Subak
수박Unarmed contest attested in Korean historical works from the Goryeo dynasty on. No manual survives, so the claim of a direct line to taekwondo has no support.
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South KoreaCharacter & Origin
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About Subak
Subak is a name that appears in Korean sources for unarmed contest, and modern accounts often call it the direct ancestor of taekwondo. Two levels have to be separated here. What is documented is that the term subak (shoubo in the Chinese writing) occurs in Korean historical works, notably the Goryeosa, and that bouts of this kind were held under the Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties both as spectacle and as a test for soldiers. What is not documented is how it was actually practised. No manual of subak survives, no list of techniques or forms; we know such a thing existed, but not what it looked like. The tomb murals of the Goguryeo period often cited show figures in fighting postures, but their interpretation is disputed among scholars. The claim that today's taekwondo came directly out of subak therefore has no support in the sources. The documented history of modern taekwondo begins after 1945 and rests on Japanese karate and on native taekkyon. Subak is a real historical fact, but between it and the present lies a gap of several centuries that nobody has yet bridged. The modern organisations that today teach so-called subak-do are twentieth-century revivals assembled from the available sources and from contemporary practice, not continuations of an unbroken line.
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Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.