# 1960 - Intro to Tang Soo Do by Hwang Kee



## Makalakumu (May 21, 2009)

I found this while perusing some other sites.  This manual was written by Hwang Kee and it gives a pretty good look at what Tang Soo Do was like fifty years ago.  

http://www.warrior-scholar.com/blog/?page_id=1047

I'll post a pdf form of this if I can find it, just to double check on the transcription.

Some interesting things.

1.  The 2000 year history stuff goes all of the way back to this point.
2.  Documents the growth of the MDK in Korea.
3.  Gives a list of early publications on TSD by Hwang Kee.
4.  Lists partial criteria for testing along with a rubric for advancement.
5.  Double and triple promotions were possible along with demotions.

There's a lot more here.  Check it out and discuss!


----------



## MBuzzy (May 21, 2009)

I find it very interesting that throughout the history of TSD, Hwang Kee was always very interested in written records and manuals.  I don't know if that was for preservation, standardization or marketing, but you don't always see that.  Especially in the very early days of a style.

As for the 2000 year history, I believe this is another function of Korean culture.  Whether he made up the story or he heard it somewhere or read it somewhere, it gave some validity to his teaching.  As long as he could attribute it to something, it is as good as truth.  And once he said it, because of his age and rank, it would not be disputed.

The testing criteria is another thing that I'm surprised about so early in the history of TSD.  I would have expected that older TSD tests were just subjective judgements on a students ability, but the testing criteria and points system seems rather progessive for that time period.


----------



## cdunn (May 21, 2009)

I wonder how much of this was responsible for his rifts with Choi, and how much of this was an outgrowth of those rifts. That said, I also wonder about the realtive application of those criteria. How many hours trained, for example, is 'one month'? And how hard was it to earn those high scores? interesting, though, and thank you.


----------



## rmclain (May 21, 2009)

Sometime in the 1950's, Master Lee Nam-sok (Changmoo-kwan) published a story about Korean martial art links to 2,000 yrs of tradition.  From what I've heard, everyone started believing it around that time.

I found it interesting that the linked MDK manual listed only karate forms for requirements for all ranks, - no Chuan-fa.

R. McLain




maunakumu said:


> I found this while perusing some other sites. This manual was written by Hwang Kee and it gives a pretty good look at what Tang Soo Do was like fifty years ago.
> 
> http://www.warrior-scholar.com/blog/?page_id=1047
> 
> ...


----------



## Makalakumu (May 21, 2009)

On the technical side, I did not notice any section that described the basics they were teaching.  This is unfortunate because I'd really like to know if the current convention extends that far.  Also, I'm really interested in what their one step and three step sparring looked like.  I wonder if there is a description floating around somewhere?

Regardless, there seems to be a lot of room to add things in these requirements.  My guess is that the things on the rubric weren't the only thing you learned.  I could be wrong and I'm interested in finding out if that assumption is correct.


----------

