Pyung Ahn Hyung Series Part 2: Tidbits about the forms

In this part of the series I want to share a few tidbits that I missed in Part 1, such as the meaning

behind the name, a few musings from Iain Abernethy on the reason (or part of the reason) why Itosu chose the name he ended up with, debunk a myth about Hwang Kee and the forms series and possible more stuff as they enter my mind. In the upcomming posts in the series I will go into the forms themselves, but there were a few things that I thought I should tackle before starting looking at the forms themselves. So if I have awaken your curiousity, and you forgive my many spelling mistakes please click the read more button to see more :-)

The sequence of the forms

In the first part I (click here to read part 1) mentioned that Funakoshi changed the order of the forms from the original way that Itosu (the forms creator) to his own way by swapping the first two forms. Heian Shodan (Heian 1) is Pinan Nidan (Pinan 2) and vice versa. What I failed to mention in Part 1 was that eventhough the Pyung Ahn forms came to Korea from possibly as many as 3 distinct sources; Toyama Kanken, Gichin Funakoshi and Kenwa Mabuni, all of the documentation I have come across has had the Korean versions appearing in the Funakoshi Sequence. In other words Pyung Ahn Chudan (1) is Pinan Nidan (2) and vice versa. It seems that eventhough the different Kwan learned the Pinan/Heian series in Japan in different orders (Lee Won Kuk started training in 1926 and would have learned them in the original order/sequence despite learning from Funakoshi himself), once they started teaching in Korea they all (as far as I can tell) defaulted to the modern Funakoshi sequence of the forms. When I start looking into the forms themselves this will influence the posts as I will do them from old Taekwondo perspective, and therefore follow the Korean masters sequence (the Funakoshi sequence). I discussed briefly in Part 1 a possible reason as to why Itosu had them in a different order, but we know that Funakoshi swapped them because he wanted a gradual increase in difficulty as it applied to the solo performance of the forms.

Meaning of Pinan, and a possible reason why it was chosen as a name

Iain Abernethy wrote an article waaaaay back (perhaps a decade ago?) about this so click here if you'd like to read a whole article on it instead of a few musings :-) The short version is that Pinan is written with two Hanja characters (Chinese Characters), translated into Japanese (and Korean) they come across as "Peace and tranquillity" or something along those lines. Most Karate based texts translate the name with "Peaceful Mind" , but I wholly agree with Iain Abernethy's article on the point that this is most probably a result of a missunderstanding of a quote by Gichin Funakoshi. In Chinese however the name has the meaning "Safe from harm" which hints to the function of the forms themselves. Indeed Funakoshi can be quoted saying: "Having mastered these five forms, one can be confident that he is able to defend himself competently in most situations. The meaning of the name is to be taken in this context." -Gichin Funakohsi, Karate Do Kyohan 1958 edition, page 35. Choi Hong Hi said the same about the combative context, echoing Funakoshi in his 1965 book which you can see and read on the picture in the introduction of this post. 

As I discussed in Part 1, Itosu likely taught a proto version of this series under the name "Channan" before setling on the final version and name Pinan. Iain talked a little on the seminar on how Itosu being a scribe to the Okinawan King would know both the Chinese meaning as well as the Japanese meaning of the reading of the name, and wanting to introduce Karate into the Okinawan school system having a forms set named peace and tranquillity would probably be better accepted than other more directly combative names. At the seminar Iain asked, if you were the guy in charge and someone asked to teach the children an obscure art as physical education and when asked what are you going to teach the children, getting the answer: To smash and destroy form 1 and 2 followed by the from "Rip and tear", you would probably send this man on his way refusing to let him teach the children anything (both of these names are Goju Kata names by the way). On the other hand if asked the guy said, I have 5 froms called peace and tranquillity that I want to teach the children you would perhaps be more lenient and let the man teach. So while the authorities would read the name in a Japanese meaning (peace and tranquillity) Itosu and his adult students would know that it was a combative name, "safe from harm" that was the meaning of the name.

Debunking the myth that Hwang Kee imported the Pyung Ahn forms from China

I have no idea who started this myth, but it was surprisingly common to read on the webpages a decade ago (and I still see the myth, allthough rarer these days but) I still see it today. The myth is that Hwang Kee brought these forms (Pyung Ahn series) to Korea from China. The myth says that he learned the 5 forms there, and that they are chinese forms. Some versions of the myth even states that Hwang Kee created them...  Now as you have read Part 1 and so far in Part 2 you will know that it is very very very well documented that Itosu is the guy who came up with the forms. Hwang and Itosu never met, nor would he have learned these forms in China, as we know he learned Dam ttui and Tai Chi there, neither of which uses anything remotely similar to the Pyung Ahn forms. As far as I can tell this is pretty much a Su Bahk Do myth, as I do not remember seeing this on other "streams" such as Tang Su Do or Taekwondo pages. Even Hwang Kee himself writes that the froms are from a "Mr Idos" (korean reading of Itosu) so I can not really understand where it came from and why it is still present. If you come across it you now know that this is just a myth which has nothing to do with the facts.

I hope you enjoyed the tidbits. Click Here to get to Part 3 where I look closely on Pyungahn Chudan (1) as documented in Gichin Funakoshi's 1922, 1935 and 1958 books