History and spirit of Tae Kwon Do
1. Original Thought of Taekwondo Spirit
Taekwondo certainly takes root in man's instincts to survive by means of protecting himself from
outside threat with the bare-hand fighting skills, and it was developed into a systematized martial art in
the times of three-kingdom era. The 3 kingdoms, i.e., Silla(founded in B. C. 57), Koguryo(B. C. 37)
and Paekje(B. C. 18), were all antagonistic among themselves in their respective hopes to achieve
national unification of the Korean peninsula. They had to defend themselves also from foreign
aggressions from China or Japan. Under such circumstances, each kingdom tried to consolidate
national unity first, stressing the spirit of national defense among the people. That spirit was based on
the traditional "seon" philosophy and the warriors accepted it as a martial spirit. Above all, Silla's
hwarangdo (youth warrior's corps) was a typical example of inheriting this spirit. Their firm view of the
state was derived from the thought of loyalty and filial piety, with which they could voluntarily abandon
their lives for the sake of national security. In addition, the courage of "no retreat from fighting" was
also another virtue of that spirit.
A their virtue was their practical thought of ethics, with which they pledged not to commit any
ethical faults and never to betray their social obligations.
After all, these spirits enabled the hwarangs of Silla to defend their Kingdom and helped it
conquer other two kingdoms, unifying the entire Peninsula. Thus, the hwarangdo spirit inherited the
Korean's traditional thought based on the seon philosophy and gave birth to the Taekwondo spirit
consisting of the thought of loyalty and filial piety, courage of no retreat from fighting and practical
ethic thought of consistency in learning and acting. This thought, shaped into a peace thought, has been
handed down to the present Koreans.
2. Philosophical Backgrounds of Traditional National Thought and Taekwondo Spirit
The Koreans' ethical tradition and the history of Taekwondo well reflect the picture of Korean
society in the past. Taekwondo as a traditional martial art is not merely the fighting skills but a proper
product of national traditions comprising a philosophical spiritual world of martial arts.
In the midst of fierce competitions for survival among different races on the earth, the Korean
people has maintained through a history of 5,000 years the national spirit based on the seon philosophy
and Taekwondo spirit also has been developed along with the national history.
The development of Taekwondo spirit as martial arts will be further explained in details.
(1) Old-Chosun Age
As mentioned above, the Taekwondo spirit was originated from the traditional national thought
which was transmitted from the founding of the nation by the progenitor Tangun, who advocated the
idealism of "hongik-ingan" (meaning a universal benefits humanism) and "jaese-ihwa" (meaning a
rationalization of human living). This thought was made into the traditional national thought represented
by the philosophy of hongik-ingan in the time of Old-Chosun Age, also forming the basis of
Taekwondo spirit.
(2) Three-Kingdoms Age
As previously stated, the idealism of hongik-ingan was represented by the seon philosophy in the
Koguryo era, which was later inherited by the Silla Kingdom to be developed into the hwarangdo spirit
with the integration of Buddhistic and Confucianistic ideas as well. The hwarangdo spirit is
characterized by the 3 virtues of loyalty, filial piety and reliability, 5 disciplines and 3 virtuous conducts,
such as modesty, frugality and restraint. And hwarang's religious worship helped them cultivate
patriotism. It must be noted that Taekwondo spirit was also inherited from the hwarangdo spirit in the
course of their martial art training.
(3) Traditional Thoughts of Koryo and Chosun Ages and Taekwondo
The Koreans' traditional thought of hongik-ingan is closely related to the humanism which stresses
respect of human beings. The people throughout the ages of Koryo and Chosun were taught in their
daily life to respect superiors and personalities of high virtue and treat their inferiors kindly. These
attitudes of life were also influenced, on the other hand, by Confucianism, Buddhism, Seon(impeccable
virtuousness), Tonghak(Eastern philosophy) and Chondo(the Heaven's Way). In those days there were
various philosophical theories of thoughts expressed by scholars, philosopher Seo Kyong-Duk adhered
to the theory of monistic spiritual energy while Great Scholar Yi Toe Gye favored the theory of
dualistic spiritual energy, which is represented by the 4 moral minds, such as benevolence,
righteousness, propriety and wisdom, and the 7 sentiments, such as joy, anger sorrow, pleasure, love,
vice and avarice.
Another Great Scholar Yi Yul Kok used to say in his writing that "I endeavored incessantly to
achieve self-restraint until I could reach the realm of a saintly life," "I speak little when I have to make a
decision," "I do what is to be done with all my sincerity," "I make one understand a thing however
arbitrary he may be," and "Cultivation of the mind and learning should be continued without slowing
down the tempo." Those sayings partly reflect the spirit of Taekwondo.
Especially, the Tonghak thought and the Chondo thought stressed a human being's dignity,
assurance of national security and people's safety and a public citizen's mind disregrading selfishness.
3. Conclusion
The Taekwondo spirit, which has been directly influenced by the traditional national thoughts, is
infused with the national soul molded through common experiences of joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure
throughout the ages. It can be more easily identified by Silla's hwarangdo spirit which was based on the
Korean people's basic thought of seon philosophy as well as Buddhist thoughts of national safeguards,
Confucian thoughts of loyalty and filial piety and Taoism's thoughts of tacit performance. After all, the
hwarangdo spirit combined with Taekwondo spirit of martial art enabled Silla to unify the three
kingdoms.
Therefore, the Koreans' traditional martial art Taekwondo aims not only to acquire power an skill
for self-defense but to perfect oneself with the character of devoting one's life to the safeguard of
justice, of respecting the responsibilities and of embodying the thought of universal equality.
Now the Taekwondo spirit can be better summarized by the philosophy of hongik-ingan,
peace-loving spirit, spirit of integrity with which to protect righteousness and a strong sense of
responsibility.
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