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Old May 21, 2002, 07:18 AM   #5
Matt Wallis
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 30, 2001
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 176
Quote:
No. First of all, there is absolutely NO historical, documentary or archeological evidence that there ever was a native, "pure" Korean martial art.
Wow. That is a bold statement. I suppose it, in part, depends on how one defines pure, and how one defines "martial art." But I've found, through my study of western MA, that just about every culture that fights (and just about every culture does), developes some form of MA. The degree to which it becomes systemized may vary. But as people find what works in battle, it gets re-used, refined and passed on. Don't you think that this would have happened in Korea as well?

Of course, "documented" is another case. It could very well be that these techniques always remained undocumented and informal. And of course, most fighting techniques are pretty universal (the human body can only move in so many ways, after all), so "pure Korean" technique may be a bit of a misnomer anyway.

Quote:
Any "systematic" art being practiced in pre-colonial Korea was Chinese in origin. Koreans did have some folks style wrestling and such (the precursor to Ssireum), which were common in most Mongol/Ural-Altaic tribal cultures.
Influenced by the Chinese is not hard to believe. But again, I would have trouble believing that no native Korean arts developed. And besides, I do count folk styles of wrestling as martial arts. Rudimentary and mostly non-lethal, but MA nevertheless. But I'd like to hear you say more on this.

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In 1945, Tae Kwon Do was simply Shotokan as practiced by Korean students of Funakoshi.
What about Taekyon? Real art or not?

Quote:
Most parent systems or arts that modern martial arts claim as ancestors were invariably weapon arts
Hey, your preachin' to the choir on that point! The myth that unarmed arts were developed in a vacume, or that they were/are in some way superior to weapons arts was a myth I had exploded early on in my WMA training/research. I have found that most MA have their origins on the battlefield. Civilian MA usually developed afterwards (with the exception of things like folk wrestling, which you already mentioned).

Quote:
this bizzarre myth of unarmed man beating the armed
Heh, heh. Yeah. If that's true how come Shaolin Temple was destroyed by the Ching army!? (It is Chings, right? I always get them and the Mings mixed up.)

And Halffast said,
Quote:
Here's a link that might answer some of your questions.
Well, how trustworthy that link is (and other Korean Art "histories") is actually the subject of this post. Every Korean Art claims, or at least talks as if it were an ancient, purely Korean Art. I'm asking here if thats even possible.

Regards,
Matt
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