Did Taekwondo in succession to taekkyeon? Taekwondo is a modern martial art. Taekwondo is a fusion of East Asian martial arts. Wrestling in the Central Asia, White crane fist, Five ancestors Fist in the south and karate are included in Taekwondo.
Where did the name Taekwondo come from? There is a very interesting episode. In 1954, Lee seung man, who was the president of Korea at the time, was invited to an event in military base. Lee saw a martial arts demonstration there. Lee gave a word that had a major impact on Taekwondo history while watching the martial arts demonstration.
President Lee said. “It’s a taekkyeon.”
Lee ’s hometown is Seoul, capital of Korea. Taekkyon was a folk play and martial art in Seoul. Lee was very familiar Taekkyon because he had watched a Taekkyon games since he was young.
Those who had demonstrated martial arts were worried. Because the president said the martial arts were similar to Taekkyon. Wouldn’t the president like it if we changed the name of this martial art to something similar to a taekkyeon?
They searched the dictionary to find chinese characters similar to taekkyeon. Chinese characters Hanzi (漢字) is considered the cultural glue that unifies the languages and cultures of many East Asian nations. Historically, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam have used Chinese characters.
They finally found something similar to the word ‘taek’. It was a Chinese character called Tae(跆). But the word Tae was not related to martial arts. It is not the word meaning martial arts. The classic meaning of Tae does not mean ‘Kick.’ The word Tae means to trample it. But now added the meaning of kicking to the word ‘Tae.’
The word “Kwon(拳)” is a word used to beat by hand and is a Chinese word meaning martial arts. The current meaning of taekwondo is to kick and hit. But the original meaning was to trample it.
The name Taekwondo was adopted for its similarity in name, to Taekkyon. The name of Taekwondo derived from the pronunciation of taekkyeon. This period was the most creative in taekwondo’s history. President Lee seung man’s words changed the identity of Taekwondo like famous lines in starwars,, “I am your father.”
Modernized taekkyeon games
Is Taekwondo and taekkyeon technically related to other than name similarity? Did Taekwondo in succession to taekkyeon? It is true that Taekwondo elders learned taekkyeon. In addition, Taekwondo had to focus on kicking because of the word ‘Tae.’ Because of the word Tae, people thought that the kick was a symbol of Taekwondo. Taekkyeon’s kick had some effect on taekwondo.
The exchange between Taekwondo and Taekwondo is still ongoing. Wouldn’t the Taekwondo kick be developed if word ‘Tae’ was not used? We often dominate identity by language.
