Tang Soo Do

Tang Soo Do (Korean: 당수도; Hanja: 唐手道; pronounced [taŋ.su.do]) is a Korean martial art based on karate which can include fighting principles from taekkyeon, subak, as well as northern Chinese martial arts. From its beginnings in 1944 to today, Tang Soo Do is used by some Kwans to identify the traditional Korean fusion of fighting styles. In the mid 1950s, it became the basis for the martial art taekwondo when the Korean Nine Kwans united.

In contemporary context, many Korean martial arts entities continued to use Tang Soo Do to preserve the elements of Korean martial arts that evolved from the original nine kwans' karate roots and were lost in transition to taekwondo. The techniques of what is commonly known as Tang Soo Do combine elements of Shōtōkan, Subak, Taekkyon, and Kung Fu.

Tang Soo Do is half Chinese karate, having straight punches, and half kung fu, having circular blocks. "Tang Soo Do" (당수도) is the Korean pronunciation of the Hanja 唐手道 (pronounced Táng shǒu dào in Mandarin), and translates literally to "The Way of the Tang Hand." A distinct Taiwanese hybrid martial art, also called Tang Shou Dao, uses the same Chinese characters as Tang Soo Do but is slightly different from each other despite having some similarities due to incorporations from karate and southern Chinese kung fu.

The same characters can be pronounced "karate-dō" in Japanese. In the early 1930s, approximately 55 years after Japan's annexation of Okinawa, Gichin Funakoshi in coordination with others changed the first character, 唐, which referred to the Chinese Tang dynasty, to 空, signifying "empty"; both characters can be pronounced "kara" in Japanese, though 唐 is more commonly rendered as "Tou". Funakoshi ostensibly wanted to avoid confusion with Chinese Kenpō. Funakoshi claimed Okinawan karate could "now be considered a Japanese martial art" and found the China reference "inappropriate" and "in a sense degrading". The Mandarin pronunciation of 空手道 is kōng-shǒu-dào, and the Korean is pronounced [koŋsʰudo](공수도).

Outside of the Far East, the term "Tang Soo Do" has primarily become synonymous with the Korean martial art promoted by grandmaster Hwang Kee.

Between 1944 and Korea's liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, the original schools or kwans of Tang Soo Do were founded in Korea by practitioners who studied Okinawan karate and had exposure to kung-fu. ("traditional Taekwondo") At the time, there were five kwans, of which only Chung Do Kwan of Won-kuk Lee and Moo Duk Kwan of Hwang Kee identified their martial arts as Tang Soo Do. Shortly after the Korean War and in 1953, four more offshoot schools formed. Of these second-generation kwans, Choi Hong-hi and Nam Tae-hi's Oh Do Kwan and Lee Young-woo's Jung Do Kwan splintered from Chung Do Kwan style of Tang Soo Do.

In 1960s, despite the Korean nationalist effort to combine kwans, some schools chose not to change their style and name to taekwondo during the effort led by Syngman Rhee to create a single organization. These kwans still flourish and other branches have since been developed.

Chung Do Kwan has survived in Korea as a fraternal friendship social club of Kukkiwon Taekwondo. Its organization follows the Kukkiwon curriculum and is no longer an individual Tang Soo Do style. Some of the older Chung Do Kwan schools practice the original Pyongahn forms which Lee Won-Kuk incorporated from Shotokan karate. Schools tracing their lineage to Duk Sung Son when he founded the World Tae Kwon Do Association in the U.S. after leaving Korea also practice Kuk Mu forms.