Taekkyeon and Others

Taekwondo is the best-known Korean martial art, but it is not the only one, and the others show a different pattern of history. Some, like ssireum and archery, are described as continuing for centuries. One, taekkyeon, is described as nearly lost and revived. Several, like hapkido, are described as creations of the decades after 1945. This chapter reads how the sources sort these arts, and how they treat the question each one raises: how old is it, really?

Taekkyeon Today

Chapter 2 told taekkyeon's revival. This chapter looks at the present. The Taekkyeon article says that after the 1987 deaths of Song Deok-gi and Shin Han-seung the community "was definitively split" and describes the groups:

Two practices coexist. In sport taekkyon the article says competition "uses a limited subset of techniques, focusing on grappling and kicking only": points are scored "by throwing (or tripping) the opponent to the ground, pushing them out of the ring, or kicks to the head", with "no hand strikes or headbutts". In yetbeop ("old methods") taekkyon, sparring may include punches, open-handed strikes, elbows, knees, kicks, throws and clinch fighting. The article notes that taekkyeon "did not have a formal ranking structure until the 1970s" and that "due to the fragmented nature of the Taekkyon community, there is no universal standard"; Widae does not use formal ranks, and instructors judge skill.

Hapkido

The Hapkido article describes it as "a hybrid form of self-defense that employs joint locks, chokeholds, throwing techniques, kicks, punches, and other striking attacks", also teaching "traditional weapons". It says the art "was adapted from Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu as it was taught by Choi Yong-sool when he returned to Korea after World War II after having lived in Japan for 30 years", and that his disciples later "combined" it with "the kicking and striking techniques of indigenous and contemporary arts such as Taekkyon and Tang Soo Do, as well as various throwing techniques and ground fighting self-defense techniques from Japanese Judo". The Korean martial arts article says that because of "its early development by different instructors, Hapkido has no single standard curriculum".

The name is worth noting. The Hapkido article says the characters mean roughly "joining-energy-way" and notes that Japanese aikido and hapkido "share common technical origins" through the founders' Daitō-ryū training and "some Chinese characters", though they "differ significantly in philosophy, range of responses, and manner of executing techniques". It adds that this shared ancestry "has proved problematic in promoting hapkido internationally as a discipline with its own set of unique characteristics".

How the Sources Sort the Arts

The Korean martial arts article gives a view of the 20th century that cuts across the individual stories. It says that after liberation in 1945, Japanese arts "such as Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, karate, judo, and kendo were already widespread due to the colonial education system, while Chinese martial arts had a more limited influence". Taekwondo and hapkido "became the most prominent" of the new systems: "although their techniques were largely influenced by Japanese martial arts, their founders emphasized Korean identity and historical continuity, often through terminology, symbolism, and naming". It names further hybrids, "Hwa Rang Do, Hankido, and Kuk Sool", and the Hapkido article says two of Choi's students (named there) "went on to form the arts of Kuk Sool Won and modern Hwa Rang Do", with the caveat "though some argue that their training stems from time spent training under Kim Moo-hong".

The article's own summary sentence is the one to keep: "over time, some schools began emphasizing connections to traditional Korean martial arts and cultural heritage, though in many cases these links were largely symbolic rather than based on continuous practice". That is the same distinction Chapters 1, 2 and 3 drew for taekwondo, applied across the whole field. The article also says that from the 1960s to the 1970s "South Korea's military governments actively supported certain martial arts, particularly Taekwondo", and describes taekwondo as "standardized, institutionalized, and promoted as a national sport".

Reading Rules From This Chapter

1. Ask what kind of "old". Continuous (ssireum, gungdo), revived (taekkyeon), or a 20th-century creation with an older name or symbol. The sources use different words for each.
2. A founder's account is a claim. Hapkido's founder, like taekwondo's, has an origin story that other records do not fully support.
3. Names are not lineages. "Tang Soo Do" and "Soo Bahk Do", "hapkido" and "aikido", "subak" and "Soo Bahk Do" share sounds or characters without sharing a history.
4. More than one version of one art. Taekkyeon's sport, yetbeop and Widae forms differ, and a statement about "taekkyeon" should say which.

Exercises

Next chapter: The Dojang, which looks at the training hall, the uniform, etiquette, the tenets and philosophy attached to taekwondo, and how much is documented history and how much later teaching.