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Extra Training |
So-San tul
(72 moves)
In his encyclopaedia General Choi told us:
So San is the
pseudonym of the great monk Hyujong (1520-1604) who lived during the Yi
Dynasty. The 72 movements refer to his age when he organized a corps of monk
soldiers with the assistance of his pupil Samyong Dang. The monk soldiers
helped repulse the Japanese pirates who overran most of the Korean peninsula in
1592.
What I’ve discovered
Hyujong (also Hyoojung) was the
great Buddhist monk So-San ‘west mountain’ (also Susan-Daesa).
After the Yi dynasty gained control,
Neo-Confucianism took over as the state religion, and Buddhists were forced to
keep a low profile.
Beginning life as a
Neo-Confucian, he was unhappy with the teachings and went on to study Buddhism,
he became a great teacher in his day and his influence is still felt in Korean
Buddhism today through study of his great text, ‘Seon Gugam’ (also
Songa-gwigam) a Buddhist moral guide.
So-San believed that Buddhism
should be unified and his teaching seems to be founded on that of Won-Hyo.
During the Japanese Invasion (the
Imjin Wars), Sosan led the Uisa ‘righteous monk movement’, which consisted of
several thousand monks who harassed the Japanese invaders using guerrilla
tactics.
Due to his old age So-san
appointed his closest disciple Samyong to be the field commander.
The monks’ army was a critical
factor in the eventual expulsion of the Japanese forces, who were harried at
sea by Admiral Yi Sun-Sin (see Choong-Moo), and by General Kim Duk Ryang in the
Honam province.
So-san created a fighting style
that is the origin of the modern art of Hapkido.
For sources of this information please see the bibliography section of
the site.
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