes on Buddhism and war.

20. Medicine Buddha Sutra (Skt. Bhaiṣajyaguru Sūtra; Ch. yaoshi rulai benyuan jing 藥師如來本願經). Tripiṭaka Koreana K0176. https://kabc.dongguk.edu/.

21. In Fascicle III, Chapter Two: The Adamantine Body, Nirvana Sutra (Skt. Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra; Ch. Daban niepan jing 大般涅槃經). Taishō Tripiṭaka 0374_12.0383b; 0384b. http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/ddb-sat2.php.

22. In Fascicle 41, Treatise on the Stages for Yoga Practice (Skt. Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra; Ch. yujia shidi lun 瑜伽師地論), Taishō Tripiṭaka 1579_30.0517b. http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/ddb-sat2.php.

23. Posalgyebon so 菩薩戒本疏 (Commentary to the Code of the Bodhisattva Precepts). Han’guk pulgyo chŏnsŏ (The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism) H0036. https://kabc.dongguk.edu/.

24. Though my translation is indebted to Ha and Mintz (2006), any mistakes are my own.

25. Agent neutrality is a frequently debated topic in Buddhist ethics. In Theravada Buddhism, having no element of negative emotions in the moment of the act of killing is deemed impossible (Gethin 2004).

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Hyein Lee

Hyein Lee is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of East Asian Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, and holds a master of arts from the Graduate School of Korean Studies, the Academy of Korean Studies, and a bachelor of education from Seoul National University of Education. Her research interests include Buddhist military chaplaincy, Buddhist militia, and institutionalisation processes of Buddhist concepts in contemporary society.