Review: Kyunyo-Jon: The Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth-Century Korean Monk

Kyunyo-Jon: The Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth-Century Korean Monk by Adrian Buzo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a book about an eleventh century biography (hagiography?) of a tenth century monk. I found the introduction indispensable, and the first part of Appendix B (about the early Korean writing system) quite interesting. In fact, they were probably more enlightening than the text itself, which, as I mentioned, is pretty hagiographical, essentially Marketing Kyunyo to Chinese and other non-Koreans.

Also a great introduction to Hua yen (Hwaom) Buddhism.

I'm glad someone translated and annotated this, but mainly because of the information surrounding it rather than the text itself.


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