The Korean
traditional thoughts must be first examined in
order to elucidate the ideological aspects of
Taekwondo as a traditional martial art.
Ancestors of the Han (Korean) race experienced
frustrations coming from natural disasters and
existential restrictive circumstances of life
and therefore they had to rely spiritually on
the nature's power, such as heaven, rain, cloud,
sun, moon, trees, rocks, etc., for their
consolation. As the tribal and agricultural
community was firmly established, the Han people
arrived at a unified thought, of "seon"(impeccable
virtuousness) to become the basis of Koreans'
philosophical thought.
On the basis of this thought, Buddhism and
Confucianism reigned over the Korean people for
such a long time that all individuals have been
accustomed to devote themselves to the nation
and society without falling into the victim of
personal avarices, ever cultivating their mind
and body.
The Korean's traditional thought is
characterized by the priority on loyalty to the
country and filial piety in people's daily life,
thus making people think about the
responsibilities first before seeking any power
and voluntary working for justice.
A.
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 three 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
on 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 third 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.
B.
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 detail.
* Old-Chosun
Age
As mentioned above, the Taekwondo spirit was
originated from the national traditional
thought, which was transmitted from the
grounding of the nation, by the progenitor
Tangun, who advocated the idealism of "hongik-ingan"
(meaning universally beregitting humman beings)
and "jaese-ihwa"(meaning a rationalization of
human living). This thought was made into the
national traditional thought represented by the
philosophy of hongik-ingan in the time of Old-Chosun
Age, also forming the basis of Taekwondo spirit.
*
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 confucian ideas as well. The
hwarangdo spirit is characterized by the 3
virtues of loyalty, filial piety and
reliability, 5 disciplines and 3 virtuous
conduct, 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.
*
Traditional Thoughts of Koryo and Chosun Ages
and Taekwondo
The Korean's 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 spirirual energy while Great Scholar
Yi Toe Gye favored the theory of dualistic
spiritual energy, which is repreensted 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 without
selfishness.
C.
Conclusion
The
Taekwondo spirit, which has been directly
influenced by the national traditional 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
taoistic 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 Korean's traditional martial art
Taekwondo aims not only to acquire power and
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 rightousness and a strong sense
of responsibility.
Source
from
www.kukkiwon.or.kr
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