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Traditional National Spirit and Taekwondo
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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