Hwa Rang Do
화랑도A Korean system from the 1960s with four divisions — technique, internal work, weapons and healing. The hwarang lineage is tradition, not history.
Quick Facts
South KoreaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Hwa Rang Do
Hwa Rang Do is a comprehensive Korean system built from the 1960s by Joo Bang Lee together with his brother Joo Sang Lee. The name refers to the hwarang, the young nobility of the Silla kingdom, and the school traces its lineage to a Buddhist monk, Suahm Dosa, said to have passed it to the brothers. **That lineage cannot be documented**, and outside the school it is regarded as a traditional story rather than history; what is documented is that Joo Bang Lee trained under Choi Yong-sool, the founder of hapkido, and that Hwa Rang Do arose in post-war Korea as a synthesis. The system is divided into four areas: wae gong covers external technique — strikes, kicks, throws and joint locks; nae gong the internal work with breath and energy; mu gi gong the handling of weapons, of which the school lists more than a hundred; and shin gong mental preparation. The curriculum also includes healing methods, acupressure and the study of points on the body, which makes Hwa Rang Do a comprehensive discipline rather than a sport. The range is correspondingly wide and takes a long time to master. The competitive dimension is slight; the school deliberately does not subordinate itself to sport.
Similar styles
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