What was in Hwang Kee`s 1958 Tang Su Do Textbook?

A long time ago I was surfing the net when I stumbled upon a "web library" of rare Karate books that
was scanned as PDFs. Among the more "common" works of Funakoshi, Mabuni (in Japanese) and many others I found to my suprise a book by Hwang Kee from 1958 in Korean! I have known for a long time that Hwang Kee was among the first to publish works on the Korean Martial Arts and this book was certainly one of the older ones dating back to 1958. The book title is Tang Su Do Textbook, but judging on the table of content he likened Tang Su Do, Hwa Su Do and Taek Kyon to be very much the same martial arts with different labels. I knew he had first referred to his martial art as Hwa Su Do (Way of flowering hand) but I thought he had long since abandoned that label by 1958 and replaced it with Tang Su Do (Way of China Hand).

I was curious to know what was in the book and my basic Korean skills made me understand a few of the headlines and instructions along with the illustrations he gave but there was also a lot that I did not understand. Therefore with the help of "Løbak Consulting inc" I translated the table of content and had him check that my translation was within reason "correct". Jon Lennart`s Korean skills are second to none, and he is truly an inspiration for a "Taekwondo nerd" like myself. I have set this post to become published on december 24th marking the Norwegian day for Christmas celebration. Think of this post as Traditional Taekwondo Ramblings`s Christmas gift to all the Taekwondo nerds out there :-D




If you want some background to Hwang Kee you can check out this blogpost, and if you want to know why you should even care with the Moo Duk Kwan when you practice Kukki Taekwondo you can read this blogpost. That should be ample background for the following which is the translation of the table of content in his 1958 textbook.

Important note: Please remember that eventhough I have strived to translate this correctly, and the fact that my friend has looked throught the translation, none of us actually looked into the texts the headlines are referring to. Therefore we can not vouch 100% that this is an accurate translation. The only way to verify this is to look into the headlines in their correct context; which is within the full text. I only share this here on my blog because even with the limitations I just mentioned I think the translation gives us a glimpse into what is contained within the book, and as such what Mu Duk Kwan was like in 1958.

Page iiv

Part 1 (of the book) INTRODUCTION

1. The reason for publishing this book
2. A brief outline of the background of Hwarangdo
3. Unique characteristics of Hwarangdo
4. Introduction on Hwarangdo
5. The Korean People ( he uses "Our Peoples") mission/duty
6. The essence of the duty for todays yuth. 
7. The right course to take for todays yuth.

Part 2 (of the book) Basic understanding of Tang Su Do (Hwa Su Do or Tae kkyon)

1. Purpose/intent of Tang Su Do training
2. A brief outline of the origin of Tang Su Do
3. The objective as well as distinctive characteristics of Tang Su Do training
4. Tang Su Do observes and emphasise skill in Ascetic practise (Su Do)
5. Important points of attention in the practise of Tang Su Do
6. The different (types of) names for original Hyung
7. Introduction of Mu Duk Kwan Tang Su Dojang
1. Chronological history of the Mu Duk Kwan
2. The relationship (of the) original  branches of the Mu Duk Kwan
3. The 10 rules of Mu Duk Kwan (The 10 guidelines of Mu Duk Kwan)
4. 5 important factors of cultivating a strong spirit in Mu Duk Kwan
5. 5 important factors on how to improve in the physical education part of Mu Duk Kwan
6. The future of the Mu Duk Kwan
7. Regarding the establishment of a new name (Hwa Su Do)

Page iiiv

1. The motivation behind the new name
2. An explanation on the establishment of the new name

Part 3 (of the book) What we need to be aware of in Tang Su Do traning

1. How to make a fist
2. Ready stance/posture (Chumbi seogi/chasae)
3. Standing posture
4. The forms (Hyung, Poomsae, Tul) performance lines
5. Usage and explanation of the different parts of the hand
6. Usage and explanation of the different parts of the foot

Part 4 (of the book) Training of the basic practical skills of Tang Su Do

1. Chapter 1 Basic Method
1. Methods of hand techniques
2. Methods of leg techniques
2. Chapter 2 Original forms (Hyung)
1. An introduction/general remarks
2. Kicho Hyung (Basic form) 1
3. Kicho Hyung 2
4. Kicho Hyung 3
5. Pyungahn (Ppinganhn) 1
6. Pyungahn 2
7. Pyungahn 3
8. Pyungahn 4
9. Pyungahn 5
10. Batsai
11. Neihanchi chudan (1)

Part 5 (of the book) Daeryon bub (sparring methods)

1. General remarks (introduction)
2. Purpose of sparring
3. implementation of timing in sparring
4. The relationship of between sparring and the original forms 
5. 8 important factors to be aware of when sparring
6. Methods of practise sparring
1. Basic sparring Methods
2. 3 step sparring
3. 1 step sparring
4. 1 step sparring taking turns (Semi free sparring??)
5. Free sparring

Part 6 (of the book) Methods of Dallyon (forging/toughening/training)

1.  Introduction on how to train (forging, adapting) the hands and feet and a look at training implements/tools.
2. How to make training implements/equipment
3. Actual/practical training
1. Methods of training hands
2. Methods of training feet
3. How to organize the training

Part 7 (of the book) Methods of self protection

1. General remarks (introduction)
2. Defensive tactics against being gripped by opponent.
3. Special defensive tactics
1. Defensive methods while seated
2. Defensive methods while lying on the ground
3. Defensive methods when you fall down
4. How to defend against a club
5. How to defend against a long staff
6. How to defend against a knife
7. How to defend against a handgun
8. How to defend against a bayonet

Part 8 (of the book) Methods of first aid on land

Part 9 (of the book) Methods of water related first aid (saving from drowning etc)


I will not write more about my thoughts on this here and rather let the translation stand on its own, but I will revisit it in a relatively short time (check back on December 28th if you are interested on my thoughts) to remark upon it and give my own 2 cents :-)

Special thanks to Jon Lennart. Without him I doubt this post would have existed.

PPS: Feel free to share and use this as you whish, but keep in mind that since I am not in any way fluent in Korean I have put down a lot of effort and work on this. If you repost or use this translation I would therefore really appreciate a mention of the blog or a credit along with Jon Lennart. Thank you and merry Christmas :-)