Editing Minjung Buddhism (section)

== Organizational History (1981–1988) ==
The initial response took two forms: an attempt to "monasticize" society (''sawŏnhwa'') by turning temples into centers of popular education and labor organizing, and a more academic effort to theorize Buddhism's social role.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 278–279.</ref> The Sawŏnhwa Movement, based at Myogak Sa and modeled explicitly on the propertyless, casteless primitive Sangha, was suppressed by the authorities between late 1981 and early 1982, its leader Pŏb'u sentenced to three years' imprisonment for introducing "Southeast Asian Buddhist socialism" into Korea.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", p. 279. The reference was likely to [[Buddhadasa Bhikkhu]]'s "Dhammic socialism" rather than to Vietnamese or other Southeast Asian movements.</ref> Suppressed but not extinguished, the movement's cadres regrouped around the newly founded Central Sangha College at Kaeun Sa, whose students formed the National Young Monks' Conference for Six Harmonies in 1981 and, together with lay reformers of the Center for the Study of Buddhist Society and Culture, organized the National Buddhist Youth Federation Conference at Pŏm'ŏ Sa in July 1983, attracting some 1,700 participants.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 280–281.</ref>

The theoretical foundation for this generation was supplied less by direct contact with liberation theology or Southeast Asian Buddhism than by the translated works of the Japanese sociologist [[Kohashi Shoichi|Kōhashi Shōichi]] (孝橋正一, 1912-1999), whose 『社会科学と現代仏教: 仏教の社会化をめざして』 (''Social Science and Modern Buddhism: Aiming for the Socialization of Buddhism'', 1968) was itself indebted to the interwar "Buddhist Marxism" of [[Senoo Giro|Seno'o Girō]] (1889–1961) and his banned [[Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism]] (新興仏教青年同盟, 1931–1935).<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 281, 294–295.</ref> Both of Kōhashi's translated works, prepared by the lay reformer Yŏ Ikku, were banned by the South Korean government, which nonetheless failed to prevent their becoming the conceptual basis of the movement.

The movement's most influential organization, the Minjung Buddhist Movement Federation (''Minjung Pulgyo Undong Yŏnhap''), was founded on May 14, 1985 by roughly 180 laypeople and monastics under Yŏ Ikku, demanding Buddhist autonomy, an end to the military dictatorship, support for workers and farmers, a democratic constitution, and national reunification; 104 of its founders were promptly arrested.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", p. 282.</ref> Its organ, ''Minjung pŏptang'' ("Minjung Dharma Hall"), grounded its politics in Mahāyāna scripture, repeatedly quoting the ''Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra'' — "When sentient beings are in pain, the Buddha is in pain" — and insisting that Korean Buddhism had historically been "the Buddhism of kings" rather than a Minjung Buddhism.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", p. 283, citing ''Minjung pŏptang'' 1 (July 1985): 20–21.</ref> The Federation was active in labor disputes, most notably the June 1985 Sŏngdo Textile strike, and survived the political thaw of the "1985 Spring" before being drawn into the violent Inch'ŏn labor demonstrations of May 1986, after which several of its leaders, including Yŏ Ikku, went into hiding or were arrested, and a monastic splinter group, the National Sangha Association for the Realization of the Pure Land, formed separately in June 1986.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 285–287.</ref>

The movement's high-water mark came after the death in custody of the student activist Pak Chong-ch'ŏl in January 1987. The Federation relaunched its publication as the newspaper ''Minjung Pulgyo'' and, following the police assault on Wŏn'gak Sa in Kwangju on the anniversary of the Kwangju Massacre in May 1987, mobilized several thousand monks and laypeople in monastic sit-ins across the country.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 288–289.</ref> An unprecedented assembly of over two thousand monks and nuns at Haein Sa in September 1986 had already forced the Chogye Order's own secretary-general to publicly denounce the 10.27 Persecution as "an outrageous act of violence."<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 287–288.</ref> These mobilizations fed directly into the nationwide June 1987 Democratic Uprising that forced constitutional reform. After 1987, however, the movement fractured over its ambivalent endorsement of presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung, over an increasingly explicit adoption of Marxist–Leninist and ''juche'' vocabulary in its internal literature, and over the acceptance of revolutionary violence as a legitimate response to state terror — a position its authors defended through the Buddhist concept of "compassionate killing" (''ilsal tasaeng'', killing one to save many).<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 290–293, 304–305.</ref> A moderate breakaway, the Mahāyāna Buddhist Sangha Association (1988–1991), rebranded the cause as "National Buddhism" (''Minjok Pulgyo''), explicitly de-emphasizing class struggle in favor of reunification and national issues.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 290–291.</ref>