# Chil Sung Hyung



## jehja43679 (Apr 10, 2008)

Good morning all.

I hope this post finds you well.

I saw mention of the Chil Sung hyung in the 'Korean Karate...' thread, and thought they deserved a bit more attention.

The creation of the Chil Sung Hyung, had little to do with Hwang Kee's mother dreaming of stars before he was born.  Actually, that story is intended to explain that Hwang Kee's birth given name was Hwang Tae Nam - 'Tae Nam' means "Star Boy."  As to why he was renamed, no one can say for sure, but supposedly there's a practice of Korea where, when having one's fortune told, if your destiny is revealed to be negative, you change your name to avoid that destiny.  Similarly, H.C. Hwang Kwan Jang Nim's birth given name is Hwang Jin Tae. (If I remember correctly, I'll come back and edit this if I'm wrong.)

We all agree that Hwang Kee was trying to create a uniquely Korean martial identity with Hwa Soo Do/Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do... part of the reason why the concept of Chil Sung was used to name a group of hyung is because of its inherent importance to Korean culture.  While I still want to do research as to exactly why the "Chil Sung Buk Du" (North Star and Big Dipper) are so important... I do know that in modern times, the Koreans even went so far as to name a favorite soft drink 'Chil Sung Cider' (which is basically a 7-UP/Sprite/Sierra Mist lemon-lime soda).

It is indeed said that the Chil Sung forms were intended to navigate practitioners of the art to becoming better people.

In fact, the entire Soo Bahk Do curriculum and belt system were created around this purpose, at least to my observation.

One begins with the Kang Ryu - Hard Style - why?  Think about yourself, or your own students, and the most common motivation for enrolling in a martial art school.  They want to learn how to defend themselves, how to be confident, to have courage, to be fit and healthier, and power or control over their lives, in some way, shape, or form.  The curriculum up to Pahl (8th) Gup - Orange Belt provides the student with all of that.  In fact, I tell students that if you were to practice what you learned within the first six months of training for the rest of your life, you'd definitely accomplish all of those goals.

When the student has accomplished these things for themselves, they are all riled up.  Now, these accomplishments may fulfill themselves much later in a student's career than Orange Belt, but that's what happens...

Then the founder hits them with another lesson.  They are introduced to the Yu Ryu - Soft Style - Why?  Because now, if you let these riled up, courageous, fit, powerful students out into the world at this point, they can still become dangerous people.  So they have to be given a new focus... 

Learning patience.

That's why you still continue to nurture their development of strength, but teach them to appreciate patience in hyung that combine both styles... Kang and Yu.

White Belt hides Potential like snow hides the ground in Winter.

Orange Belt is the sunlight revealing the ground (not officially SBD MDK philosophy, but a nice one to tell inquiring students)

Green Belt reveals the reborn student in the Spring Time of their career.

Red Belt displays the fire in an active and confident student, like kids in the summer.

Midnight Blue Belt is the calm, mature season of Autmn... it's time to harvest what you invested in the past seasons.

The Ko Dan Ja belt tells us that the ultimate goal of Soo Bahk Do training is to be a strong and powerful person on the inside, but calm, gentle, and mature on the outside.  And after that, while you continue to train, it is the only belt you'll ever wear... because it represents what you have to strive for, for the rest of your life.

The Chil Sung Hyung compliment the ideals behind the belt system, in the order that they are taught.


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## JoelD (Apr 10, 2008)

Kyo Sa Enriquez,

Thanks for the great info in this and the Yuk Ro post, excellent stuff.

BTW, I found an old Inside Karate magazine article that referred to KJN Hwang as Jin Mon.


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## jehja43679 (Apr 10, 2008)

Whoops!  Yes, sir, you are correct.  H.C. Hwang KJN's birth given name was Hwang Jin Mun... Hwang Jin Tae is actually another member of the Hwang family whose Dan Bon is 11.   Sorry!


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