This paper examines the actuality of the Sword martial arts and facts about dissemination of it in late Joseon Dynasty, focusing three major issues including: First, acceptance and progress of the Sword martial arts after Imjinwaeran, Second, organiza...
This paper examines the actuality of the Sword martial arts and facts about dissemination of it in late Joseon Dynasty, focusing three major issues including: First, acceptance and progress of the Sword martial arts after Imjinwaeran, Second, organization and actuality of the Sword martial arts after the 18th century, and Third, dissemination and actuality of the Sword martial arts after the 18th century. The brief rundown on each focus above is described by chapter as following.
Chapter 1 focuses on acceptance and progress of the Sword martial arts after the Imjinwaeran. The pre-Imjinwaeran swords can be defined as use of Hwando. During the Imjinwaeran, such sorts of Sword martial arts as Jangdo and Deungpae were accepted through the 『Mooyejaebo』 after the introduction of Danbyungjeonsool written by Chuck Kye Kwang. For the post-Imjinwaeran era, another set of Sword martial arts scuh as Eonwoldo, Hyupdo, Waegum were added on the list via 『Mooyejaebobunyuksokjib』.
These Sword martial arts were introduced via sources including Gyosa (that refers to the military officers of the Ming Dynasty), Hangwaein(that refers to the Japanese soldiers who surrendered) and Adongdae during the Imjinwaeran, while Kim che-geon introduced Waegum skills to military bases that he had mastered back in the Dongnae waegwan and Tongsinsa Contingent.
Chapter 2 explores organization and actuality of the Sword martial arts after the 18th century. 『Mooyedobotongji』 written during the time when Jungjo ruled Joseon Dynasty showed 10 types of Sword martial arts for infantry such as Ssangsoodo, Yedo, Waegum, Waegumkyojeon, Jedokgum, Bongukgum, Ssanggum, Woldo, Hyupdo, Deungpae.
The actual techniques of these Sword martial arts consisted of three steps systematically composed of Bo (that refers to each position of the Sword martial arts), Chongbo (that refers to the sequence of ‘Bo’s) and Chongdo (that refers to the whole picture of the Sword martial arts) so that soldiers can easily learn. This demonstrates soldiers were trained step by step back in the Joseon Dynasty.
Concerning techniques of the Sword martial arts, all types of martial arts but Woldo and Hyupdo used a certain sort of sword called Yodo in aspect of the type of the sword. Regarding Dosik (that refers to the shape of the swords), China and Japan adopted Hwasik and Waesik respectively while and Joseon accepted Geumsik. Also, there were another set of category by functions: Cutting, Stabbing and Striking were called Gambeop, Jabeop and Gyeokbeop respectively.
By Analyzing actual actions of the 10 main Sword martial arts mentioned above focusing on each of Bo, the actions could be classified into 3 different categories: attack, defense, and combination of them.
The attack-oriented martial arts included Yedo, Toyu-ryu of Waegum, Woonkwang-ryu, Ryupee-ryu, Bongukgum, Woldo, Hyupdo and Deungpae while defense-oriented ones only included SsangSoodo and Ssanggum.
On the other hand, the combination type where attack and defense take place at the same time encompassed Chunryu-ryu of Waegum, Waegumkyo jeon, and Jedokgum. One thing to note is that Waegumkyojeon was identified to be designed to be practical enough that soldiers can utilize what they have learned on-the-spot.
Chapter 3 deals with dissemination and actuality of the Sword martial arts after the 18th century. Gwanmujae of 『Daejeontongpyeon』 designated 10 sorts of Sword martial arts such as Yonggum, Ssanggum, Jedokgum, Eonwoldo, Waegum, Waegumkyojeon, Bongukgum, Yedo, Deungpae and Hyupdo as official Sword martial arts for the national infantry.
According to the Gumyean, however, instructed to choose one from following options: Woldo, Ssanggum, Jedokgum, Pyeonggum, and one type of martial arts belonging to Gwonbeop.
The 『Mangiyoram』 shows a noticeable fact that according to the policies regarding the Sword martial arts examination of Jungsun, Soldier who had learned Waegumkyojeon could not take the examination for Yedo and Hyup do while those who had learned Yedo and Hyupdo could not take the one for Waegumkyojeon.
This is considered a policy designed to help each and every soldier to specialize on a certain type of Sword martial arts instead of being a generalist by drilling them with specialized knowledge in the martial arts and practice program. The policies regarding the Sword martial arts examination of Gwanmujae is also the same with that of Jungsun.
For next, information on the Sword martial arts described by the 『Eoyeong-cheongJungsundeungnok』 and the 『Jangyongyeong-gosa』 comes. Eoyeong-cheong explains various Sword martial arts including Yonggum, Pyeonggum, Jedokgum, Yedo, Hyupdo Deungpae, Ssanggum, Woldo, Eon woldo, Bongukgum, Singum, Waegum, Waegumkyojeon in Jungsun part.
Bongukgum and Singum cone into the picture in 1788 and 1807 respectively. The Eonwoldo’s name was first mentioned after Sunjo ruled the Dynasty. It was referred as Woldo before him. Ssangsoodo’s name does not show up anywhere, but it was referred as Pyeonggum or Yonggum.
‘Waegumkyojeon’ were divided into the words: ‘Waegum’ and ‘Kyojeon’ after 1755. Those who had learned Yonggum and Pyeonggum were in high number until 1761. The number started decreasing after 1788, and as those who had learned Jedokgum generated a long list of successes at the examination, Jedokgum began to gradually occupy the Sword martial arts.
Jangyongyeong has Ganse-Janggyo, the officers in charge of drill of trainees. They supervised their training and advised them to correct wrong positions. Each soldier who passed the examination, after the evaluation, received three different marks ranging from ‘High-High’ to ‘High-Low’ based on their performances. ‘High-High’ marks accompanies 3 rolls of linen and cotton while ‘High-Middle’ and ‘High-Low’ came with 2 rolls and 1 roll of it respectively.
The successes who received ‘High-High’ were very few amongst all the successes at the Sword martial arts examination, which seems to show that the standards upon which the evaluation was based were extremely strict, taking into even little details of each positions and actions. This is, presumably, why the only a small number of elite Salsus, experts in one type of Sword martial arts could be fostered by filtering out unqualified soldiers but a few ‘High-High’ ones.
This paper shows that the Sword martial arts were introduced and settled in military bases through the soldiers from the Eoyeong-cheong and the Jangyongyeong. This study provided probable cause to believe that this was possible thanks to the legislative policies regarding the examination to urge soldiers to specialize in one certain sort of Sword martial arts, and a martial arts manual called 『Mooyedobotongji』 that led soldiers to grasp the actual techniques quick.
It was also found out that the Joseon Dynasty utilized an institution called Sijae under which the royal court rewarded prominent soldiers in order to incentivize them to voluntarily practice and evaluation their own performances to improve their performances. The significant the Sword martial arts in late Joseon Dynasty possess is that it was transitioned from the exclusive military martial arts to the individual-level martial arts that even a bland folk can learn.