Patterns Have Meaning – Dan Gun Hyung
DAN-GUN is named after the holy Dan-Gun a mythical founder. The oldest existing record of Dan-Gun involves him appears in Samguk Yusa, a 13th century collection of legends and stories. He is said to be the grandson of heaven and earth and to have founded the kingdom in 2333 B.C. Although the term Dangun commonly refers to the founder, some believe it was a title meaning “high priest” used by all rulers of Gojoseon, and that Wanggeom was the proper name of the founder.
In the 1990’s, North Korea claimed it had found and excavated parts of the mausoleum of Dangun. Unfortunately, scholars outside of North Korea are skeptical of the dating methods and the extent of the renovations since the government has not permitted independent access and testing.
DAN-GUN Hyung is one of the earliest patterns for a Tae Kwon-Do student. It consists of 21 movements. You will note that all the punches in Dan-Gun are to the high section (eye level) symbolizing Dan-Gun scaling the mountain.
