Вступление

Тхэквандо - национальный вид спорта Корее, являющийся гордостью культурного наследия корейцев.

Тхэквандо трансформировался в современный спорт, благодаря практикующим тхэквандо, через

исследования и расспространение идей и духа тхэквандо. С другой стороны тхэквандо является 

боевым исскуством и было создано для защиты Кореи.

Тхэквандо в древности

Историческое развитие тхэквандо хронологически можно разделить на четыре части: древнее время,

средние века, современное время и настоящее. 

a. Истоки тхэквандо

Man by nature has instinct to preserve his own life as well as his race, and therefore engages himself in doing physical

activities all the time either consciously or unconsciously. Man cannot do without physical motions and he grows and

developed on them, regardless of time and space. In ancient times people had no means other than the bare hands

and body to defend themselves; so they naturally developed the bare-hand fighting techniques. Even at the times

when arms were developed as the defensive or offensive means, people continued to enjoy the bare-hand fighting

techniques for the purpose of building physical strength as well as showing off through matches at the rituals of tribal

communities.

In the early history of the Korean peninsula, there were three tribes dwelling there, each enjoying warrior's martial art

contests during the ritual seasons.

At that times people learned techniques from their experiences of fighting against the beasts whose defensive and

offensive motions were also the subject of analysis. It is believed that this was exactly the true grounding of today's

Taekwondo. Whose names have descended from "subak","Taekkyon", "takkyon" and so on.

Later in the latter part of ancient times on the Korean peninsula, three kingdoms came into existence always rivaling

among them for the hegemony. They were Koguryo, Paekje and Silla all indulged in growing national strength with

trained warriors. Therefore, the Korean history tells that there were military personalities among the well-known

prominent national leaders of the three kingdoms, which proves the military tendency of ruling hierarchy.

As a result, youth warrior's corps were organized, such as "hwarangdo" in Silla and "chouisonin" in Koguryo, which

both adopted the martial art training as one of the important subjects of learning. A renowned martial art book of

the days, called "muyedobotongji"said "Taekwondo(the art of hand-to-hand fight) is the basis of martial art, enabling

one to build strength by means of suing the hand and foot freely and training arms and legs as well as the body to be

adaptable to any critical situations, which means Taekwondo was already prevalent in that age. Thus, it can be easily

assumed that Taekwondo was originated from the days of tribal communities on the Korean peninsula.

Silla was a kingdom founded in B.C. 57 on the southeastern part of Korea and Koguryo founded in B. C. 37 on the

northern part of Korea along the Yalu river, both making great efforts to raise their youngsters into strong warriors

 physical training.

b. Koguryo's "sonbae" and Taekkyon

Koguryo was founded on the northern part of Korea, surrounded by the hostile han (Chinese) tribes in the north.

Therefore, in its initial stage of national foundation, the kingdom organized a strong warrior's corps called "sonbae"

in its attempt to consolidate the centralized power.

According to the scholars of history, a man of virtue who never recoils from a fighting means the word "sonbae",

which is a member of the warrior's corps. Later a history book on the old Chosun dynasty described the lift of

Koguryo days, saying; "people gathered on march 10 every year at a site of ritual, where they enjoyed a sword dance,

archery, subak(taekyon) contests and so on" ,

implying that subak(Taekwondo) was one of the popular events for the ritual in the Koguryo days. It also said "sonbaes

lived in groups, learning history and literary arts at home and going out to construct roads and fortresses for the

benefits of society, always devoting themselves to the nations.

Therefore, it is altogether natural that Koguryo put the priority of interests on the Taekkyon which was the basis of

martial arts, as can be proved by the wall paintings discovered at several tombs of Koguryo days. A mural painting at the

samsil tomb shows two warriors engaged in a face-to-face match in takkyon(Taekwondo) stance, and a third at the same

tomb shows the scene of Korean wrestling bout, clearly distinguishing it from the Taekkyon. It can be assumed from the

painting of Taekkyon match that the dead were either a Taekkyon practical or the subject of condolence with dances and

martial art.

c. Silla's "hwarang" and Taekkyon

The kingdom of Silla was founded on the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula under the circumstances of no

immediate threat from outside, but along with the birth of Paekje kingdom on its west flank and the start of invasions by

Koguryo from the north, Silla was impelled to arm itself with development of martial arts.

In fact, "hwarangdo" is the typical example of Silla's martial arts, which is an assimilation of Koguryo's "sonbae" systems.

The members of the youth group of hwarando were well trained with the senses of filial piety, loyalty to the kingdom and

sacrificial devotion to society to become important personalities for the rein of kingdom. Notable among them were Kim

Yu-sin and Kim Chun-chu that made a definite contribution to the unification of those three kingdoms.

The chronicle of old Chosun described the life of hwarangs, members of hwarangdo: "hwarang were selected by the

kingdom through contests and, after selection, they lived together in a group, indulging themselves in learning, exercising

subak(old form of Taekwondo), fencing and horse-riding, and sometimes they enjoyed various games of communities,

working on emergency aids and construction of fortresses and roads, and they were always ready to sacrifice their lives

at the time of war."

Hwarangs were particularly influenced by the Buddhistic disciplines and therefore the bronze statues of a warrior (a man

of great physical strength) currently exhibited at the kyongju museum clearly indicates that martial arts were practiced at

temples by showing a strong man's bare-hand defensive and offensive stances.

Especially the shape of a fist shown on the statue of kumgang yoksa(diamond warrior : a strong man) exactly resembles

that of a "jungkwon"(right fist) in the contemporary term of Taekwondo. The statue also shows today's "pyon jumok "

(flat fist) and the use of legs, which are seen in today's Taekwondo.

It is really noticeable that in that Silla epoch the terms of "subak" (hand techniques) and "taekkyon" appear together,

signifying that both hand and foot techniques were used in martial arts as shown in today's Taekwondo.

 d. Taekkyon transmitted from Koguryo to Silla

As the art of Taekkyon was popularized in Koguryo, it was also handed down to Silla, which is justified by the following

points of view;

(1) "hwarang"(or sonrang) in Silla has the same meaning with the word "sonbae" in Koguryo by indicating both the youth

 warrior's corps from their etymological origins

(2) Both hwarang and sonbae had the same organizations and hierarchical structure with each other.

(3) According to historical, as sonbaes in Koguryo used to compete in Taekkyon games at the time of their national

festivals, hwarangs in Silla also played

Taekkyon games (subak, dokkyoni or Taekkyoni) at such festivals as "palkwanhoe" and "hankawi" ,

thus systematically developing the ancient fighting techniques into the Taekkyon(or sonbae) as the basis of martial arts

by around A.D.200. From the 4th century the hwarangs took the takkyon lesson as a systmeized martial art at their

learning houses to make it also popularized among ordinary people so much so that their techniques were depicted on

the mural paintings of ancient warrior tombs.

Again, it is also true that Taekkyon, coming down to Silla, was further developed into a school of martial art with the

division of techniques, i, e. bare-hand techniques and foot techniques, which can be proved by the fact that both

hand and foot techniques are clearly shown in the ancient sculptures of buddhistic statues.

Taekwondo in the middle age

The Koryo dynasty, which reunified the Korean peninsula after Silla and lasted from A.D. 918 to 1392,

had the Teakkyon developed more systematically and made it a compulsory subject in the examinations for selection of

military cadets.

The techniques and power of Taekkyon martial art grew to become effective weapons even to kill human beings. In the

military, a pattern of collective practice, called "obyong-subak-hui (5 soldier's Taekkyon play), was introduced so that it

might be used in a real war.

In the early days of Koryo dynasty, martial art abilities were the only required qualifications to become

military personnel because the kingdom utterly needed the national defense capabilities after conquer of the peninsula.

A certain plain soldier who mastered the Taekkyon techniques was promoted to a general, young were invited to Taekkyon

contests and the skilled ones were selected to become military officer. There were lots of other examples in which many

Taekkyon-mastered youths were picked up in contests, which is proof that Taekwondo sport was originated in that epoch.

The chronicles of Koryo dynasty said; "at a power contest of Taekkyon techniques, lee yi-min punched a pillar of the house

with his right-hand fist, then some of the props of the roof were shaken. Another Taekkyon master had his fist pierce

through the clay-wall."

Especially the kings of Koryo dynasty were much interested in "subakhui"(Taekkyon contest), making it a compulsory course

of military training. Therefore, subakhui was also popular out for inspection tours in the villages.

However, the Koryo dynasty in its latest years had gunpowder and new types of weapons available at hand, thus slowing

down its support of martial arts as the folk games to be transmitted as such down to the modern Korea, Chosun.

Taekwondo in modern time

In the modern times of Korea, which cover the Chosun (or Yi) dynasty (1392-1910), the imperial

Korea and the Japanese colonial rule until 1945, Taekwondo was rather called "subakhui" than "Taekkyon" and

it suffered an eventual loss of official support from the central government as the weapons were modernized for national

defense, although the subkhui was still popular in the early days of Chosun.

The Yi dynasty (Chosun) was founded on the ideology of Confucianism, which resulted in rejecting all Buddhist festivals

and giving more importance on literary art than martial art. Nonetheless, the annals of Chosun dynasty

tell stories about the contests of subakhui ordered by local officials for the purpose of selecting soldiers and others ordered

by the kings who enjoyed watching subakhui contests at the times of feasts. It was also ruled by the defense department

that a soldier should be employed when he won out three other contestants in the subakhui bouts.

However, as the systematic organization of government progressed, the government officials began to lay more importance

on power struggles than on the interest of defense, naturally neglecting promotion of martial arts.

Then, it was only in the days of King Jungjo after the disgraceful invasion of Korea by the Japanese (in 1592) that the royal

government revived strong defense measures by strengthening military training and martial art practice. Around this period

there was a publication of the so-called muyedobotongji, a book of martial art illustrations, whose 4th volume entitled

"hand-fighting techniques" contained the illustration of 38 motions, exactly resembling today's Taekwondo Poomsae and basic

movements. Of course, those motions cannot be compared with today's Taekwondo Poomsae, which has been modernized

through scientific studies.

Even under the Japanese colonial rule, some famous Korean writers, such as Shin Chae-ho and Choi Nam-sun, mentioned

about Taekwondo, saying "present subak prevailing in Seoul came from the sonbae in the Koguryo dynasty," and "subak is

like today's takkyon which was originally practiced as martial art but is now played mostly by children as games."

However, the Japanese colonial government totally prohibited all folkloric games including takkyon in the process of

suppressing the Korean people. The martial art Taekkyondo(Taekwondo)had been secretly handed down only by the masters

of the art until the liberation of the country in 1945. Song Duk-ki, one of the then masters, is still alive with the age of over 80

and testifies that his master was Im Ho who was reputed for his excellent skills of Taekkyondo, "jumping over the walls and

running through the wood just like a tiger."

At that time 14 terms of techniques were used, representing 5 kicking patterns, 4 hand techniques, 3 pushing-down-the-heel

patterns, one(1) turning-over kick pattern and 1 technique of downing-the-whole-body. Also noteworthy is the use the term

"poom" which signified a face-to-face stance preparing for a fight. The masters of Taekkyondo were also under constant

threat of imprisonment, which resulted in an eventual of Taekkyondo as popular games.

Present days 

Upon liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial rule after world war II , the Korean people began

recovering the thought of self-reliance and the traditional folkloric games which resumed their popularity. Song Duk-ki,

afore-mentioned master of Taekkyondo, presented a demonstration of the martial art before the first Republic of Korea

President Syngman Rhee on the occasion of the latter's birthday anniversary, thus clearly distinguishing Taekwondo from

the Japanese karate which had been introduced by the Japanese rulers.

Martial art experts began opening their Taekwondo gymnasia all over the country and after the end of

Korean war (1950-1953) Taekwondo was popularized among the dan-grade black-belters within the country, also

dispatching about 2,000 Taekwondo masters to more than 100 countries for foreigners' training.

After all, following the nomination of Taekwondo as a national martial art in 1971, the present Kukkiwon was founded in

1972 to be used as the central gymnasium as well as the site of various Taekwondo competitions. Then a year later on

May 28, 1973 the World Taekwondo Federation came into existence currently having 164 countries as its members. 1n

1973 the biennial World Taekwondo Championships was organized.Again in 1974, Taekwondo was admitted to the Asian

games as an official event. In 1975 Taekwondo was accepted as an official sport by the U.S Amateur Athletic Union

(AAU) and also admitted to the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), followed by the

adoption of official sports event by the international council of military sports (CISM) in 1976. In 1979, president of the

World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was elected President of the world federation of non-Olympic sports. The WTF

became an IOC-recognized sports federation in 1980, making Taekwondo an Olympic sport. Then the adoption of

Taekwondo as an official event was followed by the World Games in 1981, the Pan-American games in 1986, and finally

by the 2000 Olympiad held in Australia.

(The official history of Taekwondo by Kukkiwon)