Tae Kwon Do in Modern Times

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 subakhui 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 Buddhistic 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 time 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 of 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 Muyedobo-tongji, 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 can not 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."

Explanation of taekkon techniques in Muyedobo-tongi

General illustrations of techniques

Scene of contest

At that time 14 terms of techniques were used, representing 5 kicking patterns, 4 hand techniques, pushing-down-at-the-heel 3 patterns, turning-over kick 1 pattern and 1 technique of downing-the-whole-body. Also noteworthy is the use of 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 fade-out of taekkyondo as popular games.

(Excerpt from 'Korea TAEKWONDO Home Page')