Tae Kwon Do
"the way of the foot and the fist"
A "brief" history
There are many people that argue that tae kwon do is a mere "martial arts infant” only dating back to the 1950's and others that insist it has roots over 2000 years old. The following ramblings are what I learned trying to find out for myself.
April 11th 1955 is the official date of creation for tae kwon do and yet evidence of tae kwon do has been found dating back to the first century BC on the Korean peninsula in mural paintings in the tombs of Koguryo warriors as well as statues of Kumgang from the Silla kingdom.
From 53 BC to 669 AD, the Korean peninsula was divided in to three kingdoms. Koguryo occupied the north, Silla in the southeast and Paekje to the southwest. Each kingdom had their defensive forces with warriors trained in hand-to-hand combat. Most notable were the Koguryo “Sonbae” and the Silla “Hwarang.”
Both the Sonbae (a man of virtue that never recoils from fighting) and the Hwarang (flowering manhood) selected their members through contests of strength and martial arts skills and, after being selected, these young men lived in groups where they were immersed in training that included dance, poetry, fencing, archery and taekkyon or subak (tae kwon do). In peacetime, the corps served to benefit society by building roads and fortresses as well as supplying emergency aid. In times war they were ready to sacrifice their lives to serve their country.
In alliance with the Chinese, Silla's Hwarang warriors conquered first Paekje then Koguryo creating the first unified Korean State. The Silla dynasty lasted from 669 AD to 935 AD during which the peninsula was once again fragmented in to three kingdoms.
The Koryo dynasty reunified the Korean peninsula and lasted from 918 to 1392. During this time the martial arts were stressed more heavily in the military and grew to become a more effective and lethal tool of the warriors. The Kings of the Koryo dynasty were very interested in taekkyon (tae kwon do) and made it a compulsory course in military training. In the later years of the Koryo dynasty as gunpowder and other weapons played a bigger role, subakhui (tae kwon do contests) became more of a folk game tradition handed down through the generations.
On a mission to invade China, Koryo general Yi Sung-gye rebelled and, in 1390, formed the Chosun dynasty, which lasted until 1910. During this time tae kwon do saw a renewed military interest after the Japanese invasion of 1592. In the late 1800, Japan was becoming more involved in Korea's trade and other affairs. In 1895, Japanese agents assassinated Empress Myeongseong as she tried to counter Japan's interference in Korea. After winning the Russo Japanese war of 1904 – 1905, a treaty was signed making Korea a Japanese protectorate. Japan annexed Korea in 1910 ending the Chosun Dynasty and declaring Japanese rule.
During the Japanese occupation, traditional Korean culture was banned including the Korean language, writing (hangul) and tae kwon do. Korea's culture and martial arts was handed down from person to person, secretly until the 1945 surrender of Japan in World War II.
After the liberation of Korea, the people began to recover the culture that was almost lost. Tae kwon do schools opened around the country and at the end of the Korean War (1950 - 1953) South Korean President Syngman Rhee ordered that the various schools unify under a single system. A governmental body, selected a naming committee's submission of "tae-kwon-do," submitted by Choi Hong Hi, a general in the South Korean army. Following tae kwon do's official creation on April 11, 1955, The Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA) was formed. (1959). Over 2000 tae kwon do masters were dispatched to over 100 countries to open schools. In 1972, the Korea Taekwondo Association Central Dojang opened. A few months later, the name was changed to the Kukkiwon, which means "National Technique Center." The following year, the World Taekwondo Federation was formed. The International Olympic Committee recognized the WTF and tae kwon do sparring in 1980, and the sport was accepted as a demonstration event at the 1988 Seoul and the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games. It became an official medal event as of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The Kukkiwon remains the World Taekwondo Headquarters to this day.
The preceding information was liberally "borrowed" by Chris Redhead from the following sources;
Tae Kwon Do Textbook published by the Kuk-Ki-Won
Wikipedia
