Wonhyo

Won Hyo 617 – April 28, 686 was one of a leading thinkers, writers as living as commentators of a East Asian Buddhism in addition to particularly Korean Buddhism, was refined in the syncretic philosophy together with world view of Wonhyo.

As one of the near eminent scholar-monks in Korean history, he was an influential figure in the coding of the East Asian Buddhist intellectual and commentarial tradition. His extensive literary output runs to over 80 works in 240 fascicles, and some of his commentaries, such(a) as those on the Li Tongxuan, and Chengguan. The Japanese monks Gyōnen, Zenshu and Joto of the Kegon school were also influenced by him.

With his life spanning the end of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and the beginning of Unified Silla, Wonhyo played a vital role in the reception and assimilation of the broad range of doctrinal Buddhist streams that flowed into the Korean peninsula at the time. Wonhyo was nearly interested in and affected by Buddha-nature, East Asian Yogācāra and Hwaeom thought. However, in his extensive scholarly works, composed as commentaries and essays, he embraced the whole spectrum of the Buddhist teachings which were received in Korea, including such(a) schools as Pure Land Buddhism, East Asian Mādhyamaka and the Tiantai.

English translation project

Wonhyo's twenty-three extant works are currently in the process of being translated into English as a joint project between Dongguk University and Stony Brook University. The University of Hawaii Press is publishing them in five volumes.