항쟁과 안식의 공간으로서 산사(山寺)

초록

During the Manchu Invasion of 1636, the Buddhist temples inside Namhansanseong Fortress served not merely as shelters or religious spaces but as complex sites of political and military functions amid national crisis. Gaewonsa Temple, which enshrined the spirit tablet of King Wonjong and hosted state rituals, also accommodated civil and military officials engaged in the siege defense. It became a tense arena where loyalty and resentment, faith and power intersected. The lower official Namgeup (南礏) observed the hypocrisy and conflict between bureaucrats and soldiers, while high-ranking officials such as Leegyeongseok (李景 奭) later romanticized the experience as a story of loyalty and friendship. This contrast reveals that the temple functioned not as a purely sacred place but as a stage that condensed the political and psychological turmoil of Joseon society. Meanwhile, Jogyeong (趙絅), who failed to enter the fortress, vividly documented in Byeongjeong ilgi the resistance and relief activities of temples around Mt. Gwanak, Mt. Surisan, and Mt. Cheonggye. He described monks who, as both warriors and humanitarians, embodied compassion and righteousness by fighting invaders, sheltering refugees, and providing food. Temples such as Bulseongsa, Cheonggyesa, and Suwolam formed an interconnected network of resistance and survival. By calling these monks “righteous men,” Jo restored Buddhism as a moral and active agent within wartime ethics. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a sign that foreshadows the active engagement of Buddhism in worldly affairs and a transformation in its social status during the late Joseon period. The temples described in historical records of the Manchu Invasion represent complex sites where the sacred and the secular, the religious and the political, intersected.

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