structure.   Charles   Weihsun   Fu,  (e)  noting   that  the
Neo-Confucianists' criticisms were exaggerations and distortions,
has written:

　　 Mahayana  Buddhists  should learn a good lesson from the
　　 challenge of Neo-Confucianism and engage in a necessary
　　 and urgent inquiry into the moral dimension  of their own
　　 tradition, by shifting their traditional  emphasis  on
　　 transcendental  truth to a new emphasis  on worldly truth
　　 in terms of everyday ethic-social  practice...  It is now
　　 time for them to develop  a new and modern philosophy  of
　　 the Middle Way by placing equal emphasis  on morality  as
　　 well  as on wisdom  (prajna) and meditation  (samadhi)...
　　 But it remains to be seen whether Mahayana  Buddhism  can
　　 work out in this modern  age an ethical  system to tackle
　　 most, if not all, human and secular problelms they
　　 encounter in everyday life.(8)

As Fu has pointed out, answers are contained  in the texts of
Mahayana  Buddhism.(9) In this  paper  I will  show  how  the
ethico-religious  system  of Won  Buddhism  has attempted  to
answer this question  by analyzing  its central moral tenets.
This paper will consider  Sot'aesan's(f) motives  in founding
Won Buddhism and the points of renovation (II), his synthesis
of metaphysical tenets (III), his synthesis of the perfection
of human nature (IV), and his synthesis  of moral duties (V).
A concluding remark (VI) is added.

II.　　 RENOVATION OF BUDDHISM

　　 At the turn of the century Sot'aesan had " a precognition
　　 upon the

P.428　　

great enlightenment" (1916) of the danger the world was about
to face on account of humanity being enslaved by the power of
material civilization. He felt that something had to be done
to save the world from becoming a Frankenstein's  Monste.  In
the Founding Motive of the new religious order he wrote:

　　 ...The motive therefore lies in an attempt to deliver all
　　 sentient  beings  suffering  in the tormenting  seas to a
　　 vast and limitless paradise.  This goal shall be realized
　　 by expanding the spiritual  power in order to conquer the
　　 power of matter and the spiritual  power will be expanded
　　 by the faith in a truthful religion and training in sound
　　 morality (K.19).(10)

　　 When Sot'aesan  needed  a moral system  as a means to his
goal, neither Buddhism nor Confucianism as then understood by
Korean society could help.  The Yi dynasty Confucianists were
divided into several factions involved in academic controversies
and  endless  factional,  bloody  wranglings.(11)  Sot'aesan,
accepting  the truthful tenets of the three teachings  of the
East, intended to integrate them into the new ethico-religious
sytem that took the Buddha dharma as the core doctrine of a new
religious order. He explained his intentions to integrate them
as follows:

　　 In the past, the founders  of various  religions  came to
　　 the world  in accordance  with the call of the times  and
　　 taught  the  ways  man  ought  to follow: yet the central
　　 doctrines  have been different from one another depending
　　 on the places and times.  This is like the various  areas
　　 of specialization in medicine.(12)

　　   ... Thus the substance of the three teachings are
　　 different  from one another;  they however agree in their
　　 goals  of correcting  the world  and benefiting  sentient
　　 beings.   In  the  past  each  of  the  three   religions
　　 exclusively   taught   their  own  areas  of  speciality;
　　 however, in the future, any one of them individually will
　　 not be sufficient to deliver the world.  Hence, we intend
　　 to integrate  all these  doctrines  into one system...(K.
　　 125-6).

P.429

As Sot'aesan had taken the Buddha dharma as the central tenet