Читать книгу Taekwondo Basics - Scott Shaw - Страница 8

THE FOUNDATIONS of taekwondo can be traced back thousands of years. Korea possesses a long and illustrious history of developing and refining advanced systems of martial arts. This history was idealized by the Hwa Rang warriors of the fifth century B.CThe "Flowering Youth," as they were known, brought an end to regional conflict, united the kingdoms on the Korean peninsula, and spread their understanding of Buddhism and warfare to the island nation of Japan. This historic transmission of knowledge helped to give birth to Japanese samurai culture. Although martial culture on the Korean peninsula dates back to the beginning of recorded time, the system of martial arts that came to be known as taekwondo is less than a century old.

The Birth of Taekwondo

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Korea was occupied by Japan. This annexation was not lifted until Japan's defeat at the end of World War II.

With brutal Japanese occupation lifted, Korea went through a period of rapid cultural revival. During this process, the native martial arts, which had been banned by the occupying forces, experienced a renewal. The Korean people, swearing never to be overtaken by a foreign power again, embraced this spread of the martial arts throughout their nation. From this came the birth of the modern Korean martial arts.

Taekwondo has gone through a long process of evolution since its foundations began to be laid at the end of World War II. It took many years for the various Korean martial arts instructors to finally unite their individual kwans, or "schools," under the banner of taekwondo. Ib understand this process, we can look at the history of the modern Korean martial arts.

The Kwans

The Chung Do Kwan

The Chung Do Kwan was founded by Lee Won Kuk. (In Korean names, the surname, or family name, comes first, followed by given names. Thus, in Western usage, Lee Won Kuk would be "Mr. Lee.") This was the first school of martial arts to be established in modern Korea and was the first school to begin laying the foundations for what was to become taekwondo.

Lee Won Kuk began his career in the martial arts in 1926, at the age of nineteen, when he moved to Japan to attend college. During his time at the university he studied Shotokan karate directly from its founder, Gichin Funakoshi.

Lee eventually returned to Korea and began teaching karate in September of 1944. His school was located at the Yong Shin School in Seoul.

During the Japanese occupation, it was virtually impossible for a Korean to open a school of karate in his homeland. Due to Lee's close relationship with the Japanese governor general of Korea, however, he was one of the very few people who were allowed to do so. This led to widespread rumors and deep distrust of Lee. It was believed that he must be a Japanese sympathizer, or he would not have been allowed to open his school. This distrust ran so deep that in 1945, when Korea was liberated, Lee was put on trial for his Japanese affiliations and had to temporarily close the doors of his school.

Lee was not convicted, however. Upon his acquittal, he became very proactive in his stance about Korean independence.

Lee formed a tight alliance with the Korean National Police. So much so, that when his Chung Do Kwan was reopened in Seoul, in April of 1946, it became known as the National Police Dojang.

In 1951, due to his age, Lee Won Kuk asked one of his senior students, Son Duk Sung to take over as the chief instructor of the studio. Son Duk Sung accepted this offer and thereby became the second grandmaster of the Chung Do Kwan.

Many of the Korean schools of martial arts closed their doors during the Korean War, and the Chung Do Kwan was no exception. It did not reopen until 1953. By this point, however, Lee Won Kuk rarely visited the school because of his advanced age. Son Duk Sung and the instructors Son had personally trained became the primary teachers of the kwan. As time progressed, several advanced students of the Chung Do Kwan branched off and founded their own kwans.

The Chosun Yun Moo Kwan—Ji Do Kwan

The evolution of chosun yun moo kwan began in 1931 when Lee Kyung Suk, a Korean who taught judo, was allowed to establish the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan school in Seoul. He successfully operated this school of judo for several decades.

At the end of World War II, Lee Kyung Suk asked Chun Sang Sup to set up a course of kwon bop at his school. This program was named Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu.

Chun Sang Sup began his martial arts training in judo while in high school. He then moved to Japan to attend Dong Yang Chuck Sik College. It was during this period that he was exposed to Shotokan karate, and he is believed to have earned a black belt.

Upon returning to Korea, Chun is believed to have secretly taught Shotokan karate to private students, beginning in approximately 1940. Because privately teaching karate was outlawed by the Japanese occupying forces, his teaching was not formally recorded until he established his training method after World War II.

Chun Sang Sup enlisted the help of Yoon Byung In to teach karate at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan. Yoon was a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate.

Yoon Byung In taught at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan for approximately one year before breaking away and forming his own school, known as the Chang Moo Kwan. Chun Sang Sup again returned to full-time teaching responsibilities.

Chun's instruction continued until an evil twist of fate found him kidnapped and imprisoned by the North Korean military during the Korean War. He was never heard from again and was eventually believed to be dead.

Upon the loss of Chun, Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu teaching passed to the hands of Yoon Kwe Byung, one of Chun's senior students. He renamed the school Ji Do Kwan, "Wisdom Way School."

During the 1950s, when the various kwans of the Korean martial arts began attempting to merge under one banner, Yoon Kwe Byung was against unification. Yoon wanted the Ji Do Kwan to remain free from organizational control, but the other senior members of the Ji Do Kwan disagreed. As a result, Yoon was ousted from his presidency, and Lee Chong Woo was elected the new president of the Ji Do Kwan.

Lee Chong Woo forged the Ji Do Kwan into one of the leading schools of martial arts in modern Korea. Its practitioners were noted for their consecutive wins at South Korean tournaments. Lee also went on to hold several pivotal positions within the Korea Taekwondo Association and the World Taekwondo Federation.

The Moo Duk Kwan

There are two distinct divisions of Moo Duk Kwan, both of which evolved from a single source in modern Korea. The first is most commonly known as Tang Soo Do. The second is the Moo Duk Kwan division of taekwondo. To understand how these two separate governing bodies came into existence, we must first view the birth of this system of self-defense.

The founder of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan was Hwang Kee. Hwang was an expatriate of Korea during much of its Japanese occupation. He details that he first secretly studied the Korean arts of soo bak do and tae kyon in his homeland, before leaving Korea in 1936 to work for the Southern Manchuria Railroad in China.

In early interviews, Hwang Kee stated that he studied numerous systems of Chinese martial arts while living in China. Later, it was revealed that he had also studied a system of karate while he was there. Is it significant that this was revealed later—or it is at least notable.

Hwang returned to Korea near the end of Japanese occupation and formalized his system of self-defense on his birthday, November 9, 1945. In 1946 his system began to be taught at the Yong San Railway Station in Seoul. It was called Tang Soo Do Bu, and he titled his martial arts organization Kyo Tong Bu Woo Hae. The Korean term tang soo literally translates as "knife hand," and the Japanese character used to depict this term is the same one used for karate.

Since Hwang Kee's first school was in a railway station, many of his first students were railway employees. The school flourished for many years. Then, like most schools of martial arts on the Korean peninsula, it was closed on June 25, 1950, at the onset of the Korean War.

In 1953, when the school reopened, Hwang Kee had changed the name of the system to moo duk kwan. He also changed the name of his organization to the Korea Soo Bahk Do Association. By 1955 this organization had ten gymnasiums, but its central headquarters remained near Seoul Station. During this same year, the Korea Soo Bahk Do Association hosted its first Sino-Korean martial arts championship.

By 1965, the various kwans of the modern Korean martial arts were merging under the banner of taekwondo. Hwang Kee resisted this trend, wishing to maintain control over his organization. As a result, two of his advanced students—Im Young Tek and Hong Chong Soo—broke away from their teacher, formed their own branch of moo duk kwan, and became a part of the Korea Taekwondo Association. From this act, two distinct systems of self-defense, both called moo duk kwan, emerged.

Many advanced practitioners of tang soo do moo duk kwan followed this lead and broke away from Hwang Kee. They each became part of the taekwondo branch of moo duk kwan.

Although the two moo duk kwans are relatively similar in style and structure, and most Korean moo duk kwan masters draw their lineage from Hwang Kee, the two moo duk kwans possess different forms and a somewhat different focus. The taekwondo branch of moo duk kwan does, however, possess substantially more members—approximately 500,000.

One interesting note is that tang soo do, unlike the other Korean martial arts, does not use the traditional black belt in its ranking system. Hwang Kee believed that black is the color in which all other colors merge—that is, any color that is mixed with black also becomes black. If an individual wears a black belt, it means that he has mastered the art. However, no one can ever truly master the martial arts, because they are a continual learning process. Therefore, advanced tang soo do practitioners wear a navy blue belt.

The Chang Moo Kwan

The Chang Moo Kwan was founded at the YMCA in the Jong Ro section of Seoul in 1946 by Yoon Byung In. In Japanese-occupied Korea, Yoon is said to have studied a Chinese system of self-defense known as joo an pa. This system is more commonly known as chuan fa. He then moved to Japan to attend Nihon University. While there, he studied karate under the direction of Toyama Kanken, the founder of Shotokan karate.

When Korea gained independence, Yoon returned to his homeland and taught karate at the Chosun Yun Moo Kwan Kwon Bup Bu for approximately one year. He broke away from this school, and in 1946 opened the YMCA Kwon Bup Bu or Chang Moo Kwan. This school initially had over 500 students, but Yoon's training method was so severe that fewer than 200 students remained after only a few months.

In 1946 Lee Nam Suk was named the first official instructor of the Chang Moo Kwan. When Yoon Byung In went missing in action during the Korean War, it was Lee Nam Suk and Kim Soon Bae, another advanced student of Yoon's, who reopened the school at the Seoul YMCA at the end of the war.

The Kang Duk Won

As the second incarnation of the Chang Moo Kwan came into existence in 1953, Lee Nam Suk and Kim Soon Bae began to have conflicts with two other senior students: Hong Jung Pyo and Park Chul Hee. These two men left and formed the Kang Duk Won, "House of Teaching Generosity," in the nearby Shin Sul Dong district of Seoul in 1956.

The Song Moo Kwan

The Song Moo Kwan was founded in Kae Sung City, Kyung Ki Province, Korea, by Ro Byung Jick, on March 11, 1944. Like the Chung Do Kwan, this school was actually established prior to the end of Japanese occupation. The original classes of the kwan were taught at the Kwan Duk Jung School of Archery.

Due to the repressive political conditions, the kwan was forced to close its doors a few months later. It was not until May 2, 1946, that Ro could reopen his school in Dong Hung Dong, Kae Sung City, Korea.

On June 25, 1950, the Song Moo Kwan again closed its doors, due to the onset of the Korean War. On September 20, 1953, the school was reestablished in the Ah Hyung Dong, Mapo Gu district of Seoul.

Ro's training in the martial arts began in 1936 in Japan. He studied Shotokan karate alongside Chung Do Kwan founder Lee Won Kuk, under Shotokan karate's founder, Gichin Funakoshi.

The Oh Do Kwan

The Oh Do Kwan was founded by General Choi Hong Hi and Major Nam Tae Hi. Both of these men were advanced military officers in the newly formed army of liberated Korea. Their classes were originally taught at the Korean Third Army Base, Yong Dae Ri, Korea.

Choi Hong Hi was born into a prominent Korean family. He moved to Japan in his adolescence to further his education. While there, he studied Shotokan karate and earned a black belt. At the point when World War II broke out, he was forced into the service of the Japanese military. After World War II and the defeat of the Japanese occupying forces, he became a pivotal figure in the newly formed Korean military.

Nam Tae Hi became a student of Chung Do Kwan immediately after Korean independence. He quickly mastered the art and began teaching at the Korean Army Military Signal School in 1947. During the same period, Nam Tae Hi met Choi Hong Hi. This laid the foundation for the birth of the Oh Do Kwan.

As the years progressed, in no small part due to General Choi's senior position in the Korean military, Oh Do Kwan became the main martial art taught to the Korean Army.

Many individuals already possessed a black belt by the time they were inducted into the Korean armed forces, but due to General Choi's influence, the rank of black belt was only accepted and transferable from students of the Oh Do Kwan and the Chung Do Kwan. Those practitioners who held black belts from other kwans had to be retrained and retested to be considered for official black-belt status. This regulation was questioned by many practitioners of the modern Korean martial arts, but it was, nonetheless, the impetus that brought the various schools of the Korean martial arts together under the banner of taekwondo.

The Unification of the Kwans

The unification of the Korean kwans, congregating under one banner, began in the early 1950s. This began when the leaders of the various schools first began to come together and attempt to form a central governing body. Due to the outbreak of the Korean War, however, these initial attempts did not prove to be successful.

The Korea Kong Soo Do Association

During this period of war, several kwan leaders, who were living in the Korean wartime capital of Pusan, formed an alliance and vowed to create a governing body. At the end of the Korean War, the kwan leaders joined forces and set about formalizing an organization. They named this governing body the Korea Kong Soo Do Association.

Because politics influenced all aspects of Korean culture, the first president of the organization was Jo Young Joo, the head of the Association of Korean Residents in Japan. He was soon followed by a new president, the Republic of Korea minister of finance, Lee Joong Jae. Ro Byung Jick was elected its director and Lee Chong Woo the secretary general.

The focus of this organization was to provide a standardized system of testing. As each kwan leader had his own system of teaching and testing, this proved to be problematic. Nonetheless, the first two tests were given at the central dojang of the Chung Do Kwan, which was actually located in the Si Chun Church, when it was not in use for worship. The next two tests were given at the Chae Shin Bu Dojang.

At this time, the rank of fourth dan was the highest degree awarded by the Korea Kong Soo Do Association. This rank was given to the original kwan founders and the advanced teachers of the various kwans.

There was immediate conflict among some founders of the original Korean kwans, however. They were dissatisfied with the promotion standards within this organization. Two of the leaders of this dispute were Hwang Kee (Moo Duk Kwan) and Son Duk Sung (Chung Do Kwan).

Hwang Kee was the first to leave the organization, one month after it was formalized. His departure was in no small part due to the fact that he was not given a position on the Central Testing Committee—which set the standards for the organization. Approximately one month later, Son Duk Sung removed his group, Chung Do Kwan, from the organization for the same reason.

It was less than a year before the Korea Kong Soo Do Association began to disintegrate. Hwang Kee was pushing forward his Korea Tkng Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Association, by petitioning the Korea Amateur Sports Association to grant it formalized status. This attempt eventually failed because it was blocked by a key player in the Korea Kong Soo Do Association, Ro Byung Jick. What this attempt did, however, was to fuel the independence movement among the other kwans that had not become formalized within this group. Some of the kwans that desired ongoing independence were the Han Moo Kwan, the Jung Do Kwan, and the Oh Do Kwan, all of which continued to hold their own promotional testing.

It was particularly the Oh Do Kwan that eventually caused the Korea Kong Soo Do Association to fail, primarily because of the influence General Choi's Oh Do Kwan had with the Korean military and with the Korean government. Without General Choi's support, a successful central association was virtually impossible.

The Korea Taekwondo Association

In 1959 General Choi petitioned the Ministry of Education and the Korea Amateur Sports Association to found a new organization. Due to his close ties to then Korean president Rhee Seung Man, the acceptance of this organization was virtually ensured.

General Choi coined the name taekwondo. He established it in the minds of the Korean public by having military and civilian students of the art yell, "Tae Kwon," each time they executed a technique. There were several names being considered, and extensive debates went on. The six primary kwans—the Chung Do Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Song Moo Kwan, Chang Moo Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and Moo Duk Kwan—came together, and the name taekwondo was finally accepted as the title for the unified style of the Korean martial arts. This acceptance was attributed to the fact that it closely resembled the name of the ancient Korean martial art, tae kyon.

In 1959 the affiliated Korean kwans finally became formalized as The Korea Taekwondo Association. General Choi Hong Hi was elected its president. Ro Byung Jick of the Song Moo Kwan and Yoon Kwe Byung of the Ji Do Kwan were elected the vice presidents. Hwang Kee of the Moo Duk Kwan was appointed the chief director. Hwang Kee's participation in this organization was short-lived, however. He broke away from the group the same year.

On May 16, 1961, South Korean president Rhee Sang Man was overthrown by a military coup d'etat. South Korea entered into a period of internal chaos. The Korea Taekwondo Association collapsed.

The Korea Tae Soo Do Association

During this period of internal disruption and military rule, the kwans were forced to organize into one body by Governmental Decree #6, which ordered all schools of the Korean martial arts to unify under one banner. As a result, the leaders of the kwans again came together and attempted to form one organization. Heated debate went on throughout 1961. The group emerged with the name Korea Tae Soo Do Association.

As was the case with the Korea Kong Soo Do Association, the primary concern was formalized teaching and promotion standards. To help to achieve this, an inspection team was set up and deployed to the various kwans in order to enforce the use of standardized hyung (forms) and taeryun (free-sparring techniques).

Although the Korea Tae Soo Do Association was the governing body that laid the foundation for taekwondo, there was still a large amount of infighting. Many of the advanced members did not like the fact that they were being told what they must teach and how they must promote their students. Again, at the forefront of this controversy was Hwang Kee. On July 20, 1962, Hwang Kee wrote his letter of resignation from the organization.

General Choi and the Korea Tae Soo Do Association

Although General Choi was instrumental in the coup, it is important to note that his previous close association with ousted President Rhee prevented him from playing an important role in the formation of this organization. In fact, although he once held the pivotal positions of commander of the Sixth Korean Army and director of intelligence, he was extremely disliked by the new Korean president, Park Chung Hee; General Choi had once been President Park's superior officer. As a result, Choi was forced to resign from the military and was sent to Malaysia in the capacity of ambassador.

The Korea Tae Soo Do Association remained without a president for approximately one year after it was founded. Finally, General Choi Myung Shin became its first president on December 28, 1962.

During this same period, Hwang Kee was granted governmental recognition for his organization by the Korea Amateur Sports Association and the Ministry of Education. This action allowed his Korea Soo Bahk Do Association to remain free from interference throughout the years ahead.

The International Taekwondo Federation

In 1965 General Choi Hong Hi returned from Malaysia to South Korea. Soon after that, he was elected president of the Korea Tae Soo Do Association. He called together the General Assembly and proposed a vote to change the name of the organization back to the Korea Taekwondo Association. The name won by one vote.

By 1966 General Choi had formed the International Taekwondo Federation to help taekwondo spread across the globe. In that same year, due to many internal political factors, he left South Korea, moving himself and the headquarters of the International Taekwondo Federation to Canada.

The World Taekwondo Federation

Deputy director of the Republic of Korea Presidential Protective Forces, Dr. Kim Un Yong, was elected the president of the Korea Taekwondo Association on January 23, 1971. Although he initially declined the position due to the continued conflicts within the organization, he was asked by the Korean government to accept and to cleanse the association. This he accomplished with great success.

Believing that taekwondo was a Korean martial art and its governing body should be based in Korea, Dr. Kim dissolved the relationship between the Korea Taekwondo Association and the International Taekwondo Federation.

In 1973 the World Taekwondo Federation was formed, and Dr. Kim was elected its president. This organization has led the martial art of taekwondo into its status as an Olympic sport.