Gounsa, Deungunsan

Temple · Gyeongsang

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In short

A temple whose name kept its sound but changed its characters, to hold one man’s pen name.

The seated stone Buddha of Gounsa in Uiseong. — Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Quick facts

Address: 415 Gounsa-gil, Danchon-myeon, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do

About this place

Gounsa stands on Deungunsan in Danchon-myeon, Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and is the head temple of the sixteenth district of the Jogye Order. Uisang founded it in 681 and called it Gounsa, written then with the character for high — High Cloud Temple. Later Choe Chi-won, together with the monks Yeoji and Yeosa, put up the Gaunnu and Uhwaru pavilions, and to mark this the name was changed to Gounsa written with the character for solitary, taken from Choe Chi-won’s own style name — Solitary Cloud Temple. In 1668 Geukseong, Seungmuk, Deokjong and others repaired the Gaunnu.

Origin and history

Uisang founded the temple in 681 and called it Gounsa. The characters used then meant High Cloud.

Later Choe Chi-won, together with the monks Yeoji and Yeosa, put up the Gaunnu and Uhwaru pavilions, and to mark this the name was changed to Gounsa written with the character for solitary, taken from Choe Chi-won’s own style name.

In 1668 Geukseong, Seungmuk, Deokjong and others repaired the Gaunnu.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
From high cloud to solitary cloud
After Choe Chi-won put up the Gaunnu and Uhwaru, the name was changed from the characters meaning High Cloud to those meaning Solitary Cloud, taken from his style name.
documented history
Origin
Founded by Uisang
Uisang founded the temple in 681 and called it Gounsa.
documented history
What people do here
The Gaunnu
A pavilion raised by Choe Chi-won together with the monks Yeoji and Yeosa, repaired in 1668 by Geukseong, Seungmuk, Deokjong and others.
documented history

This temple left the sound of its name alone and changed only the characters. At first it was written High Cloud; after Choe Chi-won raised the Gaunnu and Uhwaru, the name was rewritten as Solitary Cloud, taken from his style name. A temple’s name came to hold a layman’s.

Choe Chi-won survives at several points in Gyeongsang in different ways. The list of the ten Hwaeom temples that Buseoksa in Yeongju and Beomeosa in Busan both cite sits in his Life of the Reverend Beopjang, and he wrote the inscription on the stele of the Seon master Jingam at Ssanggyesa in Hadong. Here it is not his writing that survives but his name itself.

The founder is Uisang — the same man who built Buseoksa in Yeongju and formally opened the Hwaeom school in this land. So Uisang and Choe Chi-won overlap in this temple, one in its founding and one in its name.

The Gaunnu was repaired in 1668 by Geukseong, Seungmuk, Deokjong and others.

Claims and evidence levels 2

Uisang founded the temple in 681, and its characters were later changed to those of Choe Chi-won’s style name after he raised the Gaunnu and Uhwaru. documented history
The Gaunnu was repaired in 1668 by Geukseong, Seungmuk and Deokjong. documented history

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