Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 66

Korea
Weapons of Hwa Rang
Do ®: Traditional Study
and combat sports
1. Intro
The evolution of Korean combat
techniques began about 5,000 years
ago in the Kochosun period of Korean
history, in which a strong military
warrior tradition was developed, so
much so that the annexed territories
expanded rapidly to include
Manchuria and part of China.
The roots of the Hwa Rang Do ® art,
formally organized and founded by Dr.
Joo Bang Lee (Do Joo Nim, Hwa Rang
Do ® 10th Dan and one of the leading
grandmasters that have influenced the
creation of Hapkido) are the fighting
techniques of the Hwarang, the
knights of the ancient Korean kingdom
of Silla, founded in 57 BC, during the
Three Kingdoms period. These
kingdoms were in constant conflict
among them and always threatened
by the Chinese invasions and the
continuous danger that represented
the barbarian tribes of the external
borders.
The "Hwarang Segi" treaty records
the lives of over 100 Hwarang knights
who lived in that period, their battles,
their epic conquests and also their
defeats. It's amazing to think that
Hwarang knights spent more than
70% of their military life, their career,
in the battlefields. Only a strong
individual motivation, a strict code of
warrior ethics and a deep spirituality
could maintain such a lifestyle. These
secret fighting techniques, called Um
Yang Kwon (mix of hard and soft
techniques), survived for centuries and
have been passed down in an
uninterrupted way for 58 generations
up to our days.
The Hwa Rang Do ® encompasses
martial elements (Mu Sool) and healing
techniques (Sool). The monk Suahm
Dosa, 57th successor to the Hwarang
tradition, taught Dr. Joo Bang Lee and
his brother, Joo Sang Lee, these
techniques from 1942 in the seclusion
of the mountains of Korea. In
particular, Mu Sool martial elements
were organized in Hwa Rang Do ®,
into four main parts:
• Nae Gong: Development, control
and management of the inner energy
(Ki).
• Wae Gong: Development and

control of the external force which is
concreted in more than 4000 empty
hand techniques encoded in the
curriculum of the Art.
• Moo Gi Gong: Offensive and
defensive use of about 108 traditional
weapons divided into 20 categories of
methods.
•
Shin
Gong:
Research,
development and control of the human
mind.
This article considers the Moo Gi
Gong, the offensive and defensive use
of traditional weapons, and the Moo
Gi Dae Ryun, sports evolution of the
Hwa Rang Do ® armed fighting
methods.

2. Hwa Rang Do ®
Moo Gi Kong
(traditional weapons)
Hwa Rang Do ® emphasizes the
using of a large number of weapons in
its original and effective form as much
as possible; for example knives are
steel and, for the upper grades,
properly sharpened; sticks are made
out of solid wooden to hit, unless they
are used for demonstration and
acrobatic purposes, and so on.
Using resistant steel and sharpened
weapons is crucial to individual
exercises, since they completely
change the practitioner's attention
level regarding the development of
bad habits in the use of the weapon
(remember that in a real situation,
having acquired the automatism of a
bad habit leads to very negative
results).
A classic example is the dagger that
must be perfectly known, even in its
smallest features: weight, balance,
cutting curve, blade length, handle,
shape and so on.
This can be only achieved through
the constant manipulation of the
weapon, respecting it, polishing it
constantly and practicing with it. We
must constantly adapt in the practice
of the different types of knife in order
to be able to block swiftly and react to
the fullest with the characteristics of
combat. And you could say the same
about the sword and the cutting
methods (Be Gi Sool).
To start using weapons, basic
exercises are taught in the Hwa Rang
Do ®: first individually and in a still

position (drills), for example,
techniques such as high and low cuts
with the sword or circular cuts with the
dagger. Later these are combined with
more complex positions carrying out
short forms that reproduce the various
methods of attack and defense that
can be achieved using the dagger. It
starts in a fixed direction, repeating
left and right and then passing to
changes of direction.
It must be noted that the Founder
Dr. Joo Bang Lee ini X[H[