Pyochungsa Shrine ; The Harmony and The Friction between The Kingdom and Buddhism

The one of the most special place in Daeheung-sa temple was Pyochungsa which is the shrine for the great monk Seosan who had fought against Japanese Army during Japanese invasion 1592 - 1597.

Season was the monk though, he had organized the monk army with breaking the most important principle in Buddhism “Never Kill Living Things”.

During the war against the Japanese Army, it was reported more than 30,000 monks were killed in action.
After finishing the war, King SeonJo in Choson dynasty suggested Season the government post though, he refused any suggestions from the King.

Seosan could not receive any suggestions from the government, because he as the monk broke the most important principle as a Buddhist monk. In this reason, all of the monks refused the prize or the rewards from the government.

So King SeonJo ordered to set up the stone monument on which the distinguished services were carved and ordered to build the shrine for the monk Seosan after he died.
The name of the shrine was Pyochungsa which meant “Showing Royalty Shrine”

In the shrine there was the portrait of the monk Season and other monks who had fought with Season.
They were the monk Generals.

In that era, even though King’s presentation was very honorable, they could not build the shrine in the center of the temple. So the shrine was located in the right corner of the temple.

For the kingdom this temple was very proud of, but for the monks the shrine was not only honorable but also the saddest thing.

I was thinking the harmony and the friction between the citizen’s duty and the religious principle in this shrine.