According to historical, as sonbaes in Koguryo used to compete in taekkyon
games at the time of their national festivals, Hwarangs in Silla also played
taekkyon games (subak, dokkyoni or taekkyoni) at such festivals as "palkwanhoe"
and "hankawi" , thus systematically developing the ancient fighting techniques
into the taekkyon(or sonbae) as the basis of martial arts by around a.d.200.
from the 4th century the Hwarangs took the takkyon lesson as a systemized
martial art at their learning houses to make it also popularized among ordinary
people so much so that their techniques were depicted on the mural paintings of
ancient warrior tombs. Again, it is also true that taekkyon, coming down to
Silla, was further developed into a school of martial art with the division of
techniques, i ,e bare-hand techniques and foot techniques, which can be proved
by the fact that both hand and foot techniques art clearly shown in the ancient
sculptures buddlistic statues.

Taekwondo in the Middle Ages

The Koryo dynasty, which reunified the Korean peninsula after Shilla [A.D. 918 to 1392], had the Taekkyon develop more systematically and made it a compulsory subject in the examinations for selection of military cadets.

The techniques and power of Taekkyon grew to become effective weapons even to kill human beings. In the military, a pattern of collective practice, called "obyong-subak-hui [5 soldier's Taekkyon play], was introduced so that it might be used in a real war.

In the early days of Koryo dynasty, martial art abilities were the only required qualifications to become military personnel because the kingdom utterly needed the national defense capabilities after conquering the peninsula. A certain plain soldier who mastered Taekkyon techniques was promoted to a general, and young were invited to Taekkyon contests where the skilled ones were selected to become military officers. There were lots of other examples in which many Taekkyon-mastered youths were picked at contests, which is proof that Taekwondo sports was originated in that epoch. The chronicles of Koryo dynasty writes: "at a power contest of Taekkyon techniques, Lee Yi- Min punched a pillar of the house with his right-hand fist, then some of the props of the roof were shaken. Another Taekkyon practicer had his fist pierce through the clay-wall."

Especially the kings of Koryo dynasty were much interested in "subakhui" [Taekkyon contest], making it a compulsory course of military training. Therefore, subakhui was also popular out for inspection tours in the villages.

However, the Koryo dynasty in its latest years had gunpowder and new types of weapons available at hand, thus slowing down its support of martial as the folk games to be transmitted down to the modern Korea, Chosun. (Taekkyon explained in the Koryo history book)   Taekwondo in Modern Times   In the modern times of Korea, the Chosun dynasty [1392-1910] the imperial Korea and the Japanese colonial rule until 1945, Taekwondo was rather called "subakhui" than "Taekkyon" and it suffered an eventual loss of official support from the central government as the weapons were modernized for national defense, although the subkhui was still popular in the early days of Chosun. The Chosun dynasty was founded on the ideology of Confucianism, which resulted in rejecting Buddhism and giving more importance on literary art than martial art. Nonetheless, the Annals of Chosun Dynasty tells about the contests of subakhui ordered by local officials for the purpose of selecting soldiers and others ordered by the kings who enjoyed watching subakhui contests at the times of feasts. It was also ruled by the defense department that a soldier should be employed when he wins three other contestants in the subakhui bouts. However, as the government progressed, the government officials began to lay more importance on power struggles than on the interest of defense, naturally neglecting promotion of martial arts. Then, it was only in the days of King Jungjo after the disgraceful invasion of Korea by the Japanese [1592] that the royal government revived strong defense measures by strengthening military training and martial art practice. Around this period there was a publication of the so-called "Muyedobo-Tongji," a book of martial art illustrations, which 4th volume entitled "hand-fighting techniques" contained the illustration of 38 motions, exactly resembling today's Taekwondo poomsae and basic movements, although those motions cannot be compared with today's Taekwondo poomsae, which has been modernized through scientific studies. Even under the Japanese colonial rule, some famous Korean writers, such as Shin Chae- Ho and Choi Nam-Sun, mentioned about Taekwondo, saying "present subak prevailing in Seoul came from the sunbae in the Koguryo dynasty," and "subak is like today's Taekkyon which was originally practiced as martial art but is now played mostly by children as games." However, the Japanese colonial government totally prohibited all folkloric games including Taekkyon in the process of suppressing the Korean people. The martial art Taekkyon [Taekwondo] had been secretly handed down only by the masters of the art until the liberation of the country in 1945. Song Duk-Ki, one of the then masters testifies that his master was Im Ho who was reputed for his excellent skills of Taekkyon, "jumping over the walls and running through the wood just like a tiger." (explanation of taekkon techniques in muyedobo-tongji (general illustrations of techniques) (scene of contest). At the time, 14 terms of techniques were used representing 5 kicking patterns, 4 hand techniques, 3 pushing-down-the-heel patterns, 1 turning-over-kick pattern and 1 technique of downing-the-whole-body. Also noteworthy is the use the term "poom" which signified a face-to-face stance preparing for a fight. The masters of Taekkyon were also under constant threat of imprisonment, which resulted in an eventual of Taekkyon as popular games.   Present day Taekwondo   Upon liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial rule after World War II, the Korean people began recovering the thought of self-reliance and the traditional folkloric games resumed their popularity. Song Duk-Ki, afore-mentioned master of Taekkyon, presented a demonstration of the martial art before the first republic of Korea president Syngman Rhee on the occasion of his birthday, clearly distinguishing Taekwondo from the Japanese Karate which had been introduced by the Japanese rulers. Martial art experts began opening Taekwondo gymnasiums all over the country and after the end of Korean War [1950-1953] Taekwondo was popularized among the dan-grade black-belters within the country, also dispatching about 2,000 Taekwondo masters to more than 100 countries. After all, following the nomination of Taekwondo as a national martial art in 1971, the present Kukkiwon was founded in 1972 to be used as the headquarters as well as the site of various Taekwondo competitions. Then a year later, in 1973 the World Taekwondo Federation was established. In 1973, the biennial World Taekwondo Championships was organized. In 1984, Taekwondo was admitted to the Asian games as an official event. In 1975, Taekwondo was accepted as an official sport by the U.S Amateur Athletic Union [AAU] and also admitted to the General Association of International Sports Federations [GAISF], followed by the adoption of official sports event by the International Council of Military Sports [CISM] in 1976. The WTF became an IOC-recognized sports federation in 1980, making Taekwondo an Olympic sport. Then the adoption of Taekwondo as an official event was followed by the world games in 1981, the pan-American games in 1986, and finally by the Sydney 2000 Olympics in 1994 and then Athens 2004 Olympic Games in 2000. On November 29, 2002, the 114th IOC Session also confirmed the inclusion of Taekwondo in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games...