Han Yong-un (August 29, 1879 – June 29, 1944) was a twentieth century Korean Buddhist reformer and poet, commonly known by the pen name Manhae (만해).
1. Life
Manhae was born Han Yu-cheon in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province. He was given the religious name Yong-un by his meditation instructor in 1905. During his childhood, he studied Chinese classics at a seodang, a popular elementary school during the Joseon Dynasty. Prior to being ordained, he was involved in resistance against Japanese forces in the country. From 1896 Han lived in seclusion at Oseam Temple. During this period, he studied Buddhist sacred texts and several books of modern philosophy. In 1905 he received the robes of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism and in 1908 he went to Japan and visited several temples to study Buddhism and Eastern philosophy for six months. In 1919 he was one of the patriot signatories to the Korean Declaration of Independence (독립선언서).
2. Writing
As a social writer, Manhae called for the reform of Korean Buddhism. Manhae`s poetry dealt with both nationalism and sexual love, often mingling the two. One of his more political collections was Nimui Chimmuk (님의 침묵 Love`s Silence and Other Poems), published in 1926. These works revolve around the ideas of equality and freedom and helped inspire the tendencies toward passive resistance and non-violence in the Korean independence movement. In 1913, Han Yongun published Joseonbulgyo yusinlon (조선불교유신론 The Restoration of Korean Buddhism), which criticized the anachronistic isolationist policy of Joseon Buddhism and its incongruence with contemporary reality. The work sent tremors through the intellectual world. In this work, the author promulgated the principle of equality, self-discovery, the potential for Buddhism for safeguarding the world, and progress. His development as an activist and thinker resulted from his adherence to these principles. In 1918, Han founded Yusim (유심), a periodical aimed to enlighten young people and the first Buddhist magazine in Korea. The following year, he played an important role in the March 1st Movement with Chae Lin, for which he was later imprisoned and served a three-year sentence. During his imprisonment, Han composed `Joseondoglibui seo` (조선독립의 서 Reasons for Korean Independence) as a response to the official investigation into his political engagement. He was later acquitted in 1922, at which time he began a nationwide lecture tour. The purpose of the tour was to engage and inspire youth, an objective first established in Han`s Yusim. In 1924, he became the Chair of the Buddhist Youth Assembly. The poems published in Han`s Love`s Silence had been written at Baekdam Temple the previous year. This book garnered much attention from literary critics and intellectuals at the time. Despite his many other publications, from Chinese poems to sijo and the poems included in Yusim, and novels such as Heukpung (흑풍 Dark Wind), Huhoe (후회 Regret), and Bakmyeong (박명 Misfortune), this collection remains the poet`s most significant and enduring literary achievement. In it, love for the motherland plainly appears under the guise of longing for the loved one, as in the poem `Al su eopseoyo` (알 수 없어요 I Do Not Know). Han`s model for such rhapsodic, long-lined expressions of devotion was Rabindranath Tagore, whose work he knew, and behind Tagore the long Indian tradition of combining mysticism with eroticism. In 2007, he was listed by the Korean Poets` Association among the ten most important modern Korean poets.
