Traditional Tang Soo Do South Africa

History:  What Is Tang Soo Do?

Tang Soo Do is a traditional Korean Martial Art. The history of the art traces Tang Soo Do back to a period when Korea was divided into three kingdoms. These were the Goguryeo was founded in 37 BC in northern Korea. The Silla Dynasty was founded in 57 BC in the south east peninsula. The third kingdom, Paekche was founded in 18 BC. After a long series of wars, the Silla Dynasty united the three kingdoms in 668 AD. During this period, the primitive Martial Arts were very popular as a method of self-defense in warfare. The united Silla Kingdom was ultimately overthrown by a warlord, Wang Kun, in 918 AD. The new kingdom, "Koryo", lasted for 475 years (918 AD - 1392 AD). In 1392, the Yi Dynasty succeeded the Koryo kingdom. The Yi Dynasty remained intact for 500 years. During the 1000 year period of the Koryo Kingdom and the Yi Dynasty, Tang Soo Do became very popular within the military. The art also became very popular with the general public. During this period, Tang Soo Do was referred to as Kwon Bop, Tae Kyun, Soo Bahk, Tang Soo and others. The first complete Martial Arts book was written at this time. This most impor- tant book is called "Mooyae Dobo Tangji". It was written in 1790 and contained illustrations that substantiated the theory that Tang Soo Do (formally called "Soo Bahk Ki") had quickly developed into a very sophisticated art of combat techniques.

Tang So Do, as it exists today, is comprised of a combination of three major styles: Yang Tai Chi Chuan, Northern China and Southern China Kung Fu, combined with the Okinawan/ Japanese discipline of Karate-do. In fact, Tang Soo Do is the Korean pronunciation of the Hanja characters 唐手道 which is translated as “Way of the T’ang (China) Hand. In Japanese these characters mean Karate-do. Currently, Japanese Karate-do is written as 空手道 The Japanese pronunciation of both sets of characters is the same, but the newer version means "Way of the Empty Hand" rather than "Way of the T'ang Hand"

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