Redfield Martial Arts Message Board
it would be REALLY appreciated if someone could send me a link to a site that had the steps of the pyung ahn cho dan form. I need to know it for my test, but there's not enough individual help (I'm kind of slow...) thank you. ima be a green belt if I pass!
Martial Art Style Tang soo do
Hi Akemi,
Go to my front page, http://pages.cthome.net/redtsd/ and click on the link for Master Macs Korean Forms Video Resource, it has downloadable movies of most Korean forms
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Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do
You will find that there is variation among the schools about how to perform many of the classical forms. However, there is an overall pattern that is adhered to generally thus allowing us all to recognize a form as from the Pyong Ahn series regardless if we are TKD, TSD or Karate.
As example, please refer to what Mr. Redfield has described as the method he uses. To contrast, in my school we perform a rolling motion of the wrist as we shift into a horse stance and make a motion that appears as a short punch downward (it is actually a reversal of capture and application of a joint lock on the opponent). This is followed by a chambering motion as we draw back into a more upright stance and perform a hammerfist. Other schools utilize a hammerfist type motion to escape while drawing back into a cat stance, while some TSD and TKD school have been known to use a wide sweeping motion in front of the body that starts as a jerk to break grip and escape, followed on with assuming a 'T' stance and performing a high overhead circular hammerfist. Thus, it would be incumbent upon you to consult your teacher as to which method he prefers and practice in that proscribed manner.
While you continue your practice and perfection of the physical motions and patterns of the forms, do not neglect your academic studies. You do not KNOW the form until you KNOW its history as well. Thus, I offer you this article I authored that will give you a resource in that regard:
Pyong Ahn: The Forms of Peace and Confidence
by John Hancock Copyright 1995
Pyong Ahn is the Korean pronunciation for the Chinese characters associated with this series. The forms were first created in 1901 by Itosu Yasutsune, a Shorin-ryu Karate master on Okinawa. The Okinawan dialect pronounces these characters 'Pin An'. The study of Karate was still a secret practice during Itosu's early life. Dojos (martial art schools) were no more than small groups of initiates who carried out their practice discretely and in private. The training was typically brutal and the curriculum focused on forms training and its application in prearranged sparring sequences. Itosu himself was a school teacher and he recognized in Karate a method by which Okinawan youth could strengthen their bodies while building good characters. Itosu, however, did not believe that young people should be taught the secrets of Karate with its potentially fatal uses until they had successfully proven themselves. Therefore, he set out to create a style of Karate that could be easily instructed and learned. His brainchildren were the Pinan Kata which were created by combination of two older forms, Kushankun (Korean: Kong Sang Koon) and Chiang Nan (Korean: Jae Nam) (or, at least, that is the oral history). A total of five forms were created and introduced into the Okinawan public schools as instruction for children at the elementary school level. From 1905 to 1909, one form was introduced each year.
Itosu, in time, would teach his art to another Okinawan, Funakoshi Ginchen, who eventually would prove to be a significant figure in the migration and modernization of Karate. Funakoshi was destined to travel to Japan and teach a version of the Pinan forms and to eventually rename them Heian. Other former students of Itosu, such as Mabuni Kenwa (founder of ****o-Ryu), would also relocate to Japan and teach versions of the Pinan Kata. This series eventually would make its way into Korea through Koreans who studied in Japan, such as Lee Won *** (Chung Do Kwan), Choi Hong Hi (Oh Do Kwan), Yoon Byung In (Chang Moo Kwan), and Ho Byung Jik (Song Moo Kwan). In 1978, Hwang Kee published Tang Soo Do (Soo Bahk Do). On page 372 of this book, Hwang elaborates on the Pyong Ahn Hyung as follows:
Originally, this form was called 'Jae Nam'. Approximately 100 years ago an Okinawan Master, Mr. Idos, reorganized the Jae Nam form into a form closely resembling the present Pyong Ahn forms...
In his latest book, The History of Moo Duk Kwan (1995), which is available through the United States Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, Hwang Kee states on pages 15 and 16 that his knowledge and understanding of the majority of forms taught within Tang Soo Do, including the Pyong Ahn Hyung, came through reading and studying Japanese books on Okinawan Karate. Hwang discovered these books in the Library of the train station in Seoul where he worked in 1939 (Hwang, 1995). We can only speculate as to which books these were, but it is known that Funakoshi and others published books on Karate as far back as 1922.
While the above information was withheld for 50 years, the clue could always be found within the forms themselves. It has been known for many years that the Karate-Ka in Japan switched the order of the first two forms from their original. Hence, anyone who trains in a traditional Okinawan school have the original order, while those that trace lineage through a Japanese school have Pinan No. 2 as their version of Pinan No. 1, and vice versa. Tang Soo Do practitioners need to take note here as their order is the same as used by the Japanese schools. Some theorist today believe Pinan No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 are actually the lost Chiang Nan (Jae Nam) form, while the last two sections, No. 4 and No. 5, are adaptations from the Kushankun (Kong Sang Koon) from. Elements from the first two forms can be seen in other classical Karate Kata and the last two in the series indeed bear a great resemblance in technique to Kushankun. The third form in the series seems to be a wild card of sorts, as many of its techniques do not appear to be duplicated in any other form.
In the late 1960's, Bruce Lee started a revolution in the martial arts community. Lee felt that forms had out-lived their usefulness as training and teaching tools. A theme that has been occasionally echoed by a good number of recognized experts within this country. As so very few people questioned the meaning behind forms or examined the forms for meaning through historical context, it is easy to understand how Lee’s premise appeared sound. Virtually no one had but a mere basic understanding of the forms, either historically or functionally.
A great majority of schools still teach only the most rudimentary explanation for the movements within these patterns. Some are just plain untrue and potentially dangerous to the user. Even Asian teachers often expound on applications of forms that simply are not logical or practical. We frequently assume that because a teacher is of Asian heritage he automatically knows deep secrets to the arts. Shiroma Shinpan (****o-Ryu) "...often admitted to not knowing the technical functions of certain movements and hand forms in the Kata and would quite blankly state that Itosu (Shorin-ryu master and creator of the Pinan Kata) had not known the functions either, merely explaining that they were for 'show'" (Bishop, Okinawan Karate, 1989).
Most schools still utilize forms as a criterion for evaluating a student’s progress for rank. Forms are not simply static executions of individual techniques but compilations of interconnected and related movements within acceptable standards of deviation. The execution against a living, breathing, moving and aggressive opponent requires variance and adaptation within parameters that still retain the overall pattern, giving the motions recognizable continuity, or form.
In the early part of the previous decade, an Okinawan Kempo master named Oyata Seiyu (Independence, MO) began to gain attention when word got out he was teaching nerve strikes. What was so intriguing was not just Oyata’s skill, but that he was able to show how these strikes are hidden within the classical forms. Oyata went further to explain how all forms are more than simple combinations of blocks and strikes, but are also traps, joint locks and sequences of accupoint manipulations. George Dillman (Reading, PA) studied for a time with Oyata then conducted his own research that led him to go public in the late 1980's and early 1990's espousing his own interpretations of the classical forms.
When Master Itosu created the Pinan Kata in 1901, he essentially combined what was considered as two distinct martial art styles into a third and new style. In that day, Kara Te was composed of many styles, each represented by a Kata which was the art itself. Pinan was intended to be an encompassing art that could stand on its own merits. It was the art of 'peace and confidence'. Through its study you could attain this serene state of being. In 1994, Terence Dukes states in his book, The Bodhisattva Warriors, that the forms are an outgrowth of ancient Buddhist doctrine concerning the Five Elements and their relationship to increasing accomplishment of psychological and spiritual evolutions. Accordingly, the form was designed in five parts, each relating to elemental levels, which were studied over a 15 year period.
"This series of Hsing (forms) seem to have been preserved in China for many years, but in the Tang Dynasty was renamed the Ping An (peaceful equanimity) Hsing. A much later Ryukuan student of Chuan Fa (Kempo) named Itosu (Chinese: Yi Tsu) mentions studying a set of Ping An Hsing under the Chinese esoteric monk, Li Tsun San (Japanese: Rijunsan) in the late 1800's" (Dukes, 1994).
(special note: In recent years, Dukes has personally been discredited as an authentic martial artist. Some of his background may have been fabricated which taints the whole of his work. While on the surface his research appears coherent and authentic, it should be taken with a grain of salt.)
In the book, Okinawan Karate (1989), historian Mark Bishop relates that Itosu received instruction in the Chiang Nan Kata from a Chinese master living on Okinawa. Bishop goes on to state Itosu "...remodeled and simplified this into five basic Kata, calling them Pinan because the Chinese Chiang Nan was too difficult to pronounce." In Karate-do History and Philosophy (1986), Kakaya Takao stated that "...Channan is a Chinese word that would be used as the name of a town or the last name of a person." Hwang (197
asserts the form had its origin in the Jae Nam region. These characters translate to mean 'south border' or 'southern frontier'. This fits as the oral tradition states the Chiang Nan form is a southern style. However, there is another set of characters also associated with this form. These are which are pronounced Chian Nan (or Chiang Nan) or Kang Nam in Korean. These characters translate to mean 'southern river'. In Introduction to Shaolin Kung Fu (1990) by Wong Kiew Kit (London), there is mention of one Chiang Nan a Buddhist monk of the famed Shaolin Temple. Wong states that this monk escaped from the temple following its destruction and lived to be 90 years old, eventually passing on his knowledge of martial arts to the progenitors of Wong's particular school of Shaolin Kung Fu (Wong, 1990). The ****** Shaolin Temple was destroyed by the Manchu Army during China's Ching Dynasty (1644-1911). The ****** style became known as Nan Chuan or 'Southern Boxing' (Canzonieri, 1996).
The culmination of the above information goes a long way in supporting Bishop's statements about Itosu having studied at the hand of a Chinese master and what we have learned about the nebulous style, Chiang Nan. It also allows us to make an estimation of the form's age. If we can assume the Chiang Nan form existed in some fashion prior to the burning of the ****** Shaolin Temple, we can then estimate the form to be at least 236 years old. The above information, however, only explains half of the history behind the Pyong Ahn hyung. Remember, the oral history states that the forms are a combination of Chiang Nan and Kong Sang Koon (Kushankun) forms. The Kong Sang Koon Hyung is named after the Chinese official who purportedly practiced this style and taught it to Itosu's teacher, Bushi Matsumura. Literally, the words mean, "Imperial Governor General”. While the form Kong Sang Koon is often attributed contribution to the Pyong Ahn Hyung, no where but the oral tradition is there mention of this?
(The following is new information which surfaced in 2004 after this article was published)
A surviving form of the Chiang Nan form was discovered still practiced in a few schools in the Philippine Islands in the later part of the 20th Century (Schmeisser, 2004). It is now believed that the Chiang Nan form was actually learned by Matsumura during one of his trips to China as an official delegate of the King of Okinawa. The overall content of this form, and order of techniques presented, does suggest that it was the primary model for the later Pinan forms, with perhaps only minor influence from the Kushankun form.
As with all things passed down through time and across cultures, the forms have been made subject to the speculations and interpretations of those who translate them for modern times. Itosu constructed his own interpretation in the Pinan Kata. His students (Funakoshi, Mabuni, etc.) added their own emphasis and carried these with them to Japan. Their students in turn took their own versions with them to Korea, Manchuria, China, Malaysia and everywhere else the Japanese Empire reached. Yet, the forms remain and retain those qualities that make them readily recognizable to all students of the series.