Taekwondo History 

 

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 practicioners through their incessant 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.

 

1.       Taekwondo in Ancient Times

 

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
Man by nature has instinct to preserve his own life as well as his race, and therefore engages himself in doing physical activities all the time either consciously or unconsciously. Man cannot do without physical motions and he grows and developed on them, regardless of time and space. 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.

 

c. Silla's "hwarang" and Taekkyon
The kingdom of Silla was founded on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula under the circumstances of no immediate threat from outside, but along with the birth of Paekje kingdom on its west flank and the start of invasions by Koguryo from the north, Silla was impelled to arm itself with development of martial arts.

In fact, "hwarangdo" is the typical example of Silla's martial arts, which is an assimilation of Koguryo's "sonbae" systems. The members of the youth group of hwarando were well trained with the senses of filial piety, loyalty to the kingdom and sacrificial devotion to society to become important personalities for the rein of kingdom. Notable among them were Kim Yu-sin and Kim Chun-chu that made a definite contribution to the unification of those three kingdoms.

The chronicle of old Chosun described the life of hwarangs, members of hwarangdo: "hwarang were selected by the kingdom through contests and, after selection, they lived together in a group, indulging themselves in learning, exercising subak(old form of Taekwondo), fencing and horse-riding, and sometimes they enjoyed various games of communities, working on emergency aids and construction of fortresses and roads, and they were always ready to sacrifice their lives at the time of war."

Hwarangs were particularly influenced by the Buddhistic disciplines and therefore the bronze statues of a warrior (a man of great physical strength) currently exhibited at the kyongju museum clearly indicates that martial arts were practiced at temples by showing a strong man's bare-hand defensive and offensive stances.

Especially the shape of a fist shown on the statue of kumgang yoksa(diamond warrior : a strong man) exactly resembles that of a "jungkwon"(right fist) in the contemporary term of Taekwondo. The statue also shows today's "pyon jumok " (flat fist) and the use of legs, which are seen in today's Taekwondo.
It is really noticeable that in that Silla epoch the terms of "subak" (hand techniques) and "taekkyon" appear together, signifying that both hand and foot techniques were used in martial arts as shown in today's Taekwondo.

 

 

d. Taekkyon transmitted from Koguryo to Silla
As the art of Taekkyon was popularized in Koguryo, it was also handed down to Silla, which is justified by the following points of view;
(1) "hwarang"(or sonrang) in Silla has the same meaning with the word "sonbae" in Koguryo by indicating both the youth warrior's corps from their etymological origins

(2) Both hwarang and sonbae had the same organizations and hierarchical structure with each other.

(3) According to historical, as sonbaes in Koguryo used to compete in Taekkyon games at the time of their national festivals, hwarangs in Silla also played Taekkyon games (subak, dokkyoni or Taekkyoni) at such festivals as "palkwanhoe" and "hankawi" , thus systematically developing the ancient fighting techniques into the Taekkyon(or sonbae) as the basis of martial arts by around A.D.200. From the 4th century the hwarangs took the takkyon lesson as a systmeized martial art at their learning houses to make it also popularized among ordinary people so much so that their techniques were depicted on the mural paintings of ancient warrior tombs.
Again, it is also true that Taekkyon, coming down to Silla, was further developed into a school of martial art with the division of techniques, i, e. bare-hand techniques and foot techniques, which can be proved by the fact that both hand and foot techniques are clearly shown in the ancient sculptures of buddhistic statues.

 

2. Taekwondo in the Middle Ages

The Koryo dynasty, which reunified the Korean peninsula after Silla and lasted from A.D. 918 to 1392, had the Teakkyon developed more systematically and made it a compulsory subject in the examinations for selection of military cadets.
The techniques and power of Taekkyon martial art grew to become effective weapons even to kill human beings. In the military, a pattern of collective practice, called "obyong-subak-hui (5 soldier's Taekkyon play), was introduced so that it might be used in a real war.

In the early days of Koryo dynasty, martial art abilities were the only required qualifications to become military personnel because the kingdom utterly needed the national defense capabilities after conquer of the peninsula. A certain plain soldier who mastered the Taekkyon techniques was promoted to a general, young were invited to Taekkyon contests and the skilled ones were selected to become military officer. There were lots of other examples in which many Taekkyon-mastered youths were picked up in contests, which is proof that Taekwondo sport was originated in that epoch. The chronicles of Koryo dynasty said; "at a power contest of Taekkyon techniques, lee yi-min punched a pillar of the house with his right-hand fist, then some of the props of the roof were shaken. Another Taekkyon master had his fist pierce through the clay-wall."

Especially the kings of Koryo dynasty were much interested in "subakhui"(Taekkyon contest), making it a compulsory course of military training. Therefore, subakhui was also popular out for inspection tours in the villages.
However, the Koryo dynasty in its latest years had gunpowder and new types of weapons available at hand, thus slowing down its support of martial arts as the folk games to be transmitted as such down to the modern Korea, Chosun. (<Photo>Teakkyon explained in the Koryo history book)

 

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