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Tae Kwon
Do
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Taekwondo, which is a national
martial art of Korea, is one of the proudest cultural heritages for the
Korean people. Taekwondo has been developed into a modern sport as a result
of painstaking researches and experiences by the Taekwondo practitioners
through their constant upgrading of technical and spiritual refinement. At
the same time, it has been firmly established as a real national martial art
enabling the people to defend the nation.
The historical background of Taekwondo development will be explained
following the chronological order of 4 different ages;
Ancient times, Middles ages,
Modern ages and Present times.
a. The origin of Taekwondo
People, by nature, have instinct to self-preservation well as protection of
their group, and therefore engages himself in doing physical activities all
the time either consciously or unconsciously. Humans cannot do without
physical motions and growth and development of the motions, regardless of
time and space.
Ancient Times
In ancient times people had no
means other than the bare hands and body to defend themselves; so they
naturally developed the bare-hand fighting techniques. Even at the times
when arms were developed as the defensive or offensive means, people
continued to enjoy the bare-hand fighting techniques for the purpose of
building physical strength as well as showing off through matches at the
rituals of tribal communities.
In the early history of the Korean peninsula, there were three tribes
dwelling there, each enjoying warrior's martial art contests during the
ritual seasons.
At that times people learned techniques from their experiences of fighting
against the beasts whose defensive and offensive motions were also the
subject of analysis. It is believed that this was exactly the true grounding
of today's Taekwondo. Whose names have descended from "subak," "Taekkyon",
"takkyon," and so on.
Later in the latter part of ancient times on the Korean peninsula, three
kingdoms came into existence always rivaling among them for the hegemony.
They were Koguryo, Paekje, and Silla all indulged in growing national
strength with trained warriors. Therefore, the Korean history tells that
there were military personalities among the well-known prominent national
leaders of the three kingdoms, which proves the military tendency of ruling
hierarchy.
As a result, youth warrior's corps were organized, such as "hwarangdo" in
Silla, and "chouisonin" in Koguryo, which both adopted the martial art
training as one of the important subjects of learning. A renowned martial
art book of the days, called "muyedobotongji" said "Taekwondo (the art of
hand-to-hand fight) is the basis of martial art, enabling one to build
strength by means of suing the hand and foot freely and training arms and
legs as well as the body to be adaptable to any critical situations, which
means Taekwondo was already prevalent in that age. Thus, it can be easily
assumed that Taekwondo was originated from the days of tribal communities on
the Korean peninsula.
Silla was a kingdom founded in B. C. 57 on the southeastern part of Korea
and Koguryo founded in B. C. 37 on the northern part of Korea along the Yalu
River, both making great efforts to raise their youngsters into strong
warriors called "hwarang" and " sonbae" respectively, certainly with
Taekwondo as one of the principal subjects of physical training.
b. Koguryo’s "sonbae" and Taekkyon Koguryo was founded on the northern part
of Korea, surrounded by the hostile Han (Chinese) tribes in the north.
Therefore, in its initial stage of national foundation, the kingdom
organized a strong warrior's corps called "sonbae" in its attempt to
consolidate the centralized power.
According to the scholars of history, a man of virtue who never recoils from
a fighting means the word "sonbae," which is a member of the warrior's
corps. Later a history book on the old Chosun dynasty described the lift of
Koguryo days, saying; "people gathered on March 10 every year at a site of
ritual, where they enjoyed a sword dance, archery, subak (taekyon) contests
and so on" ,implying that subak (Taekwondo) was one of the popular events
for the ritual in the Koguryo days. It also said "sonbaes lived in groups,
learning history and literary arts at home and going out to construct roads
and fortresses for the benefits of society, always devoting themselves to
the nations.
Therefore, it is altogether natural that Koguryo put the priority of
interests on the Taekkyon which was the basis of martial arts, as can be
proved by the wall paintings discovered at several tombs of Koguryo days. A
mural painting at the samsil tomb shows two warriors engaged in a
face-to-face match in takkyon (Taekwondo) stance, and a third at the same
tomb shows the scene of Korean wrestling bout, clearly distinguishing it
from the Taekkyon. It can be assumed from the painting of Taekkyon match
that the dead were either a Taekkyon practical or the subject of condolence
with dances and martial art.
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