Man by nature has the instinct to preserve his own life as well as his race, and therefore engages himself in doing physical activities all the time either consciously or unconsciously. Man cannot do without physical motions and he grows and developes on them, regardless of time and space. In ancient times people had no means other than the bare hands and body to defend themselves; so they naturally developed the bare-hand fighting techniques.
Even at the times when arms were developed as the defensive or offensive means, people continued to enjoy the bare-hand fighting techniques for the purpose of building physical strength as well as showing off through matches at the rituals of tribal communities.
In the early history of the Korean Peninsula, there were three tribes dwelling there, each enjoying warrior's martial art contests during the ritual seasons.
At that time people learned techniques from their experiences of fighting against the beasts whose defensive and offensive motions were also the subject of analysis. It is believed that this was exactly the true grounding of today's Taekwondo, whose name has descended from "subak", "taekkyon", "takkyon" and so on.
Later in the latter part of ancient times on the Korean Peninsula, three kingdoms came into existence, always rivaling among themselves for the hegemony. They were Koguryo, Paekje and Silla, all indulged in growing national strength with trained warriors. Therefore, the Korean history tells that there were military personalities among the ell-known prominent national leaders of the three kingdoms, which proves the military tendency of ruling hierarchy.
As a result, youth warrior's corps were organized, such as "hwarangdo" in Silla and "chouisonin" in Koguryo, which both adopted the martial art training as one of the important subjects of learning. A renowned martial art book of the days, called "muyedobo-tongji" said; "Taekwondo(the art of hand-to-hand fight) is the basis of martial art, enabling one to build strength by means of using the hand and foot freely and training arms and legs as well as the body to be adaptable to any critical situations, which means Taekwondo was already prevalent in that age. Thus, it can be easily assumed that Taekwondo was originated from the days of tribal communities on the Korean Peninsula.
Silla was kingdom founded in B.C.57 on the southeastern part of Korea and Koguryo founded in B.C.37 on the northern part of Korea along the Yalu River, both making great efforts to raise their youngsters into strong warriors called "Hwarang" and "sonbae" respectively, certainly with Taekwondo as one of the principal subjects of physical training.
Koguryo was founded on the northern part of Korea, surrounded by the hostile Han(Chinese) tribes in the north. Therefore, in its initial stage of national foundation, the kingdom organized a strong warrior's corps called "sonbae" in its attempt to consolidate the centralized power.
According the scholars of history, the word "sonbae" is meant by a man of virtue who never recoils from a fighting, that is, a member of the warrior's corps. Later a history book on the old Chosun dynasty described the life of Koguryo days, saying; "People gathered on March 10 every year at a site of ritual, where they enjoyed a sword dance, archery, subak(taekyon) contests and so on", implying that subak(Taekwondo) was one of the popular events for the ritual in the Koguryo days. It also said that "sonbaes lived in groups, learning history and literary arts at home and going out to construct roads and fortresses for the benefits of society, always devoting themselves to the nation."
Therefore, it is altogether natural that Koguryo put the priority of interests on the taekkyon which was the basis of martial arts, as can be proved by the wall paintings discovered at several tombs of Koguryo days. A mural painting at the Samsil Tomb shows two warriors engaged in a face-to-face match in takkyon(Taekwondo) stance, and a third at the same tomb shows the scene of Korean wrestling bout, clearly distinguishing it from the taekkyon.
The kingdom of Silla was founded on the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula under the circumstances of no immediate threat from outside, but along with the birth of Paekje Kingdom on its west flank and the start of invasions by Koguryo from the north, Silla was impelled to arm itself with the development of martial arts.
In fact, "hwarangdo" is the typical example of Silla's martial arts, which is an assimilation of Koguryo's "sonbae" system. The members of the youth group of hwarangdo were well trained with the senses of filial piety, loyalty to the kingdom and sacrificial devotion to society to become important personalities for the rein of kingdom. Notable among them were Kim Yu-Sin and Kim Chun-Chu who made a definite contribution to the unification of those three kingdoms.
The Chronicle of Old Chosun described the life of hwarangs, members of hwarangdo:"hwarangs were selected by the kingdom through contests and, after selection, they lived together in a group, indulging themselves in learning, exercising subak(old form of Taekwondo), fencing and horse-riding, and sometimes they enjoyed various games including the Korean wrestling(Ssirum). In peace time, hwarangs served for the benefits of communities, working on emergency aids and construction of fortresses and roads, and they were always ready to sacrifice their lives at the time of war."
Hwarangs were particularly influenced by the Buddhistic disciplines and therefore the bronze statues of a Hercules(a man of great physical strength) currently exhibited at the Kyongju Museum clearly indicate that martial arts were practiced at temples by showing a strong man's bare-hand defensive and offensive stances.
Especially the shape of a first shown on the statue of Kumgang Yoksa(a strong man) exactly resembles that of a "jungkwon"(right fist) in the contemporary term of Teakwondo. The statue also shows today's "pyon jumok"(flat fist) and the use of legs which are seen in today's Teakwondo.
It is really noticeable that in that Silla epoch the terms of "subak"(hand techniques) and "taekkon" appear together, signifying that both hand and foot techniques were used in martial arts as shown in today's Taekwondo.
As the art of taekkyon was popularized in Koguryo, it was also handed down to Silla, which is justified by the following points of view;
(1) "Hwarang"(or sonrang) in Silla has the same meaning with the word "sonbae" in Koguryo by indicating both the youth Warrior's corps from their etymological origins.
(2) Both hwarang and sonbae had the same organizations and hierarchical structure with each other.
(3) According to historical records, as sonbaes in Koguryo used to compete in taekkyon games at the time of their national festivals, hwarangs in Silla also played taekkyon games(subak, dokkyoni or taekkoni) at such festivals as "palkwanhoe" and "hankawi", thus systematically developing the ancient fighting techniques into the taekkyon(or sonbae) as the basis of martial arts by around A.D. 200. from the 4th century the hwarangs took the takkyon lesson as a systemized martial art at their learning houses to make it also popularized among ordinary people, so much so that their techniques were depicted on the mural paintings of ancient warrior tombs.
Again, it is also true that taekkyon, coming down to Silla, was further developed into a school of martial art with the division of techniques, i.e., bare-hand techniques and foot techniques, which can be proved by the fact that both hand and foot techniques are clearly shown in the ancient sculptures and Buddhistic statues.