Taekwondo Tenets
Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scroll

Spirit of Taekwondo / Tenets of Taekwondo

General Choi's Taekwondo Tenets written in the original Korean Hanja characters.

This is General Choi's writing that is often called "The Tenets of Taekwon-do". The actual title would be translated as, "Taekwondo Spirit" or "The Spirit of Taekwondo". It was originally written in Korean Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korea for about 1600 years).

General Choi's original calligraphy is shown to the right. Your custom calligraphy will be unique, and not an exact match, as each calligrapher has their own style.

In modern times, the common form of written Korean is Hangul (a phonetic character set). The table below shows the text in Hangul and Hanja along with a pronunciation guide and a brief English translation:

Traditional Korean Hanja	Modern Korean Hangul	Pronunciation	English
跆拳道精神	태권도정신	tae gweon do jeong sin	Taekwondo Spirit
禮儀	예의	ye yi	Courtesy / Etiquette / Propriety / Decorum / Formality
廉耻	염치	yeom ci	Integrity / Sense of Honor
忍耐	인내	in nae	Patience / Perseverance / Endurance
克己	극기	geug gi	Self-Control / Self-Denial / Self-Abnegation
百折不屈	백절불굴	baeg jeor bur gur	Indomitable Spirit (Undaunted even after repeated attacks from the opponent)
Note that the pronunciation is the official version now used in South Korea. However, it is different than what you may be used to. For instance, "Taekwon-do" is "tae gweon do". This new romanization is supposed to be closer to actual Korean pronunciation.

Pronunciation info for these characters:
tái quán dào jīng shén lǐ yì lián chǐ rěn nài kè jǐ bǎi zhé bù qū
tae gweon do jeong sin ye yi yeom ci in nae geug gi baeg jeor bur gur
태권도정신예의염치인내극기백절불굴

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About the calligrapher:

I met Cao Bin years ago, and long before his fame. At that time, his wife was running a small house cleaning business. One day she was tidying up my mother-in-law's home in Beijing and overheard that I am in the business of selling Chinese calligraphy and artwork. She asked if I'd like to meet her husband who was a pretty good calligrapher as she described him with modesty.

The next evening, I visited his modest studio and saw some really nice calligraphy and great black ink bamboo paintings that he'd just finished. After a lot of tea drinking and chatting, I asked if I could commission a few pieces.

Through the years, I would occasionally buy a few more pieces, not realizing how famous he had become. I might pop by his studio, only to hear from his wife that he was down in Anhui receiving an award for his calligraphy (calligraphy competitions are comparable to the fervor that sports championships have in the rest of the world). It finally dawned on me that this man I had known for about 7 years was a premier calligrapher for whom books had been published featuring his work, and the recipient of numerous awards.

The best part is that I have guanxi (a word that kind of means "special relationship" in Chinese), he gives me better prices than anyone else. This really fits well with my philosophy to offer high quality Asian artwork that everyone can afford.

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More about the artwork:

This is painted on xuan paper (often incorrectly called "rice paper"). The raw artwork was then taken to my workshop in east Beijing where the master mounter built it into a handmade wall scroll.