(37 Movements). Toi-Gye is the pen name of the noted scholar Yi Hwang (16th century), an authority on neo confucianism. The 37 movements of the pattern refer to his birthplace on the 37th degree latitude and the diagram represents scholar.
Click the “next” and “previous” arrows on the image below to step through this pattern.
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START: Close Ready Stance B
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1. Move the left foot to B, forming a right L-stance toward B while executing a middle block to B with the left inner forearm.
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2. Execute a low thrust to B with the right upset fingertip while forming a left walking stance toward B, slipping the left foot.
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3. Bring the left foot to the right foot to form a close stance toward D while executing a side back strike to C with the right back fist, extending the left arm to the side downward. Perform in slow motion.
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4. Move the right foot to A, forming a left L-stance toward A while executing a middle block to A with the right inner forearm.
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5. Execute a low thrust to A with the left upset fingertip while forming a right walking stance toward A, slipping the right foot to A.
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6. Bring the right foot to the left foot to form a close stance toward D while executing a side back strike to C with the left back fist, extending the right arm to the side-downward. Perform in slow motion.
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7. Move the left foot to D, forming a left walking stance toward D while executing a pressing block with an X-fist.
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8. Execute a high vertical punch to D with a twin fist while maintaining a left walking stance toward D.
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9. Execute a middle front snap kick to D with the right foot, keeping the position of the hands as they were in 8.
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10. Lower the right foot to D, forming a right walking stance toward D while executing a middle punch to D with the right fist.
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11. Execute a middle punch to D with the left fist while maintaining a right walking stance toward D.
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12.Bring the left foot to the right foot, forming a close stance toward F while executing a twin side elbow thrust. Perform in slow motion.
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13. Move the right foot to F in a stamping motion, forming a sitting stance toward C while executing a W-shape block to C with the right outer forearm.
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14. Move the left foot to F in a stamping motion, turning clockwise to form a sitting stance toward D while executing a W-shape block to D with the left outer forearm.
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15.Move the left foot to E in a stamping motion, turning clockwise to form a sitting stance toward C, at the same time executing a W-shape block to C with the left outer forearm.
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16.Move the right foot to E in a stamping motion, turning counterclockwise to form a sitting stance toward D while executing a W-shape block to D with the right outer forearm.
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17.Move the left foot to E in a stamping motion, turning clockwise to form a sitting stance toward C, at the same time executing a W-shape block to C with the left outer forearm.
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18. Move the left foot to F in a stamping motion, turning clockwise to form a sitting stance toward D while executing a W-shape block to D with the left outer forearm.
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19. Bring the right foot to the left foot and then move the left foot to D, forming a right L-stance toward D while executing a low pushing block to D with the left double forearm.
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20. Extend both hands upward as if to grab the opponent's head while forming a left walking stance toward D, slipping the left foot to D.
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21. Execute an upward kick with the right knee while pulling both hands downward.
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22. Lower the right foot to the left foot and then move the left foot to C, forming a right L-stance toward C while executing a middle guarding block to C with a knife-hand.
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23. Execute a low side front snap kick to C with the left foot, keeping the position of the hands as they were in 22.
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24. Lower the left foot to C, forming a left walking stance toward C while executing a high thrust to C with the left flat fingertip.
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25. Move the right foot to C, forming a left L-stance toward C while executing a middle guarding block to C with a knife-hand.
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26. Execute a low side front snap kick to C with the right foot, keeping the position of the hands as they were in 25.
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27. Lower the right foot to C, forming a right walking stance toward C, at the same time executing a high thrust to C with the right flat fingertip.
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28. Move the right foot to D, forming a right L-stance toward C while executing a side back strike to D with the right back fist and a low block to C with the left forearm.
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29. Jump to C, forming a right X-stance toward A while executing a pressing block with an X-fist.
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30. Move the right foot to C, forming a right walking stance toward C while executing a high block to C with the right double forearm.
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31. Move the left foot to B, forming a right L-stance toward B while executing a low guarding block to B with a knife-hand.
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32. Execute a circular block to BD with the right inner forearm while forming a left walking stance toward B, slipping the left foot to B.
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33. Bring the left foot to the right foot and then move the right foot to A, forming a left L-stance toward A, at the same time executing a low guarding block to A with a knife-hand.
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34. Execute a circular block to AD with the left inner forearm while forming a right walking stance toward A, slipping the right foot to A.
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35. Execute a circular block to CE with the right inner forearm while forming a left walking stance toward CE.
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36. Execute a circular block to CE with the left inner forearm while forming a right walking stance toward A.
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37. Move the right foot on line AB to form a sitting stance toward D while executing a middle punch to D with the right fist.
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END: Bring the right foot back to Close Ready Stance B.
Rare International Tae Kwon-Do (ITF) video produced by General Choi. You can see Grand Master Park Jung Tae, Grand Master Choi Jung Wha and other masters of the ITF performing tuls and explaining the movements of each Tul.
Yi Hwang (1501-1570) best known by his honorific name T’oegye, is one of the two most honored thinkers of the Korean Neo-Confucian tradition. His fully balanced and integral grasp of the complex philosophical Neo-Confucian synthesis woven by Chu Hsi during China’s Sung dynasty marks the tradition’s arrival at full maturity in Korea. His “four-seven debate” with Ki Taesung established a distinctive problematique that strongly oriented Korean Neo-Confucian thought towards exacting investigation of critical issues regarding the juncture of metaphysics and their all-important application in describing the inner life of the human heart-and-mind.
T’oegye was born of a relatively modest aristocratic lineage in the village of Ongyeri, near Andong in Kyongsan province, about 200 kilometers southwest of Seoul. He took the civil service examinations and served in government for a number of years, but his true longing was for a life of quiet study, reflection, and self-cultivation. He retired from office in his late forties to pursue his dream, and the following two decades were a period of tremendous productivity in spite of frequent recalls to office as his fame as a scholar and teacher grew.
Neo-Confucianism was adopted as the official orthodoxy at the foundation of the Choson dynasty in 1392. The rich synthesis of a metaphysical system of Taoist proportions, meditative cultivation of consciousness reminiscent of Buddhist practice which Chu Hsi and other early Neo-Confucians wove about the core of traditional Confucian concerns for government and proper social ethics provided wide scope for varied and uneven development. During the first century activists in government focused on institutional reform while far from the capitol scholars in the countryside concentrated on the more meditative and self-cultivation oriented features of Neo-Confucian learning. The differing orientations crystallized into bloody clashes and purges by the end of the fourteenth century as young men steeped in moral rigorism began to move from the countryside into government.
T’oegye’s comprehensive grasp of Chu Hsi’s thought clarified the balance between activity and quiet, government and retired self-cultivation, and by the end of his life it was his disciples who were moving into high government positions. A year before his death he crystallized and presented to the king his understanding of the way metaphysics and psychological structures inform ascetical theory and eventuate in the conduct of daily life. This work, the Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning (Songhak sipdo) became one of the most famous and influential works of Korean Neo-Confucianism. After T’oegye it was no longer possible to deny the legitimacy of intensive, almost monastic devotion to study and meditative self-cultivation when the situation permitted, nor to ignore that the proper fruition of such formation should be the proper conduct of government and the ordering of society.
On the level of philosophical theory T’oegye left a lasting imprint on Korean Neo- Confucianism, for his “four-seven debate,” carried on in correspondence with a younger scholar, Ki Taesung (1527-1572) established the problematique for Korean thinkers for centuries. In particular, it centered Korean Neo-Confucian reflection on questions relating to the interface of metaphysics and psychological theory. For T’oegye and other self- cultivation oriented Neo-Confucians, this was a topic of intense concern: in the framework of Neo-Confucian thought, a proper, metaphysically grounded understanding of the structure and functioning of the psyche explains human perfection and imperfection; it is thus the foundation for any theory for the practice of spiritual cultivation.
