Chapter 2: Ancient Beginnings

Hand-to-hand combat is as old as the human race. Although the origins of ancient martial arts are shrouded in mystery, an undeniable fact is that humans have always used their hands and feet for self-protection. By nature, humans have an instinct for self-preservation; if you threaten an infant, he/she will strike out with tiny fists in self-defense. Therefore, the first humans tended to engage in physical activities, either consciously or unconsciously, that enabled them to protect themselves against attacks from their enemies or wild animals. Since an attack could come from any direction at any time, early humans had to defend themselves instantly and reflexively from any possible attack. So for the first 500,000 years of their existence (the Instinctive Action Age), humans defended themselves instinctively with no conscious defensive techniques. Many times, they resorted to mere stone throwing. The awesome effectiveness of these stone throwing techniques was amply displayed in the battles at Hangjin and Chinju mountain fortresses during the Japanese invasions into Korea in the late 15th century under Hideoshi.

From many parts of the Korean Peninsula, stone swords, stone knives, stone spears, stone arrowheads, stone axes, etc. have been unearthed. The range of finds in Korea extends from Kyunghung Province; Hae Ju and Anak in Hwanghae Province; Yangyang and Choon chun in Kangwon Province; Ansung in Kyung-gi Province; Puyo in south Choonchon Province; Andong and Kyungju in North Kyungsang Province; and Mirang in South Kyungsang Province. It is reasonable to assume that these types of stone weapons were used by Korea's forefathers for both food gathering purposes and also for self-protection against wild animals and savage enemies.