What is Tang Soo Do?














 

Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan

Tang Soo Do
(The Way of the Empty Hand or China Hand)

Tang: Tang Dynasty of China (Where martial arts are said to originate.)
Soo: Hand
Do: Way 

Tang: Kara
Soo: Te

Modern Tang Soo Do as a style was founded on November 9, 1945 in Seoul, Korea by Hwang Kee, with "Tang Soo Do" as the art, and the school or style being "Moo Duk Kwan." Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan (As with almost all other styles) is a composite of many other disciplines: Tae Kyon (Kicking), Various Japanese styles (i.e.: Shotokan & Okinawan styles), and forms, hand techniques, and personal research by Hwang Kee, the systems founder.

Tang Soo Do has a varied and interested beginning starting out as Hwa Soo Do (Way of the Flowering Hand), then Tang Soo Do to gain acceptance in Japanese influenced Korea, and incorporated as Su Bahk Do.

As with many Korean arts, Tang Soo Do is said to have its roots in the Moo Yei Do bo Tong Ji, which is an ancient martial arts book found in Korea but written in Chinese. The book seems to be in three parts: the first general opening, Chinese Weapons , and the Kwon Bup.

Organizations

As with every other martial art, the organizations and governing bodies are numerous. I think this all begins when favoritism is shown to certain members of one organization and they break off to form their own organization, I know this happened in Tang Soo Do’s case. The martial arts operate on a military rank system and when this system in interrupted because of favoritism or nepotism or for any other reason people tend to become disgruntled when they are stepped over and end up leaving.

Some of the better known organizations are:

  • Traditional Tang Soo Do International headed by Frederick Scott
  • United States Soo Bahk Do Federation, headed by Hwang Kee
  • International Tang Soo Do Federation U.K., headed by Lee Kang Uk
  • World Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do Association, headed By Kim Jae Joon
  • World Tang Soo Do Association, headed by Jae C. Shin
  • International Tang Soo Do, headed by Chun Sik Kim
  • Tang Soo Do Mi Guk Kwan, headed by Charles Ferraro.

There are many other to numerous to mention here.