I have been steadily giving out posts on the Kwan Heon or Kwan Creeds over the course of 2026. This time we have come to one of the Kwan I have a direct lineage back to through one of my original teachers Grandmaster Cho Woon Sup; The Ji Do Kwan. I will draw on both of his early books entitled Taekwondo 1 and Taekwondo 2, as well as a phamplet assembled by Grandmaster Al Cole and the 2015 historical collection phamplet I have been using as a base throughout the series. I will make sure to make it clear what I got where, and especially so if they are conflicting.
Compared to Han Mu Kwan, the Ji Do Kwan is very well known and documented, and since this Kwan (and the Oh Do Kwan) is the school I have a very personal connection to I have been both looking forward to it and dreaded to start the post.
I will as I have routinely said throughout the whole project, I am not fluent in Korean, nor am I a professional translator. Therefore any mistake here is mine and mine alone. And with that out of the way, let us look at Ji Do Kwan, their history and philosophy.
I usually give a lengthy quote from my first book, the Lost Forms of Oh Do Kwan Taekwondo Volume 1; Taegeuk 1-3 Hyeong (available here), and this post will be no different. Chun Sang Sup and Yun Mu Kwan was shared in the previous post so here is Yun Kwae Byung and Yun Mu Kwan from my book page 19-20 (from my 2nd draft so it is slightly more in the book):
"Yun Kwae Byung and Ji Do Kwan
Yun Kwae Byung was born in 1922, making him slightly younger than Chun Sang Sup. Like Chun, he traveled to Japan to pursue his education, first studying Shito Ryu Karate under Kenwa Mabuni while attending Osaka Secondary School. He later began studying Shudokan Karate under Toyama Kanken at Nihon University, where he earned instructor certification, making him at least a 4th dan in Shudokan at the time.
In 1945, Yun helped establish a sister school to Toyama’s Shudokan called the Kanbukan, which would later be renamed the Renbukan in 1950. The Kanbukan was notable for offering training to both Korean and Japanese students and quickly became a hub for innovation in sparring methods. It was one of the earliest schools to experiment with protective equipment and continuous sparring - a tradition the later Ji Do Kwan would also become known for.
Notable figures who trained at the Kanbukan include Masutatsu Oyama, founder of Kyokushin Karate (who earned his 4th dan there), So Nei Chu, his Goju Ryu instructor, and the respected Karate historian Richard Kim.
Yun returned to Korea in 1948 and assisted Chun Sang Sup in teaching at the Yun Mu Kwan. Following the Korean War, in 1953, he reopened the Yun Mu Kwan under a new name: Ji Do Kwan (지도관, 智道館) meaning "Wisdom Way School."
He would go on to work closely with another major figure, Hwang Kee, in the postwar martial arts revival. However, after 1966, Yun gradually stepped back from active teaching and turned his attention toward business. His passing in 2000 went largely unnoticed in the wider Taekwondo community, despite his foundational contributions to the art." End quote.
A "fun" trivia here is that the Kanbukan that Yun helped found and run as Kwanjang (Headmaster) is pronounced "Han Mu Kwan" in Korean. The two schools KanBuKan and HanMuKwan does not seem to share more than the name though, as Han Mu Kwan founder always stressed that the lineage goes back to Yun Mu Kwan and not Ji Do Kwan.
Ji Do Kwan Creed
Gm Al Cole version/ translation:
Taekwondo for myself
관을 위한다.
나라를 위한다.
The first line opens with "나를" where 나 is the common Korean word signifying "me", "myself" and "-를" marks the object in the sentence. So translated into English we get: "For myself". There is in other words no "Taekwondo" in the original Creed, but I certainly see where Gm Al Cole or whoever taught him that version would get that from. Because we need to ask ourselves what are we doing for oneself? Taekwondo is not a great leap to take and in a sense it is very elegang. "For myself" is not a complete English sentence, so inserting Taekwondo gets us a complete English sentence, keeps the Creed form (it is still brief and to the point), but moreover you invoke The Way as in TaekwonDO. Personally I will keep with "For myself" because once we insert a particular name for a martial art it limits the Creed in a way the original one does not. Ji Do Kwan called their martial art "KongSuDo", "TangSuDo", "Gweonbeop" at various times before the majority settled on "Taekwondo". There are still people out there practicing the Ji Do Kwan under any of those names. The original language Creed fits all of them, Gm Al Cole´s version exclude all but Taekwondo.
The second line starts with 관을 where 관 means school, but is so often used in Korean Martial Arts I left it untranslated, and the rest of the sentence is the same as the first one. This gives me: "For the Kwan". Again we see that in Gm Al Cole´s version there is something added either by him, or by the one who taught him, as he names the Ji Do Kwan specifically, while the original simply states "Kwan".
In the third line we open with 나라를 which I have translated as nation. Note that it is not a specific ruler, government or political party, it is simply nation as a whole. You are acting for your nation, or as I translated trying to capture the austerity of the original Creed-language: "For the nation".
As to what we are doing or acting I understand why "Taekwondo" was inserted, but if we look to traditional Korean thinking it would perhaps be better if we need to insert stuff to rather get something of the lines of:
I cultivate myself (Improve myself)
I devote myself to the Kwan
I serve to the betterment of the nation
The original Creed is very short and holds a lot of potential meaning, and maybe its vagueness is intentional as it is so inclusive, yet it does much like the Han Mu Kwan Creed follow the same logic of starting internally with oneself, then it expands gradually outward to the Kwan symbolizing the larger community, before it expands further outward to include the whole nation. And like the Han Mu Kwan Creed the next logical step if we follow the train of thought presenter might be "the world" as the Creed keeps expanding outward.
My own teacher Cho Woon Sup indirectly wrote about the core creed of Ji Do Kwan in his first book. He writes in Taekwondo 1 page 12 (my translation from original Norwegian Language):
«Taekwondo is a way of life, and it has its own philosophy that its exponents can make use of if they manage to comprehend it. This does not mean that he has to adapt to an ascetic lifestyle, but he should learn self discipline, curtesy and good manners.»
He continues:
«You should not follow Kwan Heon simply to satisfy your instructor. You should follow the instruction (Kwan Heon) from the will of your own heart. If you do not take this seriously, you will not take your self nor Taekwondo seriously. This is a big part of what it is that makes Taekwondo into something more than just another sport.»
He does not recite the exact Ji Do Kwan Creed but he presents the Ji Do Kwan thinking and it is quite obvious he had the Ji Do Kwan Creed in his thought while making that chapter. Still on page 12 he writes:
"1: I defend myself, therefore I will protect my family and defend my friends.
2: I defend my Kwan, therefore I will also defend my school, and all other public institutions (the country)
3: I defend my friend, therefore I will defend all other people, and all of the world."
So when I am commenting on how we keep expanding outwards, that is not something I am taking from thin air, it is an example of a living tradition. Note how the original language creed is not present exactly but that in this instance Gm Cho is inserting "Defend". I defend myself, I defend my Kwan, I defend my Nation. The original language Creed makes this kind of thinking possible, and I can not help to think that this is by design.
Interestingly Gm Cho also hints that there might have been something more, perhaps it was specific to the Dojang he was brought up in but he writes on page 13 of the same book:
«You are strong, therefore you can help other people that is in need of your strength».
He goes on to explain how this can be interpreted into other parts of your life as:
«You are rich, therefore you can help other people who does not have your wealth».
Cho also states that because this love of the fellow man is one of the basic principles of Ji Do Kwan philosophy the Ji Do Kwan logo contains a Buddhist flower.
The Creed is only half the story: The 8 fold path
1. 정견(正見): 바르게 보기 View Rightly / Right Understanding
2. 정사유(正思惟) · 정사(正思): 바르게 생각하기 Think Rightly / Right Intention
3. 정어(正語): 바르게 말하기 Speak Rightly / Right Speech
4. 정업(正業): 바르게 행동하기 Act Rightly / Right Conduct
5. 정명(正命): 바르게 생활하기 Live Rightly / Right Livelihood
6. 정정진(正精進) · 정근(正勤): 바르게 정진하기 Strive Rightly / Right Effort
7. 정념(正念): 바르게 깨어 있기 Be Mindful Rightly / Right Mindfulness
8. 정정(正定): 바르게 삼매(집중)하기 Focus Rightly / Right Concentration
Carefully transcribed from the original picture:
八聖道精神 THE SPIRIT OF THE EIGHT MANNERS OF SOLEMNITY
# - Hanja - Hangul - Original English translation
Comment: This is the same Hanja used in the 2015 list (#1), and therefore carries the same core meaning. The thing is "觀" does not simply mean “to view” or “to see.” While the right-hand component of the character contains the element for seeing (見), the character as a whole conveys the idea of observation, contemplation, or reflective perception. Had only the element 見 been used, the meaning would have been closer to simple seeing or viewing.
It should also be noted that in this list the precepts are written using single Hanja characters, without the prefix 正 (“correct” or “proper”). The normative aspect is instead supplied by the Korean phrasing. The Hangul 올바르게 본다 does indeed mean “to view/see rightly,” which aligns closely with the English translation “VIEW RIGHTLY,” even if it simplifies the semantic range of the Hanja 觀.
In the canonical Buddhist Eightfold Path, the concept is expressed as 正見 (“Right View”), using 見 rather than 觀. This difference in character choice likely helps explain the discrepancy in nuance between the Hanja and the accompanying Hangul and English in this list.
While modern Korean can associate 느끼다 with sensory or emotional feeling, the semantic range of 覺 is broader and more abstract, referring to a state of conscious awareness or perceptive realization. It therefore appears that the compiler of this list may have relied primarily on the Hangul phrasing when producing the English translation, perhaps without fully accounting for the additional nuance carried by the accompanying Hanja.
As with #2 in the 2015 list, this precept does not correspond to any element of the canonical Buddhist Eightfold Path, despite its use of Buddhist vocabulary.
The discrepancy arises not from the character itself, but from the interpretive framework in which it is placed. The 2015 list provides only Hanja, and when 命 is paired with 正, it is tempting, and largely expected, to read it through a Buddhist lens, where 正命 corresponds directly to Sammā-ājīva, and 命 is understood in the sense of one’s means of living or life-support.
In this earlier precept, 命 appears alone, without 正, and its semantic range is clarified by context. The character itself can be associated with spoken directives or mandates (亼 above 口), and this reading is reinforced by its pairing with the following item in the list, 奉 (“to contribute/ uphold” or “to serve”). Together, these form a coherent command–response relationship, reflecting a hierarchical and disciplinary ethic rather than a Buddhist moral injunction concerning livelihood.
As such, this precept does not correspond to the canonical Buddhist Eightfold Path in its contextual meaning here. Only when the same character is later reframed as 正命 in the 2015 list does it align with Buddhist doctrine, and even then through reinterpretation rather than direct continuity.In the 2015 list, the same character is reframed as 正業, aligning it with the canonical Buddhist concept of Right Action. With the addition of 正, the meaning shifts decisively toward moral evaluation and ethical restraint. This change does not reflect continuity of meaning, but rather a reinterpretation of the character within a Buddhist ethical framework. In the canonical Buddhist Eightfold Path the 2015 #7; 正業 (‘Right Action’) is the fourth element.
As we have seen elsewhere in this list the formulations might reflect a practice-oriented, martial understanding of action and ability, while the 2015 version uses some of the same characters (Hanja) in explicitly moral terms when viewed through a Buddhist interpretive lens, like I explained before with the pairing of 正 before the other Hanja.
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