Boyang and the Pear Tree寶壤梨木

Boyang and the pear tree.

For the monk Boyang (寶壤), the biographies do not record his native place or clan.

Carefully examining the official documents of Cheongdo-gun, they say this.

In the eighth year of Tianfu, the gyeyu year,〔the twenty-sixth year of Taejo's reign〕 on such-and-such day of the first month, an official document posted by the boundary inspectors of Cheongdo-gun, Sunyeong and the daenaemal Sumun and others, said that the boundary markers of the Unmunsan meditation hall ran south to Anijeom and east to Gaseohyeon.

The head of the three offices of the same temple was the Monk Boyang, the hall master was the elder Hyeonhoe, the jeongjwa was the senior Hyeollyang, and the jikse was the meditation master Sinwon.〔The document above follows what is passed down in the field register of Cheongdo-gun.〕

Also, in the third year of Kaiyun, the byeongjin year, there is one official document on the boundary-marker pagodas of the Unmunsan meditation hall, with eleven boundary markers: Anijeom, Gaseohyeon, Myohyeon, Seobungmaehyeon,〔also called Myeonji village〕 Bukjeojongmun, and others.

Also, in a dispatch (貼) of the Jinyang-bu in the gyeongin year, when the inspectors of the five circuits were compiling a register of the founding dates and condition of the Seon and Gyo temples of each circuit, the deputy Yi Seon (李僐), jangseogi of the Eastern Capital, examined and recorded them.

In the sixth year of Zhengfeng, the sinsa year,〔a Jin era name; the sixteenth year of Uijong's reign in this dynasty〕 in the ninth month, following the district's old document, the Record of Supplements (裨補記), it drew on the news of the people above and the popular records kept at the house of Yi Chikjeong, former deputy hojang and eomo buwi of Cheongdo-gun.

This is what the retired senior hojang Kim Yangsin, the retired hojang Min Yuk, the hojang dongjeong Yun Eung, the former giin Jin Gi, and others said together with the senior hojang of that time, Yong Seong, and others. The governor at the time was Yi Saro; the hojang Yangsin was eighty-nine, the rest were all over seventy, and Yong Seong was over sixty.

Since the time of Silla the temples of this district were the middle and small temples under Jakgap, but while the Three Han fell into disorder and ruin, the five gap, Daejakgap, Sojakgap, Sobogap, Cheonmungap, and Gaseogap, were all destroyed. The pillars of the five gap were gathered and placed at Daejakgap.

The patriarch Jisik (知識)〔the one called Boyang in the text above〕 received the Dharma in the great country and on his way back came to the middle of the West Sea.

A dragon welcomed him in, had him recite sutras in its palace, and donated one gold-silk robe. It also sent along its son, Imok (璃目), to attend him, and charged him:

"Now the three kingdoms are in turmoil and there is as yet no ruler who has taken refuge in the Buddha's teaching. If you go back with my son to Jakgap in your home country, build a temple, and live there, you can escape the bandits. And within a few years a worthy ruler who guards the Dharma will surely arise and settle the three kingdoms."

When it finished speaking they parted, and he returned and came to this valley.

Suddenly there was an old monk who called himself Wongwang, came out holding a seal box, handed it to him, and vanished.〔On examination, Wongwang went into China at the end of Chen, returned east in the Kaihuang years, lived at Gaseogap, and died at Hwangnyungsa. Counting to the beginning of Qingtai is roughly three hundred years. He was grieving that all the gap had fallen and rejoicing that Boyang had come to raise them again, and so he told him; that is all.〕

So the Dharma master Boyang, meaning to raise the ruined temple, climbed the northern ridge and looked, and there was a five-story yellow pagoda in the courtyard. He came down and looked for it, but there was no trace.

He climbed again and looked, and a flock of magpies was pecking at the ground.

Then he remembered 'Jakgap' (鵲岬), the Magpie Gap the sea dragon had spoken of, searched and dug, and indeed countless old bricks came out.

He gathered and piled them up, and when the pagoda was complete not a brick was left over. From this he knew it was a temple site of a former age.

He finished building the temple and lived there, and so it was named Jakgapsa.

Not long after, Taejo unified the three kingdoms, and hearing that the master had come here, built a temple, and was living there, he combined the five hundred gyeol of fields of the five gap and gave them to the temple.

In the fourth year of Qingtai, the jeongyu year, he bestowed the plaque Unmun Seonsa (雲門禪寺), so that it might uphold the divine shelter of the robe.

Imok always stayed in a small pond beside the temple and secretly aided the teaching of the Dharma.

Suddenly one year there was a great drought, and the greens in the fields were scorched. Boyang ordered Imok to make rain, and the whole region reported it had enough.

The lord of heaven was about to put Imok to death for not keeping to his office, and Imok told the master of his danger.

The master hid him under the bed, and soon a messenger of heaven came to the courtyard and demanded that Imok be handed over.

The master pointed to the pear tree in front of the courtyard, and the messenger struck it with lightning and went up to heaven.

The pear tree withered and broke, but when the dragon stroked it, it at once revived.〔Some say the master revived it by chanting a spell.〕

In recent years that tree fell to the ground, and someone made bolt-mallets from it and placed them in the Dharma hall and the dining hall. There is an inscription on the handle of the mallet.

At first, when the master returned from Tang, he first stayed at Bongseongsa in Chuhwa (推火).

Just then Taejo, campaigning east, reached the region of Cheongdo, where mountain bandits had gathered in a band at Gyeonseong (犬城),〔a mountain peak stands sheer over the water; now people dislike its name and have changed it to Gyeonseong〕 acting arrogantly and refusing to submit.

Taejo came to the foot of the mountain and asked the master for a way to subdue them easily.

The master answered, "A dog, by its nature, keeps the night and not the day, guards the front and forgets the rear. You should attack its north side by day."

Taejo did so, and they were indeed broken and surrendered.

Taejo, admiring this marvelous plan, gave fifty seok of grain every year from a nearby county to keep up the incense.

For this reason the temple enshrined the true likenesses of the two sages, and so it was named Bongseongsa.

Later he moved to Jakgap, built on a great scale, and ended his days there.

The master's deeds are not recorded in the old biographies.

Popular tradition says, "He was a brother to the Master Biheo of Seokgul,〔also written 毗虛〕 and the three temples Bongseongsa, Seokgulsa, and Unmunsa stood in a row on adjoining peaks and simply visited one another."

Later people rewrote the Silla ijeon, recklessly placing the matter of the Jakgap pagoda and Imok in the Biography of Wongwang and attaching the Gyeonseong matter to the Biography of Biheo, which was already an error.

Then the one who composed the Haedong Biographies of Monks followed it and polished the text.

And so Boyang came to have no biography, leaving later people in doubt and error. How great a deception and delusion is that?